Page "History of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Middle Ages)" Paragraph 17

In 1355 Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1356 he issued the Golden Bull of 1356, defining and systematizing the process of election to the Imperial throne, with the Czech king among the seven electors.

Charles also made Prague into an imperial capital.

Extensive building projects undertaken by the king included the founding of the New Town southeast of the old city.

The royal castle, Hradčany, was rebuilt.

Of particular significance was the founding of Charles University in Prague in 1348.

Charles's intention was to make Prague into an international center of learning, and the university was divided into Czech, Polish, Saxon and Bavarian " nations ", each with one controlling vote.

Charles University, however, would become the nucleus of intense Czech particularism.

Charles died in 1378, and the Czech crown went to his son, Wenceslas IV, who had also been elected King of the Romans in the first election since his father's Golden Bull, but who was deposed from the Imperial throne before he could be crowned Emperor, with his brother Sigismund eventually succeeding to that position, being crowned in Rome in 1433.