German Civil War of 1314-25

Frederick the Fair of the House of Habsburg had been elected King of the Romans at Sachsenhausen (Frankfurt am Main) on October 19 by four of the electors, being crowned on November 25 at Bonn Minster.

Louis IV of the House of Wittelsbach had been elected King of the Romans at Sachsenhausen by five of the electors on October 20 , being crowned on November 25 at Aachen.

The loyalties of the German electors, seeking a king from another dynasty at the death of thirty-nine-year-old Emperor Henry VII on August 24, 1313, had been divided between Wittelsbach dynastic family member Louis, duke of Bavaria, and the Habsburg Frederick the Fair, duke of Austria, the choice of the majority.

Both have been elected king by their respective constituencies in 1314, and war ensues to settle the claim and decide who will be Holy Roman Emperor, a title both claimants assume.

Moreover, the papacy had become vacant upon the death of Clement V, thus obviating the pope’s rightful adjudication of contested elections.

Brandenburg’s Ascanian dynasty, established by Albert the Bear, becomes extinct in 1320 with the death of Margrave Henry II.

Henry's parents were Margrave Henry I of Brandenburg-Stendal and Agnes, a daughter of the Wittelsbach duke Louis II of Bavaria.

Henry II has three older sisters.

In 1319, at the age of eleven, Henry II was to succeed his cousin, Margrave Waldemar, who had died childless.

The Pomeranian duke Wartislaw IV had taken the occasion to set himself up as regent and uses this position to promote his own interests in the longtime Brandenburg–Pomeranian conflict.

In turn, Henry's Ascanian relative, Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, intervenes and tries to take over the regency.

King Louis IV, half-brother of Henry's mother Agnes, finally declares him an adult, though he does not enfeoff him with Brandenburg.

Henry's early death in 1320 prevents him from acting independently, moreover, it also meas the end of the Brandenburg line of the Ascanian dynasty.

As a completed fief, the Margraviate falls back to the Wittelsbach king Louis IV, who will enfeoff his eldest son Louis V (called "the Brandenburger") with Brandenburg in 1323.

Louis finally wins the long, bitter German civil war with a decisive victory in the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322.

Frederick is captured there and imprisoned, but Pope John XXII, living in Avignon, intervenes, claiming the right to veto Louis’s election.

When Louis denies this right, John excommunicates him.

Avignonese Pope John XXII, denied the right to veto the election of German king Ludwig (Louis) IV, excommunicates him in 1324.

Louis releases his Habsburg rival Frederick the Fair in 1325 and makes him co-ruler of Germany, but limits Frederick’s authority to Austria.

In defiance of the pope, Louis declares that he does not require papal confirmation to rule, just majority approval.

Marsilius, taking refuge at Ludwig’s Munich court in 1326, is in 1327 also excommunicated by the pope for his pro-imperial political philosophy.

Along with fellow philosopher John of Jandun and several disaffected Franciscan friars, Marsilius accompanies Ludwig on his march to Rome in 1327-28.

Following Ludwig’s imperial coronation by lay officials and his installation of Nicholas V as antipope, Marsilius returns with Ludwig to Germany the following year and lives at Ludwig's court.

In this year, Louis also welcomes William of Occam and Michael of Cesena, the Franciscan minister-general, despite their also being under a ban of excommunication.

William, in flight from a protracted heresy trial in Avignon, reportedly says to Louis: "Defend me with your sword and I will defend you with my pen."

Most of the German princes come to back Ludwig’s political camp against increasingly fierce papal denunciation.