King John of Bohemia
King John of Bohemia was not well-liked by his people. He was born in 1296 and raised in Paris but was involved with the politics of Germany. He was 14 when his father arranged his marriage to Elisabeth the sister of the deceased King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia. He took the throne later that same year in December 1310 after imperial forces deposed the reigning King Henry of Carinthia.
King John was considered to be an “alien king” and was not well-liked by his people. Therefore, he left his wife and Bohemia in the care of barons and went traveling. By 1318 he had reconciled with the aristocracy and quashed a potential threat to his throne. He continued to be unreliable in domestic affairs but was quite gifted in managing foreign affairs.
He was crusading in Lithuania when he lost his eyesight. He was 39 or 40 at the time and despite being treated by a famous physician of the time, there was no saving his sight. A year later, in 1337 the Hundred Years’ War broke out and King John allied himself with King Phillip IV of France. He was made governor of Languedoc from November 30th 1338 until November 1340.
It was at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 that King John met his end. He was controlling Phillip’s advanced guard in addition to large contingents of men from Charles II of Alencon and Louis I, Count of Flanders. He was said to have asked the men around him about his son and they told him that they believed that Prince Charles was fighting. King John then asked his men to direct him into fighting so that he could kill one of them with his sword.
So his men all tied their horses together and then tied their horses to his so that they would not lose him in the fray. In the midst of the fighting, he blindly swung his sword and was able to kill several men before he and his men were killed.