After King John's death on the battlefield of Crécy, his son Charles IV. (or I. as King of Bohemia) became his successor. Differing in most respects from his father, he was a devoted lover of Prague, and may almost be considered a second founder of the city. The districts of Prague, the Malá Strana and the Staré Mesto, that were already enclosed by walls, had become insufficient to shelter the ever-increasing population. Charles therefore decided on building a new city on the right bank of the Vltava. The old chronicler, Benes of Weitmil, tells us that 'in the year of the Lord MCCCXLVIII., on the day of St. Marc, our Lord Charles, King of the Romans and of Bohemia, laid the first stone, and founded the new city of Prague, building a very strong wall with ramparts and high towers extending from the Castle of Vysehrad to Poric. The Vysehrad Hill also he surrounded with a wall and very strong towers, and the whole work was carried out within two years. And he also ordered that gardens and vineyards should be planted around the city of Prague.' It is interesting to note in connection with this statement of the old chronicler that Dr. Tomek also tells us that during the reign of Charles many citizens bought land outside the town and established vineyards there. The new town received great privileges from Charles, and the foundation of the University, which contributed largely to increasing the population of the town, also had a very favourable effect on the new community. The 'new town,' the limits of which were soon extended, enjoyed the rank of a royal town, a name given to those cities only that had been awarded special privileges by the Bohemian Kings. [Illustration: CHARLES IV., FROM TRIFORIUM OF ST. VITUS] Charles had, while temporary ruler of Bohemia during the absence of his father, succeeded in persuading the Papal See to raise the bishopric of Prague to an archbishopric. It was through his influence also that his friend Ernest of Pardubic, a member of one of the oldest noble families of Bohemia, was chosen as first Archbishop of Prague. It was on Ernest also that Charles conferred the dignity of being the first Chancellor of the newly-founded University of Prague. That foundation is, as regards the annals of the world, the most important event in the history of Prague. That a movement in favour of Church reform should originate here at a time when Geneva and Wittenberg were unknown as centres of theological strife was only rendered possible by the fact that Prague had become the site of one of the then very scanty universities.