become a friend and councillor of the inconstant king. Probably through the influence of Henry of Lipa, whose connection with the "Queen of Kralové Hradec"[1] made him a deadly enemy of the reigning queen, John shortly afterwards became estranged from his consort. It was no doubt also Henry of Lipa who suggested to the King that Queen Elizabeth intended to dethrone him and place their eldest son, then called Venceslas, but afterwards known as Charles, on the throne under her own guardianship. John separated the queen from her eldest child, whom he imprisoned; and as the citizens of Prague took the part of the queen, "a war such as Bohemia had never known before, a war between the king and the queen," now broke out.
Happily this contest did not last long; a temporary reconciliation between King John and his queen took place, and the young Prince Charles was restored to liberty. A few years later (1323) King John, on the occasion of one of his many visits to the French court, had his son, then only seven years old, brought to Paris to be educated at the court of Charles IV. On the occasion of his confirmation the young Bohemian prince received the name of Charles, after the French king.[2]
On the death of Waldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg, King John became involved in the war which broke out between the claimants to his succession. John claimed Upper Lusatia as a fief of the Bohemian crown, and succeeded in conquering part of that country, including Bautzen, the capital of the district.
At the beginning of the year 1327 King John returned to Bohemia. Since the battle of Mühldorf (1322), which had for a while put a stop to the war in Germany, he had spent most of his time at Luxemburg or at the French court. Restless as ever, he undertook an expedition to Poland a few months later, wishing to re-establish the former sovereignty of the Bohemian kings over that country. Marching through Silesia on his way to Poland he forced the small princes of that country to renew their former allegiance to the Bohemian crown, which had been in
