Sigismund (1368–1437)

Holy Roman Emperor from 1411, king of Hungary 1387–1437, and king of Bohemia 1419–37. Sigismund's reign was overshadowed by two religious issues: the Great Schism and the agitation of the reformer John Huss. Sigismund demonstrated his ability as a European leader in working to end the schism by arranging the Council of Constance in 1414–18; his weakness was manifest in his continual failure to suppress the Hussites.

The younger son of the house of Luxemburg, Sigismund owed his conglomeration of lands to his father's foresight and his brother's incompetence. Married to the daughter of Lewis of Hungary, Sigismund inherited that kingdom on his father-in-law's death, though in the following years he faced repeated revolts. Meanwhile, his elder brother Wencleslas (1361–1419) had failed to impress as Holy Roman Emperor or king of Bohemia, being given to heavy drinking rather than high politics. Wencleslas was deposed as emperor in 1400 and was eventually succeeded by Sigismund. On Wencleslas's death in 1419, Sigismund also inherited Bohemia – a poisoned chalice, as Wencleslas had failed to deal with the Hussites. He convened and presided over the Council of Constance 1414–18, where he promised protection to the religious reformer John Huss, but imprisoned him after his condemnation for heresy and acquiesced in his burning in 1415. After unsuccessful crusades against his subjects, Sigismund found the door opened to his second kingdom by the actions of another council of the church, that at Basel.

Sigismund's career was marked by military failures (like the crusade against the Ottomans, defeated at Nicopolis in 1396) and diplomatic successes. His influence at the Council of Constance attracted the attention of humanists and one, Pier Paolo Vergerio, joined his court as his historian. Others, like Francesco Filelfo and Ambrogio Traversari, visited his court at Buda. Contacts with Italy were fostered by Sigismund's coronation expedition to Italy in 1431–33 (his imperial coronation was characteristically recorded in a letter by Poggio Bracciolini). And if Sigismund was not a patron of the new style of Italian art, others in his employ were: the administrator and soldier Pippo Spano (Filippo Scolari) brought the Florentine painter Masolino briefly to Hungary. In other words, there was an acquaintance with the new Italian styles decades before the reign of Sigismund's eventual successor, Matthias Corvinus.