SIGISMUND, EMPEROR OF GER MANY AND KING OF HITNGARY AND BOHEMIA, second son of the Emperor Charles IV.; born in 1368. On the death of his father, in 1378, he be came Hargrave of Brandenburg, and was occupied four years in visiting his states, and receiving their homage. He married, in 1385, Maria, daughter of Ludwig Louis, King of Hungary, and was crowned king the same year. He soon after ex tended his dominions by the conquest of the Wallachia. His queen dying in 1392, his claim to the crown of Hungary was contested by Ladislaus V., King of Po land, but unsuccessfully; and the fre quent conspiracies formed against Sigis mund by the nobles made him suspicious and cruel. Alarmed by the conquests of the Turks, he sought aid of France and England; and a great battle was fought at Nicopolis in 1396, in which the French, under the Count of Nevers, were defeated and almost all slain, the Hungarians fled without fighting, and Sigismund nar rowly escaped and led a wandering life for 18 months. In 1410 he was chosen emperor by one party of the electors, Jobst, Marquis of Moravia, being chosen by another party, and Wenceslaus, who had been deposed, still retaining the title of emperor. At the same period there were also three rival Popes.
But the death of Jobst and the acquies cence of Wenceslaus left Sigismund with out a rival in the following year. He was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in November, 1414, and went thence to the great Coun cil of Constance. He surrounded the
town with his troops, and remained mas ter of its gates during the council. The Bohemian reformer, John Huss, had come to Constance under a safe conduct of the emperor; but he was nevertheless burnt, as was also his disciple, Jerome of Prague. Sigismund had a conference with the Pope, Benedict XIII., at Perpig nan, hoping to induce him to resign the tiara, but he failed. About the same time he sold Brandenburg to Frederick of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nuremberg; raised Savoy into a duchy for Amadeus VIII., and visited France and England. He professed to negotiate a peace between Charles VI. and Henry V., but perfidi ously made a secret alliance with the latter, hoping to recover Arles. By the death of his brother, Wenceslaus, in 1419, he succeeded to the crown of Bohemia, and the Hussite war began, which lasted 15 years. The famous Zisca defeated Sig ismund before Prague in 1420, but agreed to a truce, and Sigismund was crowned soon after. After the death of Zisca the war was ably carried on by the two lead ers, named Procopius the Great and Pro copius the Less. In 1431, Sigismund was crowned King of Italy at Milan; and in 1433, Emperor of Rome by Eugenius IV. He died Dec. 9, 1437.