Unfortunately for Wenceslas the old councillors of Charles soon followed
their master to the grave, while the difficulties caused by the Papal
schism (which will be mentioned later in connection with the Church
reform movement) from the first confronted the young King. In this case,
as indeed in his foreign policy generally, Wenceslas did not follow the
example of his father, who had been a firm friend of France. He
concluded an alliance with England, which was strengthened by the
marriage of Wenceslas's sister Anne to King Richard II. of England.
Wenceslas followed his father's example in mainly residing at Prague,
and he soon became very popular with the citizens. It was said he
visited the shops of bakers and butchers and inquired the prices of
their goods. If these proved higher than was authorised by the
regulations, Wenceslas ordered the goods to be given away to the poor
and the vendors to be severely punished. Less praiseworthy than these
mediæval methods of enforcing justice were the King's nocturnal
excursions through the streets of Prague, on which he was accompanied by
boon companions not generally chosen from the higher ranks of the
nobility. The King thus became estranged from the proud Bohemian
aristocracy, and civil war eventually broke out. It was, as Dr Tomek has
shown, in consequence of his desire to mix more freely with the citizens
that Wenceslas abandoned the royal residence on the Hradcany and took up
his abode in a building close to the Celetná ulice and the powder tower.
The young King is said to have greatly enjoyed his comparative privacy,
and even to have arranged public festivities on the neighbouring
Staromestské Námesti.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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