Louis IV, known as Louis the Bavarian c.1283-1347
Holy Roman Emperor

The son of Louis, Duke of Upper Bavaria, he was born in Munich, and was elected King of Germany (1314), in opposition to Frederick II, Duke of Austria, whom he eventually defeated at M�hldorf (1322). Pope John XXII, however, refused to recognize his title, referring to him only as Louis the Bavarian, a name which stuck. In 1328 he received the imperial crown from the people of Rome, but was forced to leave Italy the next year. Thereafter Louis remained mostly in Germany, maintaining his position against internal opposition with the financial support of the cities. He waged a war of propaganda against the papacy with the help of Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, and the Spiritual Franciscans; he invaded Italy (1327-30), captured Rome and set up an antipope, Nicholas V (1328-30), in opposition to Pope John. In 1338, at the Diet of Rhens, the electoral princes precipitated a Church/State division by declaring that the emperor did not require papal confirmation of his election. His energetic policy of family aggrandizement, however, cost him his alliance with the House of Luxembourg, who raised up a rival emperor, Charles IV, a year before Louis met his death while hunting.