General Notes

Sigismund, b. Feb. 15, 1368, d. Dec. 9, 1437, was the last of the Luxemburg
dynasty of Holy Roman emperors.  He inherited (1378) Brandenburg from his
father, Emperor Charles IV, and became king of Hungary (1387) through marriage
to the Hungarian princess Mary.  When the Turks threatened Hungary, Sigismund
called for a crusade but was defeated resoundingly at Nicopolis (1396).  Four
years later he cooperated with German electors in the deposition of his half
brother, Emperor Wenceslas, and in 1410-11 procured his own election as German
king.

In his most significant success and greatest contribution to European
Christendom, Sigismund facilitated the organization of the Council of
Constance (1414-18) and the resignation of "Antipope" John XXIII, thus ending
the Great Schism of 1378-1415.  His refusal at the council to protect the
condemned heretic John Huss caused Sigismund much grief after he became
Bohemian king (1419) and was drawn into the devastating Hussite Wars.  A new
crusade (1426-27) against the Turks also ended in defeat.  Finally crowned as
Holy Roman emperor in 1433, Sigismund proposed (1434-37) badly needed reforms
but could not persuade the German princes to adopt them.

In bestowing the electorate of Brandenburg on the Hohenzollern princes and
that of Saxony on the Wettin family, Sigismund elevated two dynasties that
flourished in Germany until 1918. Before his death he arranged for the
succession of his titles to his son-in-law, Albert II, thus passing the crown
of the Holy Roman Empire to the Habsburgs.