Charles IV, born Wenceslaus (Václav), the eleventh king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and Holy Roman Emperor, had died in 1378 after dividing his holdings among his sons and other relatives.

Although Wenceslas, his son by his third wife Anne of Świdnica, had retained Bohemia as Wenceslas IV, his younger half-brothers Sigismund and John had received Brandenburg and Lusatia.

Moravia had been divided between his cousins Jobst and Procopius, and his uncle Wenceslas had been made Duke of Luxembourg.

Hence the young king had been left without the resources his father had enjoyed.

In 1386, Sigismund had become king of Hungary, and had become involved in affairs further east.

Wenceslas had also faced serious opposition from the Bohemian nobles and from Jan z Jenštejna, Archbishop of Prague.

The torture and murder of the Vicar General of Prague, John of Nepomuk, by royal officials in 1393 had sparked a noble rebellion.

In 1394 his cousin Jobst of Moravia had been named regent and Wenceslas had been imprisoned.

Sigismund, deprived of his authority in Hungary after his failure at Nicopolis, now turns his attention to securing the succession in Germany and Bohemia; having arranged a truce in 1396, he is recognized for his efforts by his childless half-brother as vicar-general of the whole Empire.

Sigismund is unable to support Wenceslaus when he is deposed in 1400 and Rupert III, elector Palatine of the Rhine, is elected German king in his stead.

Wenceslaus, because of the troubles in Bohemia, had not been to Germany—although he is King of the Germans—in the ten years before the Diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398), where he had faced the consequent anger of the Rhenish electors, who have accused him failing to maintain the public peace or to resolve the Schism.

The electors demand in June 1400 that Wenceslas appear before them to answer to the charges.

He demurs, in large part because of renewed hostilities in Bohemia.

When he fails to appear, four electors meet at Oberlahnstein in August and vote to declare Wenceslas deposed as Holy Roman Emperor account of drunkenness and incompetence, and …

…at Rehns, on the twenty-first, choose as their king one of their number, Rupert III, Count Palatine of the Rhine, though Wenceslaus is never to acknowledge this successor's decade-long reign.

Sigismund is once imprisoned and twice deposed on his return to Hungary in 1401.

This struggle in its turn leads to a war with the Republic of Venice, as Ladislas of Naples before departing to his own land had sold the Dalmatian cities to the Venetians for one hundred thousand ducats.

Sigismund cooperates with the German princes in deposing his half brother, Emperor Wenceslaus, a lazy alcoholic viewed by the electors as increasingly ineffective, in 1402.

Rupert of the Palatinate is elected German king in his place.

Wenceslaus, however, is popular with his subjects despite his faults, constantly presses his claim to the German throne, and becomes increasingly influential.

Wenceslas, deposed from his German throne in 1400 by the electors, is in 1402-03 again held prisoner by the Bohemian magnates with the help of his half-brother, Sigismund, who has ruled Bohemia for nineteen months.

After again granting minor concessions to secure his release, Wenceslas regains his Bohemian throne and continues to battle the noble opposition.

Sigismund in 1404 introduces the placetum regium, according to which decree papal bulls may not be pronounced in Hungary without the consent of the king.

Sigismund weds the late Maria's cousin Barbara of Celje (Barbara Celjska, nicknamed the "Messalina of Germany"), daughter of Hermann II of Celje, in about 1406.

Hermann's mother Katarina Kotromanić (of the House of Kotromanic) and Mary's mother Queen Elizabeta (Elisabeth of Bosnia) had been sisters, or cousins who were adopted sisters.

Tvrtko I was their first cousin and adopted brother, and perhaps even became heir apparent to Queen Mary.

Tvrtko may have been murdered in 1391 on Sigismund's order.

The marriage likely took place in 1405, but there is no clear confirmation until 1408, when she is crowned queen of Hungary at age sixteen.

The deposed King Wenceslas of Germany and Bohemia, down but not out, wins popular favor among Bohemians by backing anti-German religious ferment centering around Jan Hus.

Wenceslas issues his decree of Kutna Hora in 1409, giving the Czechs greater control over the University of Prague and resulting in the election of Jan Hus as rector.

Shortly afterward, Hus, having gradually lost the support of the clergy and archbishop of Prague because of his continued attacks on abuses in the church, is forbidden to preach.