Sigismund, Archduke of Austria
| Sigismund | |
|---|---|
| Archduke of Austria | |
,_Wandbild_im_Spanischen_Saal_auf_Schloss_Ambras_2.jpg)
Portrait by the Archduke Sigismund, Archduke of Habsburg
| |
| Born | 26 October 1427 Innsbruck, Tyrol |
| Died | 4 March 1496 (aged 68) Innsbruck |
| Burial | Stams Abbey |
| Spouse | Eleanor of Scotland Catherine of Saxony |
| House | House of Habsburg |
| Father | Frederick IV, Duke of Austria |
| Mother | Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.
Biography
Sigismund (or Siegmund, sometimes also spelled Sigmund) was born at the Tyrolean court in Innsbruck; his parents were the Further Austrian duke Frederick IV of Austria and his second wife Anna of Brunswick, a daughter of the Welf duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A minor upon his father's death in 1439, the Inner Austrian duke Frederick V, Sigismund's first cousin, acted as regent until 1446. Frederick, elected King of the Romans (as Frederick IV) in February 1440, exploited all opportunities to extend his influence over the Further Austrian lands. He also interfered in the Old Zürich War in order to regain the former Habsburg territories lost to the Swiss Confederacy, while the Tyrolean nobles urged him to cede the rule to Sigismund.
The mines of Tyrol remained an important source of revenue for Frederick and not until 1446, upon the end of his regency, Sigismund could accede to rulership over the Further Austrian (Vorderösterreich) possessions, which also included the Swabian territories of the Sundgau in southern Alsace, the Breisgau, and numerous smaller estates. His cousin had planned to marry him off to the French princess Radegonde, a daughter of King Charles VII the Victorious, however, she died in 1445.[1] Sigismund, represented by Ludwig von Landsee, married Princess Eleanor of Scotland, the daughter of the Stuart king James I, on 8 September 1449, in an Augustinian church near Chinon.[1]
Sigismund was able to acquire large parts of the former County of Bregenz (in present-day Vorarlberg) in 1451 and further estates in the Großwalsertal and Kleinwalsertal. Nevertheless, he had to cope with claims raised by Frederick's brother, Archduke Albert VI of Austria, and temporarily had to cede the rule over several Further Austrian territories to him. For much of his reign, he was engaged in disputes with Nicholas of Cusa, then Prince-bishop of Brixen and raised to Cardinal in 1449, for the control of the Tyrolean Eisack, Puster and Inn valleys. Sigismund sided with Nicholas' opponent Gregory of Heimburg and in 1460, when he marched against the bishop's residence at Bruneck Castle, he was excommunicated by Pope Pius II.[2] Nicholas fled to Todi in the Papal States, but fell ill and died in 1464, before the archduke surrendered in order to receive the papal pardon.
In 1469, Sigismund sold several of his Swabian lands on the Rhine river, including the Alsace landgraviate, the County of Pfirt (Ferrette), the Breisgau and further cities, to the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold. Sources are unclear, whether he sold them due to his debts he had accumulated owing to his luxurious lifestyle, or just "rented" them because he wanted to have them protected better against the expansion of the Swiss Confederacy. In turn, he extended his Vorarlberg possessions, purchasing the County of Sonnenberg in 1474 and, together with the Swiss (with whom he had concluded a peace treaty in Konstanz) and the Alsatian cities, he sided against Duke Charles of Burgundy in the Battle of Héricourt.
In 1477, his cousin Frederick, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1452, elevated him to Archduke. Three years later, Princess Eleanor died, and in 1484, Sigismund married the 16-year-old Catherine of Saxony, daughter of the Wettin duke Albert III of Saxony. He had no offspring from either marriage.
In the later years of the 1470s and early 1480s Sigismund issued a decree that instituted a radical coinage reformation that eventually led up to the creation of the world's first really large and heavy silver coin in nearly a millennium, the guldengroschen, which the Habsburgs in Bohemia developed later into the thaler. This coin was the ancestor of many of the major European coin denominations to come later and also of the US dollar. Using new mining methods and technology, the largely quiescent silver mines in Tirol were brought back into production and soon numerous surrounding states were re-opening old mines and minting similar coins. This production of large coinage exploded as silver from Spain's colonies in the Americas flooded the European economy. It is from these reforms in part that Sigismund acquired the nickname of der Münzreiche, or "rich in coin".
Sigismund was easily swayed by the bad advice of his council and in March 1487 entered into a pointless war with the Republic of Venice, sometimes called the War of Rovereto. Tyrolean forces quickly seized silver mines in the Valsugana valley owned by Venice, and in April 1487 Sigismund outraged Venice further when he imprisoned 130 Venetian merchants traveling to the fair at Bozen (modern Bolzano) and confiscated their goods. Tyrol stormed the Pass of Calliano and later besieged the castle at Rovereto using a massive bombard, one of the earliest times such a large piece had been used in warfare. The war continued through summer but ended with no decisive victory for either side. One notable casualty of the conflict was the condottiero Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona.
By 1490 the opposition of Tyrolean nobles compelled Sigismund to hand over the rulership to Frederick's son Archduke Maximilian, who later succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor. Whether Sigismund voluntarily handed over power to Maximilian or was strongly coerced by the latter is not clear. With Sigismund's death in 1496, the Tyrolean branch of the Habsburg Leopoldian line became extinct, leaving Archduke Maximilian as sole heir to all the dynasty's possessions.
Male-line family tree
- v
t
e
House of Habsburg[3] - Original line
- Albert
Count of Habsburg
c. 1188–1239 - Rudolf I
of Germany
c. 1218–1291 - Albert I
of Germany
1255–1308 — Hartmann
1263–1281 — Rudolf II
Duke of Austria
1270–1290 - Rudolf I
of Bohemia
1281–1307 — Frederick
the Fair
c. 1289–1330 — Leopold I
Duke of Austria
1290–1326 — Albert II
Duke of Austria
1298–1358 — Henry
the Friendly
1299–1327 — Otto
Duke of Austria
1301–1339 — John
Parricida
c. 1290–1312/1313 - Albertinian line — Leopoldian line
- Rudolf IV
Duke of Austria
1339–1365 — Frederick III
1347–1362 — Albert III
Duke of Austria
1349–1395 — Leopold III
Duke of Austria
1351–1386 — Frederick II
Duke of Austria
1327–1344 — Leopold II
Duke of Austria
1328–1344 - Albert IV
Duke of Austria
1377–1404 — William
Duke of Austria
c. 1370–1406 — Leopold IV
Duke of Austria
1371–1411 — Ernest
Duke of Austria
1377–1424 — Frederick IV
Duke of Austria
1382–1439 - Albert II
of Germany
1397–1439 — Frederick III
HRE
1415–1493 — Albert VI
Archduke of Austria
1418–1463 — Sigismund
Archduke of Austria
1427–1496 - Ladislaus
the Posthumous
1440–1457 — Maximilian I
HRE
1459–1519 - Philip I
of Castile
1478–1506 - Spanish / Iberian line — Austrian / HRE line
- Charles V
HRE
1500–1558 — Ferdinand I
HRE
1503–1564 - Philip II
of Spain
1527–1598 — Maximilian II
HRE
1527–1576 — Ferdinand II
Archduke of Austria
1529–1595 — Charles II
Archduke of Austria
1540–1590 - Carlos
Prince of Asturias
1545–1568 — Philip III
of Spain
1578–1621 — Rudolf II
HRE
1552–1612 — Ernest
of Austria
1553–1595 — Matthias
HRE
1557–1619 — Maximilian III
Archduke of Austria
1558–1618 — Albert VII
Archduke of Austria
1559–1621 — Wenceslaus
Archduke of Austria
1561–1578 — Andrew
Margrave of Burgau
1558–1600 — Charles
Margrave of Burgau
1560–1618 — Ferdinand II
HRE
1578–1637 — Maximilian Ernest
of Austria
1583–1616 — Leopold V
Archduke of Austria
1586–1632 — Charles
of Austria
1590–1624 - Philip IV
of Spain
1605–1665 — Charles
of Austria
1607–1632 — Ferdinand
of Austria
1609–1641 — John-Charles
of Austria
1605–1619 — Ferdinand III
HRE
1608–1657 — Leopold Wilhelm
of Austria
1614–1662 — Ferdinand Charles
Archduke of Austria
1628–1662 — Sigismund Francis
Archduke of Austria
1630–1665 - Balthasar Charles
Prince of Asturias
1629–1646 — Charles II
of Spain
1661–1700 — Ferdinand IV
King of the Romans
1633–1654 — Leopold I
HRE
1640–1705 — Charles Joseph
of Austria
1649–1664 - Joseph I
HRE
1678–1711 — Charles VI
HRE
1685–1740 - Lorraine
- Maria Theresa
HRE
1740–1780 — Francis I
HRE
1745–1765 - Habsburg-Lorraine
- Joseph II
HRE
1765–1790 — Leopold II
HRE
1790–1792 - Francis II
HRE
1792–1806 - Notes:
See also
- Burgundy Wars
- Sigmundskron Castle
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Watanabe 2011, p. 105.
- Back to citation Classen 2018, p. 206-207.
- Back to citation "Habsburg family tree". Habsburg family website. 28 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
Bibliography
- Baillie-Grohnman, William Adolph (1907). The Land in the Mountains. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. pp. 93–96.
- Classen, Albrecht (2018). Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature. Routledge.
- Coxe, William (1847). History of the House of Austria (third ed.). London: Henry G. Bohn, New York Street, Covent Garden.
- Van Dyke, Paul (1905). Renaissance Portraits. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Watanabe, Morimichi (2011). Christianson, Gerald; Izbicki, Thomas M. (eds.). Nicholas of Cusa: A Companion to his Life and his Times. Ashgate Publishing.