Publication details
1378 Smrt císaře a krále Karla IV.
| Title in English | 1378 Death of Emperor and King Charles IV |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The death of the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia Charles IV in 1378 was captured by a wide range of contemporary authors, but only from the quill of a single eyewitness who not known more closely was the significantly precise description of the emperor’s funeral preserved. This testimony was included in his chronicle describing the years 1368–1406 by the unknown chronicler from the city of Augsburg. According to the mentioned source, the emperor died in the evening of the eve of the feast of St. Andrew, i.e. 29 November. Other sources also state that it was the third night hour, thus the third hour after sunset. Then, his corpse was embalmed and displayed for eleven days in the Great Hall of Prague Castle, where the members of the Prague parish clergy and monks and nuns from the cloisters there sang prayers. The funeral procession set out on Saturday, 11 December, in a biting freeze through Lesser Town and Charles Bridge to the Monastery of St. Clement, where the bier was assumed by other bearers. Afterwards, it continued around the Monastery of the Slavonic Benedictines at New Town on Vyšehrad, where the body remained overnight for the prayers of the canons there and other priests. Vyšehrad had an important place in the so-called Přemyslid legends; the bast shoes and pouch of the fabled forefather Přemysl the Ploughman were stored there; Charles integrated the place into the coronation order. The deceased ruler spent the next night in the bed of the Our Lady at the Prague commandery of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John and later was conveyed to the Cathedral of St. Vitus, where the Mass was celebrated by the archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Jan Očko of Vlašim with another twelve bishops and infulated prelates. |