16 



of Bohemia. One of his hounds , when following a 

 stag, having fallen into the boiling water, gave by 

 his. howling such indication of pain , as to cause the 

 monarch and his retinue to approach the wells, where 

 they saw with amazement the wonderful and high 

 springing Sprudel , which no one, even to this day, 

 can contemplate without admiration. The emperor, 

 labouring under an infirmity in his leg, his physicians 

 rccommanded him to bathe in this spring 5 he built a 

 castle near the hot waters , encouraged the neigh- 

 bouring peasantry to settle there, and named his new 

 town Carlsbad (Charles 's bath). 



A document, of a rather questionable nature, had 

 grounded the belief that Charles IV had used our 

 baths in November 1347, whilst residing at Ellbogen, 

 for the healing of wounds received at Crecy, on the 

 26th August 1346, where he' lost his father, the blind 

 king John , under Philip VI of France , against Ed- 

 ward III of England. New researches [Almanack 

 de Carlsbad, for 1835, ch. IX.) have however demon- 

 strated, without controversy, that Charles was not in 

 Bohemia from the beginning of October 1347 to the 

 19th February 1348. That he ever bathed in our hot 

 springs is uncertain , not one word being said about 

 it in his "Life, written by himself, nor by any of his 

 historians , who followed almost every step of that 

 beloved sovereign. That he granted important pri- 

 vileges to Carlsbad, dated from Nuremberg 14th Au- 

 gust 1370$ that he gave his name to the town, and 

 that he resided there in 1370 and 1376, are the only 



