Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
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Sigismund (14/February 15, 1368 - December 9, 1437) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1410 to 1437.
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The third and last German Emperor and fourth Bohemian king of the Luxembourg dynasty, Sigismund, second son of the Emperor Charles IV, was born in Nuremberg.
Sigismund was margrave of Brandenburg from 1378, succeeding his father, until 1388 when he handed it to his cousin Jobst of Moravia. After Jobst's death in 1411, he again became margrave of Brandenburg until 1415, when he granted the territory to Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg, burgrave of Nuremberg, making the Hohenzollern family one of the most important in Germany.
Through his marriage to Mary, queen (1382-1385 and 1386-1395) of Hungary, Sigismund, because of his untrustworthyness, became only her consort. Earlier, because of Sigismund's wickedness, he was expelled from Poland, which was then given to Mary's younger sister Jadwiga I of Poland, who married Jagiello of Lithuania. When an opposing candidate for the Arpad thron appeared, Sigismund fled, leaving his wife Queen Mary and her mother and widow of Louis I the Great Elizabeth of Bosnia (Elizabeta Kotromanic) at the mercy of conspirators. Years of civil war followed. Sigismund arranged kidnapping of his mother-in-law, who was eventually murdered in 1387 January, and his wife Mary, who was release in 1387 July. During his wife's captivity, Sigismund arranged his own crowning as the King of Hungary in 1387 despite opposition among the majority of nobility. Mary never forgave him for the death of her beloved mother. They lived separate lives and having separate households.
Sigismund did not participate, or, more precisely, had not been allowed to participate in the Battle of Kosovo in June of 1389 won by Mary's maternal uncle King Tvrtko I.
In 1395 Queen Mary of Hungary died while heavily pregnant under suspicious circumstances.
In 1396 Sigismund was forced to organize a crusade to repel the Ottoman Turks, who were threatening Hungary from the south. The Christian forces were routed at the Battle of Nicopolis (now Nikopol, Bulgaria). Sigismund eventually fled and arrived by the Venetian ship to Dubrovnik on the Christmass Day of 1396. On a number of occasions, Sigismund was impisoned by nobles, but skilfully, bribed out his releases.
In about 1406 he remarried with Mary's cousin Barbara Celjska (Barbara of Celje), daughter of Hermann II, Count of Celje (Cilli). Hermann's mother Katarina Kotromanic and Mary's mother Empress Elizabeta Kotromanic were sisters. Tvrtko I was their first cousin and adopted brother, perhaps even a heir presumptive to Queen Mary of Hungary. Tvrtko might have been murdered in 1391 on Sigismund's order.
Sigismund personally lead an army of almost 50000 crusaders against Croats and Bosnians, which culminated in 1408 with the Battle of Dobor, and a massacre of about 200 noble families, many of them victors of numerous battles against Ottomans.
In 1410, in a disputed election, Sigismund was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His rivals to the title were his elder half-brother Wenceslaus of Bohemia, who had never accepted his deposition as emperor ten years earlier, and Jobst of Moravia, who was elected in a rival election. However, Jobst died a few months later and Wenceslaus then resigned his claim to the empire in favour of Sigismund, leaving Sigismund universally recognised as emperor.
On a number of occasions, and in 1410 in particular, Sigismund allied himself with Teutonic Knights but against Jogailla of Poland. However, Sigismund was opposed by most of his noblemen and was prevented to participate in the alliance of 22 Western States against Poland in the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in July of 1410.
As emperor, Sigismund was instrumental in helping convene the Council of Constance (1414 - 1418), which ended the Papal schism and — of great consequence to Sigismund's future career — burned the Czech religious reformer Jan Hus at the stake for heresy in July 1415. Sigismund had given Hus a safe-conduct to the Council but, keen not to endanger the success of the Council, did nothing more than protest verbally when the Council disregarded the safe-conduct and arrested Hus. Sigismund signed Hus death sentence. Decades of Hussite Wars followed. It was also at this Council that a cardinal ventured to correct Sigismund’s Latin, to which Sigismund famously replied, “I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar.” (Ego sum rex Romanus et super grammaticam.) According to The Nuttall Encyclopaedia, this reply caused him to receive the nickname Super-Grammaticam.
It was as king of Bohemia from 1419 in succession to Wenceslaus IV that Sigismund faced the greatest challenge of his reign. Because of his part in the burning of Hus, Sigismund was ejected by the Hussite forces on his attempt to take over the country (1420). A bitter conflict (the Hussite Wars) continued for 15 years, extending across Bohemia's borders. Only in 1437, the year of his death, Sigismund was accepted by the major Czech factions.
Sigismund had no children by Mary of Hungary, but he might had a single daughter with Barbara Celjska, Elisabeth (1409-1442). She married Albert II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was eventually to succeed his father-in-law as King of Hungary and Bohemia, and as German King.
Names in other languages: German: Sigismund, Hungarian: Zsigmond, Czech: Zikmund, Slovak, Croatian and Serbian: Žigmund, Slovene: Sigismund Luksemburški
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