King Sigismund of Luxemburg was the younger son of Charles IV Holy Roman Emperor, one of the most influential monarchs of Central Europe. The rise of the family bearing the title of Count of Luxemburg is due to the great grandfather of Sigismund, Henry who became a German king and then Holy Roman Emperor as Henry VII. Henry VII took advantage of his position and donated the Czech throne to his son John, after the dying out of the Přemysl House. Charles IV, son of John was a Czech and German king from 1346, and a Holy Roman Emperor from 1355. He had eight offsprings from four marriages. Wenceslaus, the first-born son was born in 1361, while Sigismund was born on 14 February 1368. The successor to his father’s throne was Wenceslaus and Sigismund became Elector of Brandenburg after the family received this position in 1373. In order to provide Sigismund an equal rank with Wenceslaus, Charles IV arranged a dynastic marriage: he asked Mary one of the daughters of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland to be the wife of his younger son. The engagement was held in Nagyszombat in 1379. In order to learn the language and the customs of the Hungarians the 11 years old Sigismund remained in Hungary and his education was provided for in the Hungarian court. In 1382 King Louis decided that both of his countries are to be inherited by Mary and Sigismund. After his death in September, however, the faith of Sigismund took a turn for the worse. Mary alone took the Hungarian throne, and her relative and opponent from Naples, Charles II (the Small) was the king for a short period; Sigismund was only crowned as the King of Hungary on 31 March 1387 by the nobles under pressure after the death of Charles and the captivity of Mary. Mary was released from the captivity of the nobles who followed Charles after a few months, and even though she was an equal sovereign as her husband, she let her husband govern the country. When she died in a horse accident on 17 May 1395, her death did not affect the hierarchy in the country.
In 1387, at the age of 19, Sigismund became the king of a country stricken by civil war and burdened by conflicts. He did everything for a few years to secure the support of the nobles who provided him with the throne, but after 1392 he became more independent: he drove the most influential families out of the control over the country and replaced them by his newly elevated followers. The turnaround of the king resulted in a crisis of domestic politics in spring of 1401. On 28 April 1401 János Kanizsai, archbishop of Esztergom, together with Palatine Bebek Detre and their followers imprisoned their monarch. Sigismund was released after six months of imprisonment but the problems were not solved: the wounded nobles started a conspiracy in the following year and at the end of 1402 they offered the crown to Ladislas of Naples, son of Charles the Small who landed in Zara, Dalmatia in July 1403. Followers of Sigismund, however, defeated the army of the rebels by October, and annihilated the last pockets of resistance by the first months of 1404. In the years after the rebellion the king naturally rewarded those who assisted him in his victory. The most influential among them was Nikolas Gorjanski (in Hungarian: Garai Miklós), who was the palatine of Hungary for three decades until his death in 1433. The most faithful brothers-in-arms of the king entered the Order of the Dragon, found on 12 December 1408. The members included 22 nobles and the king with his second wife Barbara Cilli (in Hungarian: Cillei Borbála).
The foreign politics during the long reign of Sigismund focused on two major tasks: the defence against the Turks appearing at the southern borders of the country, and the issues related to the obtaining and the occupancy of the paternal heritage, the German and the Czech thrones. In the 1360’s a new military and political entity appeared in South Eastern Europe: the Ottoman Empire. During the period of 35 years the Turks occupied the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and won a decisive victory over the Balkan Alliance on 15 June 1389 in the battle of Kosovo Polje. After their victory the Turkish foraying forces appeared in Hungary. After 1389 the king himself encountered this new and most dangerous enemy every year but at the end he decided to rely upon an international coalition. His envoys visited a number of European courts, and as a result of a successful co-operation a substantial army of knights was created by July 1396. The international army, however, was severely defeated at the battle of Nicopolis by Sultan Bayezid. Sigismund managed to escape but a number of nobles fell into captivity and nearly all of Europe had to co-operate in paying their ransom. The catastrophe at Nicopolis in 1396 showed that the Turks could not be driven out of Europe even by a large-scale international coalition. Sigismund applied a new strategy: he focused on the defence of the southern borders of the country. First he tried to gain influence over the Balkan princes and launched a large-scale construction in the 1420’s to build castles and fortresses. 11 new castles fortified the border by the Lower Danube in one decade with the most important element of the defence line, Belgrade (in Hungarian Nándorfehérvár). He ventured to lead a larger campaign against the Turks only once in 1428 but under Galambóc by the Lower Danube – just like at Nicopolis – he suffered a severe defeat. In spite of the defeat the power of Sigismund and the significance of the European countries under his reign meant a serious retarding force for the Turks. After his death, however, they immediately launched an attack against Hungary.
While Sigismund could never forget about the Turkish threat he was understandably more fond of realising his western aspirations. On 21 July 1411 the German prince electors unanimously voted for Sigismund as their king. On the basis of this decision the Hungarian king became the first ruler of Europe and it meant a new era for both Sigismund and his court. Relying on his increased power the king immediately started realising his large-scale plans. His most significant historical contribution – according to both his contemporaries and posterity ? was the Council of Constance he called and conducted. Before he became a German king Sigismund had already decided to put an end to the Western Schism that divided Europe after 1378 and to reform the church and he started to realise his plans after 1411. He left Hungary in December 1412 and did not return until February 1419 – he spent six years on negotiations to prepare and preside the council. The council began in November 1414, and Sigismund arrived at Constance by Lake Boden at Christmas. He travelled several thousand kilometres in order for a successful negotiation. He visited Perpignan, where he managed to convince Ferdinand I of Aragon to support the unity, and travelled to the courts in London and Paris in the following year. He returned to Constance in January 1417, where the election of Martin V on 11 November ended the four decades of the Western Schism. Sigismund did not only take part in the diplomatic preparations, but when in Constance he participated in the council. He was also present when the decision was made about convicting John Huss the religious thinker from Prague who propagated the need for a radical reform of the church. Huss was summoned by Sigismund’s letter of safe conduct in order to explain his doctrines but he was put in prison when he arrived and – on account of refusing to deny his doctrines – he was sentenced to death on 6 July 1415 and burnt at the stake on the same day. The execution of Huss who was very popular in Bohemia lead to a new schism of the church and resulted in radical changes in the Czech Kingdom.
By the death of the Venceslaus King of Bohemia on 16 August 1419 Sigismund gained access to the Czech throne after several decades of waiting – but this plan was nearly made impossible by the sentence made at Constance. By this time the Hussite movement gave rise to an insurrection and its followers captured the town hall of Prague in July. In his efforts to get his third country the king could not avoid the conflict with the Hussites: in March 1420 he announced the bull of Martin V that preached a crusade against the Hussites. He managed to reach Prague by the beginning of the summer where he was crowned on 28 July. Soon he was made to withdraw and severely defeated in November at Vyšehrad near Prague. The failure at Vyšehrad was followed by several more – there were five unsuccessful crusades altogether. It was because in order to fight against foreign intervention the two wings of the movement formed a coalition: the Calixtenes with their moderate social and religious program and the Taborites who entirely denied power and possession. After 1427 the Hussites launched campaigns into the neighbouring countries such as Hungary. Since he was all three of his countries were effected Sigismund started negotiations with the more moderate Calixtenes that resulted in the agreement of 1433 between the Calixtenes and the Catholic Church. The alliance of Catholics and Calixtenes annihilated the Taborite army on 30 May 1434 near Lippany.
The long life of Sigismund was full of both success and failure. But if, during his last years, he drew up a balance of his possibilities and his deeds the outcome must have been clearly positive. By the 1430’s only a few people in Hungary remembered the young monarch weak in power and put on the throne by the nobles. When he was old Sigismund governed with unrestricted power and considered Hungary as his safe home territory despite the growing number of his kingdoms. Nevertheless he became one of the most significant German monarchs of the 15th Century and he was crowned Emperor by Pope Eugenius IV on 31 May 1433 in Rome. After the battle of Lippany he managed to consolidate his power in Bohemia as well: the last of his major travels took him to Bohemia and on 23 August 1436 he marched in Prague and received the reverence of the Czech nobility.
Sigismund was not afraid of changes of any kind. His name is associated with a number of governmental reforms in Hungary. Even if his imperial plans regarding Germany were hardly realised his reputation as an innovator is proved by the fact that after his death a pamphlet advertising a radical imperial reform was published under the Emperor’s name. His competence, erudition, superb command of languages were acknowledged by even the most educated intellectuals of the church. Sigismund found pleasure in long debates and appreciated the skills of others. There are records of a number of stories where he preferred knowledge to rank. According to Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini when the Vice-Chancellor, the newly knighted Georgius Fiscellus wanted to change the bench of the scientist with the that of the nobles in Basel, the king reproved him by the following words: ‘You act foolish, Gregorius and also in a ridiculous manner, if you estimate the nobles higher than the order of scientists. I may knight a thousand of my ignorant men in one day but cannot create one doctor in a thousand years.’
Enikő Csukovits
