John the Blind of Bohemia

John of Luxembourg (1296–1346), called the Blind, was the eldest son of Emperor Henry VII and Margaret of Brabant. In 1310 he married Elizabeth of Bohemia, drove Henry of Carinthia from Prague, and was crowned king in 1311; from 1313 he also held Luxembourg. The Czech nobility saw an ‘alien king’, and he was often abroad.

He backed Louis IV at Mühldorf in 1322 and received the Egerland, and in 1335 sold his claim to the Polish crown to Casimir III. Crusading in Lithuania, he lost his sight to ophthalmia in 1336. When the Hundred Years' War began he joined Philip VI.

At Crécy in 1346 he commanded the French vanguard; Froissart tells how his knights tied their bridles together and led him into the English line, where he struck several blows before he was killed. His son Charles IV succeeded him in Bohemia.