Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis IV Wittelsbach (1282–1347), called the Bavarian, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1328 and the last Bavarian to wear the German crown until 1742. Elected King of the Romans in 1314 in a disputed double election against his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Fair, he defeated and captured Frederick at Mühldorf in 1322; the rivals later reconciled.

Pope John XXII excommunicated him for ruling without papal approval, so Louis marched to Rome, was crowned emperor in 1328 and backed an antipope. His Munich court sheltered Franciscan dissidents fleeing Avignon, William of Ockham among them.

Brandenburg came to his house in 1323 and Lower Bavaria in 1340, and in 1345 his wife Margaret inherited Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland. He died on 11 October 1347.