John Henry, Margrave of Moravia

John Henry of Luxembourg (Czech: Jan Jindřich, German: Johann Heinrich; 12 February 1322 – 12 November 1375) was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death.

Henry was born at Mělník, the third surviving son of King John of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg and Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia. John Henry therefore was the younger brother of Emperor Charles IV.

His father John had made attempts to reconcile with his former rival Henry of Gorizia-Tyrol, Duke of Carinthia and Count of Tyrol, whom he had deposed as Bohemian King in 1310. In 1327, his son, John Henry, and Henry's daughter, Margaret Maultasch, were betrothed. Henry had no male heirs and John the Blind expected a considerable enlargement of the Luxembourg lands. John Henry and Margaret married on September 16, 1330 at Innsbruck. Nevertheless, Emperor Louis IV in the same year secretly promised the Carinthian duchy including the March of Carniola and large parts of Tyrol to the Austrian dukes Albert II and Otto the Merry from the House of Habsburg.

Thus, after Henry of Gorizia-Tyrol had died in 1335, Emperor Louis IV gave Carinthia and southern Tyrol including the overlordship of Trent and Brixen to the Habsburg dukes, who themselves could refer to their mother Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, sister of deceased Henry. King John the Blind felt deprived, he put an end to his quarrels with Casimir III of Poland and campaigned the Austrian duchy. A peace was concluded at the city of Enns on October 9, 1336, when John the Blind renounced Carinthia, while Margaret Maultasch and John Henry could inherit Tyrol.

Charles IV acted as regent for his 14-year-old brother John Henry and soon came into conflict with the Tyrolian nobility. Furthermore, John Henry and his reportedly ugly wife had developed a strong aversion to each other. Margaret finally took the lead of the insurgence against her husband, when she refused him the access to Castle Tyrol on November 1, 1341. John Henry fled to the Patriarchal State of Aquileia, while his wife claimed that their marriage had never been consummated. Margaret was backed by Emperor Louis IV, who himself had plans to assure the Tyrolian heritage for the House of Wittelsbach. He had the scholars Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham rendered an opinion that the marriage was not vaild. In 1342, Margaret took her inheritance of Tirol to her next husband, the Emperor's son and Bavarian duke Louis V.

Coat of Arms of John Henry, Margrave of Moravia.

Humiliated, John Henry returned to Bohemia. After his marriage was conclusively divorced according to canon law in 1349, he married Margaret of Troppau (Margaret of Opava), daughter of Nicholas II, Duke of Troppau. Charles IV gave him the March of Moravia as appanage. This marriage produced several sons (none of whom however was able to leave surviving children, so John Henry's line ended in 1411). The eldest was Margrave Jobst of Moravia, the Elector of Brandenburg from 1388 on, who in 1410 became elected King of the Romans, but remained actually a rival king.

After Margaret of Troppau (Margaret of Opava) had died in 1363, John Henry married Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Duke Albert II of Austria and widow of Margaret Maultasch's son Meinhard III of Gorizia-Tyrol.

He is buried at St Thomas's Abbey, in Brno.