Sigismund, (born Feb. 15, 1368, probably Nürnberg—died Dec. 9, 1437, Znojmo, Bohemia), Holy Roman emperor from 1433, king of Hungary from 1387, German king from 1411, king of Bohemia from 1419, and Lombard king from 1431. The last emperor of the House of Luxembourg, he participated in settling the Western Schism and the Hussite wars in Bohemia.
On the death of Rupert, the movement for the reinstatement of Wenceslas immediately lost headway. The Rhenish electors, having deposed Wenceslas…
Sigismund, a younger son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, received from his father the margravate of Brandenburg. Engaged to Maria, daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and Poland, he was sent on his father’s death (1378) to the Hungarian court, where he married Maria. On her father’s death in 1382, Maria became queen of Hungary, and Sigismund was finally crowned as king consort in 1387. The crown of Poland went to Maria’s sister Hedwig (Jadwiga). Sigismund’s throne was seriously challenged for a number of years by the rulers of Naples. In 1388 the king pawned Brandenburg to his cousin Jobst, margrave of Moravia, to raise funds to defend his realm.
