Sigismund of Luxembourg

*1368 (Nuremburg, Germany), †1437 (Znojmo)

King of Bohemia and member of the House of Luxembourg; son of Charles IV, half-brother to Wenceslaus IV. He was crowned King of Hungary in 1387, King of the Romans in 1411, in 1419 he formally became King of Bohemia and in 1433 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor. In 1413 he supported the convocation of a council to Constance, at which Jan Hus was burned. After the death of Wenceslaus IV in 1419 he formally became King of Bohemia but, as an uncompromising opponent of the Hussite movement, he encountered general opposition from the Czech nobility so only acceded the throne in 1436 after making wide-ranging concessions, particularly in the legitimization of the Hussite religion. Soon after this he died as the last of the House of Luxembourg to rule Bohemia. He was long perceived in Bohemia as a symbol of craftiness and calculation, but in reality he was one of the great European rulers of his time and can be compared to his father in terms of his importance.


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