BATHORY, SIGISMUND (ZsIGMOND) ) , prince of Transylvania, was the son of Christopher, prince of Transylvania, and Elizabeth Bocskay, and nephew of the great Stephen Bathory. He was elected prince in his father's lifetime, but being quite young at his father's death (1581), the govern ment was entrusted to a regency. In 1588 he joined the league of Christian princes against the Turk, a policy which roused violent opposition which he surmounted in 1595 by executing his op ponents. In 1595 he subdued Walachia defeating Sinan Pasha at ' Giurgevo (Oct. 28). The turning-point of his career was his sepa ration from his wife, the archduchess Christina of Austria, in an event followed by his own abdication the same year, so that he might take orders. He offered the throne -of Transylvania to the emperor Rudolph II., in exchange for the duchy of Oppeln. In i600, however, at the head of an army of Poles and Cossacks, he attempted to recover his throne, but was routed by Michael, voivode of Moldavia, at Suceava. In Feb. 26o1 the diet of Klaus enburg reinstated him, but again he was driven out by Michael, never to return. He died at Prague in 1613. Bathory's indisputa ble genius must have been warped by a strain of madness. His incalculableness, his savage cruelty (like most of the princes of his house he was a fanatical Catholic and persecutor) and his perpetual restlessness point plainly enough to a disordered mind.
See Ignaz Acsady, History of the Hungarian State (Hung.), vol. ii. (Budapest, 5904).