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 any effort to rebuild it, preferred to take up his abode in a citizen’s private residence in the Old Town of Prague; but no sooner had Charles seen the ruins than he began to study how the misfortune might be remedied. The lords were helpful to him in this, and soon the palace walls gleamed against the sun, where for a number of years there had been nothing but ruins. The palace being rebuilt, Charles brought over his youthful wife, Blanche, the daughter of the French king.

The popularity of Charles, however, did not please his father; for the lords, that profited by the disturbances in the land, soon succeeded in arousing the suspicions of the jealous king, whom they warned to beware of his son, that his zealous effort to improve the condition of the people was merely to win their good will, so that he might usurp the government. The king immediately deprived Charles of the regency, leaving him only the title of Margrave of Moravia and the income from a single estate. Charles bore the indignity without a murmur, and left the country to help his brother Frederick to protect his estates in Tyrol against the encroachments of the Emperor of Germany.

In the winter of 1337, John, accompanied by his son Charles, went upon an expedition with the German knights against Lithuania. The exposure to the cold and damp weather brought on a disease of the eyes to the king, and afterwards he became totally blind. Nobody in Bohemia pitied him; the people looked upon it as a punishment from Heaven for his misdeeds, and especially for his robbery of their churches.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth, King John had