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Rule of Louis IV as Holy Roman Emperor (1320s)

Type Event Region Europe Time 1321–1330

In the 1320s Louis IV of Bavaria consolidated power after prolonged imperial civil war, was crowned emperor in Rome in 1328, and openly broke with Av…

Timeline

  1. 1322–1324Bavaria · GermanyAfter his key victory in 1322, Louis IV continued to build support among Bavaria and the Rhineland estates and adjusted relations with France and other neighbors, accumulating political capital to challenge the papacy's denial of his imperial legitimacy.
  2. 1327Munich · GermanyMarsilius of Padua and Michael of Cesena, excommunicated by the papacy, fled to Louis IV and received his protection. The emperor thus confronted the papacy head-on in ideology and legal legitimacy, and secular resistance to papal intervention reached a new height.
  3. 1328–1330Rome · LazioIn January 1328 Louis IV was crowned emperor in Rome in a ceremony backed by the Colonna family, and issued documents such as the Declaration in Defense of the Lord's Anointed, questioning John XXII's legitimacy. For several years afterward the empire and the papacy continued to contend in Italy and Germany.

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