John III of Luxembourg (The Kalmar Union)

The reign of John III is considered by many to mark the absolute high point of the medieval Luxembourg realm. He was successful in however by the close of his reign he and the empire under his rule became overwhelmed with endless military action and by religious fraction.

Born in 1473, the fourth child of Sigismund II of Luxembourg and Eleanor of Foix, John was brought up in Prague with finest tutors the expansive Luxembourg lands could provide. He was heir to Bohemia, Hungary, Brandenburg, Luxembourg along with various woolly claims to Naples and other Italian lands, and from 1493 heir to very much disputed Kingdom of Anglia.

And while his father directed war, the Empire and diplomatic machinations spanning the continent, John was given the Kingdom of Hungary, or at least the newly restored title of Voivode of Transylvania, to hone his skills as a ruler.

His father had slipped into depression following the massive Anglian victory at Lens in 1497 and John found himself more drawn to the western edge of the empire to manage affairs there

In 1517 Christopher finally bowed to the inevitable and renounced his claim on the Anglian throne. The Danish treasury had been emptied and revolts were beginning to consume his lands. John's funds were hardly more secure but the closure of one front (and the effective recovery of Brandenburg and parts of Northern Germany) shored up his position. The Anglian Witenage had proclaimed him the rightful king and under the regency of William of Norfolk had come to accept the loss of the Low Countries as the price for peace. John however would never travel to be crowned in Lincoln; war still continued against France and Bavaria and a friar by the name of Martin Luther had just posted his 91 Theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral.

While fighting continued in Germany and Holland it fell to William of Norfolk to bring a real end to the war. In 1523 he took a massive Anglian force to the gates of Paris, forcing France to make peace. Bavaria, rocked by peasant revolt and war between its various independent duchies, had already made it clear it could not continue the fight. The Treaty of Cleaves would be the high point of John's reign. The signatories acknowledged John's annexation of Anglia's territory of Flanders and Hainault. Added to this France was forced to sign away its claim to Champagne whilst Bavaria-Landshut gave up Holland in return for a free hand in uniting Bavaria proper under its aegis. Both would be seized following the deaths of their incumbents in the later years of the 1520s. After 200 years of having Luxembourg as the family's sole western outpost, John had firmly grabbed a massive territorial settlement which would underpin the later development of the 'United Netherlands'.

As the dust settled on the treaty John realised he faced considerable opposition. While Kalmar, Bavaria and France had been dealt with during the war there were more states utterly opposed to John's ambitions of domination. Saxony, Austria and Hannover seized on the fact John now controlled two electorates in direct contravention of Emperor Olaf's reforms. At the Imperial Diet of 11523 in Frankfurt they demanded he remove the electorate from Flanders and bestow it upon another state. He refused and they declared war. The 'Electoral War' was half-heartedly pursued and soon confessional differences drove a wedge between Austria and its allies. Almost as a recognition that his realms were too numerous anyway he divested himself of Anglia ensuring a smooth succession by arranging the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to the regent William of Norfolk, allowing William to succeed him. And as a dowry he handed the couple the Duchy of Fryslân which had become vacant in 1520.

Reformation
Uriel of Hesse had secured a formidable series of bishoprics under his own. Of course this took a large amount of money to and to pay off his loans Uriel approved the sale of. The sight of monks selling indulgences disgusted many, including Luther, and would lead directly to the nailing of the 91 Theses to Witten

John initially dismissed Luther and his complaints as a minor dispute between monks but the repercussions were soon obvious. In 1521 he offered Luther protection to attend the Diet of Worms where the points of the theses would be debated. There Luther was denounced as a heretic and current church practices were reaffirmed. Expecting Luther to be arrested he was virtually kidnapped by of Hanover who was sympathetic to him and in relative security Luther could continue to write and promote reform. Th initial conflict was driven by the peasantry of Germany and was furiously quashed by the lords, whose positions and wealth the rebels threatened, between 1522 and 1524. In this John allowed the However John seemed to be happy to let the states get on with their own defense, he after all was still fighting his own Wars in the Low Countries and Italia. Those princes finding success against the peasants, like Philip I of Hesse would be richly rewarded however it soon turned out they only opposed reform from the masses upwards and were perfectly happy to convert to Luther's teachings either through genuine belief or political expediency.

Further diets in Spires in 1526 and 1529 attempted to deal with the populist movement. The diet of 1526, presided over by John, called for tolerance within the empire, a stance that harked back to the agreements with the Hussites a century before, and a hypocritical one at that considering he had authorized the burning of unrepentant preachers in Flanders only the previous year. Although nothing formal was ever produced the Lutheran-leading princes took the agreements made to mean they could practise whichever form of Christianity they wished. The rulers of Hesse and Saxony were soon openly promoting Lutheran ideas in their states. The 1529 diet meanwhile was presided over by John's son Wenceslaus who defied his father and sought a more rounded condemnation. Indeed both the Lutherans and the Imperial Ban was reaffirmed at the end of the diet. This resulted in a formal 'Protest' by the Lutheran lords and they were soon organising an armed league to protect their interests.

Within his own lands the Reformation spread rapidly in the Low Countries, possibly helped by a rejection of Luxembourg rule (which tended to extract as much tax as it could) and possibly as result of the decisive break in long standing local noble families. In Bohemia it picked up adherents amongst the Hussites whose own proto-reformation had so convulsed the Empire in the previous century. Hungary however seemed impervious to...

Obsessed by the art of war John collected arms and especially cherished suits of armour. His patronage of several guilds elevated armour almost to an art form and his favoured gift to his nobles and lucky foreign princes would be an extremely expensive, state of the art, suit from one of his forges.

John died in 1536 at the age of 63. He had only one surviving legitimate son, Wenceslaus, who would succeed him in all territories. He fathered several illegitimate children however, most of whom were employed as regional governors.

Opposed equally by the Lutheran and Catholic electorates (for either being too harsh or not harsh enough), Wenceslaus would not receive the Imperial crown and it would remain out of Luxembourg hands for another 150 years.