Birthday Greetings #79

Happy birthday to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor.  He was the last male member of the House of Luxembourg.  He started off his career as Elector of Brandenburg and made his way to the imperial title via the Kingdom of Hungary.  His father and the king of Hungary had been great friends and a marriage was arranged between Sigismund and Mary, the king of Hungary's eldest daughter and heir.  When Mary's father died she became queen of Hungary and Sigismund was made co-ruler.  Mary died a few years later leaving Sigismund alone on the throne.  Along the way he dodged a bullet when he didn't become King of Poland.

His tenure as King of Hungary certainly had its ups and downs.  While he had the backing of a powerful group of nobles certain power brokers in the south of the country disputed his control and Sigismund needed to sell Brandenburg to his cousin to raise the cash to keep a hold of his new kingdom.  He was imprisoned by various members of the nobility at various times but other members of the nobility generally managed to get him out again.  Given the somewhat fluid nature of Hungarian loyalty Sigismund turned to foreigners to advise him which alienated the Hungarian nobles even more.

Eventually Sigismund came up with a way of getting most of the Hungarian nobility killed.  He led them in a Crusade against the Ottoman Turks.  The Crusade was very popular in Hungary and thousands flocked to his banner.  Then he fought the Battle of Nicopolis which was a catastrophic defeat with spectacular Hungarian casualties after which the Crusade (and Sigismund) became significantly less popular in Hungary.

Taking the hint Sigismund left Hungary alone for a while and focussed on gaining the Bohemian and German crowns once his childless half brother Wenceslaus (not the one who looked out on the Feast of Stephen) dropped off the twig.  Unfortunately Wenceslaus lost the German title when a random German nobleman named Rupert managed to depose him.  Sigismund returned to Hungary where he was imprisoned once and deposed twice.  Despite this he managed to assist an uprising against his half brother, tossed him in prison and ruled Bohemia for nineteen months instead.  Eventually he let Wenceslaus go and managed to reestablish himself in Hungary.

When the aforementioned Rudolf died he managed to persuade a minority of the electors to pick him as the new King of the Romans.  The majority picked that cousin that Sigismund had flogged Brandenburg to some twenty two years earlier.  His name was Jobst which I think we can all agree is no name for a Holy Roman Emperor.  Fate agreed and Jobst dropped dead leaving Sigismund with the job.

After that there was a war in Poland, Sigismund wasn't directly involved but he managed to make quite a bit of money out of it.  Then there was a bit of a war against the Venetians in Italy and finally a Council in Constance to see if they could cut the three popes currently burdening Catholic Christianity down to a more manageable one.  This was more or less successful but had fatal consequences for a random Czech preacher named Jan Hus.  Hus believed that the Church should be a little more Christian and was burnt at the stake as a consequence.  This probably didn't bother Sigismund too much until his half brother died and he inherited Bohemia.  Seventeen years later the Czech nobility decided to accept him as their "ruler" and he discovered he had an outright revolt by the followers of the teachings on one Jan Hus.  All in all it probably would have been better if Sigismund had honoured the safe conduct he had given Hus when he appeared at the Council of Constance.

The last few years of his life were pretty much a replay of everything that had gone before.  Wars with the Turks (unsuccessful), surly Hungarians and a whole clutch of titles granting little real power.  Adding to the latter was that of Holy Roman Emperor itself bestowed by the pope while Sigismund was in Italy.  After that he died and the House of Luxembourg died with him.  His heir to the Kingdom of Hungary was a chap named Albert of the House of Habsburg.  The Hungarians may not have known it yet but the writing was on the wall.