John was the eldest son of
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor and
Margaret of Brabant, who was the daughter of
John I, Duke of Brabant and
Margaret of Flanders. Born in
Luxembourg and raised in
Paris, John was French by education but deeply involved in the politics of
Germany. In 1310, his father arranged the marriage of 14-year-old John to
Elizabeth of Bohemia. The wedding took place in Speyer, after which the newlyweds made their way to
Prague accompanied by a group led by the experienced diplomat and expert on Czech issues,
Peter of Aspelt, Archbishop of Mainz. Because the emperor had imperial Czech regiments accompany and protect the couple from
Nuremberg to Prague, John was thus forced to invade
Bohemia on behalf of his wife Elizabeth. The Czech forces were able to gain control of Prague and
depose the reigning king,
Henry of Gorizia, King of Bohemia, on 3 December 1310. The deposed King Henry fled with his wife
Anne of Bohemia (the sister of John's wife) to his duchy (the
Duchy of Carinthia). The
coronation of John and Elizabeth to the Bohemian throne took place on 7 February 1311, making them King and Queen of Bohemia. The castle at Prague was uninhabitable, so John made residence in one of the houses on the Old Town Square, and with the help of his advisors, he stabilized affairs in the Czech state. He thereby became one of the seven
prince-electors of the
Holy Roman Empire and – in succession of his brother-in-law Wenceslaus III of Bohemia – claimant to the
Polish and
Hungarian throne. His attempts to follow his father as
King of the Romans failed with the election of
Louis IV of Bavaria in 1314. Nevertheless, John later would support Louis IV in his rivalry with
Frederick the Fair, King of Germany, culminating in the 1322
Battle of Mühldorf in which, in return, he received the Czech region of
Egerland as a reward. == Problems with nobility ==