abeyance since the death of Venceslas II. King John, however, abandoned his plan of reconquering Poland, though his army had already arrived before Cracow, as he received news that the King of Hungary intended joining his forces to those of Poland should that country be attacked.
Two years later (1329) we find King John again in the north, this time on a so-called crusade against the heathen Lithuanians. The Teutonic knights often required aid in their struggle against the pagans in Northern Europe, and the German princes frequently undertook warlike expeditions to Lithuania and the neighbouring districts as a substitute for the former crusades to the Holy Land, which many previous failures had rendered distasteful. After a great deal of desultory and indecisive fighting King John returned to Bohemia through Silesia, and succeeded in obtaining by treaty that part of Upper Lusatia which, after the death of Waldemar of Brandenburg, had remained in the hands of one of the Silesian princes.
King John had spent the earlier part of the year 1329 in Lithuania; the latter part of the following year found the errant king in Italy. Enmity between King John and his predecessor on the Bohemian throne, Henry of Carinthia and the Tyrol, had long ceased; and John now wished to arrange a marriage between his second son, John Henry, and Margaret,[1] daughter of Duke Henry, and, as he had no male descendants, heir to all his lands.
John visited Duke Henry (1330) at Innsbruck, where the negotiations for the marriage were carried on, and here received a deputation from the town of Brescia in Lombardy, who requested his aid against Mastino della Scala, Lord of Verona, who was then besieging their city. The ever-adventurous king promised his protection, and the citizens of Brescia recognized him as their over-lord. Mastino della Scala, not wishing to encounter the powerful Bohemian king, abandoned the siege of Brescia, and King John made his triumphant entry into that town on the last day of the year 1330. The Bohemian domination in Italy, destined to be of very short duration, at first extended with almost
- ↑ Known in German history as Margaretha Maultasche. "Mouth-poke, Pocket- mouth, Heiress of the Tyrol—with a terrible mouth to her face and none of the gentlest hearts in her body" (Carlyle, History of Frederick the Great).
