married again; as might be expected, a foreigner, Beatrice of the house of Bourbon. He brought her to Prague with her infant son Václav; but the people manifested no joy at her arrival, on all occasions showing their preference for Charles and his wife Blanche, which so displeased the king that he sent Charles out of the country, and finally departed himself, leaving the goverament in the hands of a regent. At this the people manifested so much displeasure that John, fearing a rebellion, reinstated his son in the government, and, in 1341, declared him his successor.
King John continued to extort money from his kingdom until Charles himself would bear it no longer. In 1342 he gave his father 5,000 pounds of silver, and ordered him not to come into the country again for two years. Doubtless there would have been much trouble, if not civil war, between Charles and his father had the latter remained idle in his county of Luxemburg; but fortunately he went to assist his friend, the French king, against the English, where his ignominious life was ended by a glorious death. This was at the battle of Crecy (1346), which proved so disastrous to the French. When all was lost, the Bohemian lords that had accompanied King John to the war, begged him to flee and save his life; but he replied: “God forbid that a king of Bohemia should ever flee before the enemy!” Then, ordering his horse to be fastened to those of two of his most faithful knights—since, on account of his blindness, he himself could not have directed him—the three rushed into the thickest battle, being immediately cut to pieces by the enemy. Some fifty of the Bohemian knights perished in the same way. Charles, too, was present in this battle;
