| Sigismund | |
|---|---|
| Archduke of Austria | |
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| Born | 26 October 1427 Innsbruck,Tyrol |
| Died | (1496-03-04)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 theHouse of Habsburg, wasDuke of Austria from 1439 (elevated toArchduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the HabsburgLeopoldian line, he ruled overFurther Austria and theCounty of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.
Sigismund (orSiegmund, sometimes also spelledSigmund) was born at the Tyrolean court inInnsbruck; his parents were the Further Austrian dukeFrederick IV of Austria and his second wifeAnna of Brunswick [de], a daughter of theWelf dukeFrederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A minor upon his father's death in 1439, theInner Austrian dukeFrederick V, Sigismund's first cousin, acted as regent until 1446. Frederick, electedKing of the Romans (asFrederick IV) in February 1440, exploited all opportunities to extend his influence over the Further Austrian lands. He also interfered in theOld Zürich War in order to regain the former Habsburg territories lost to theSwiss 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 theSwabian territories of theSundgau in southernAlsace, theBreisgau, and numerous smaller estates. His cousin had planned to marry him off to theFrench princessRadegonde, a daughter of KingCharles VII the Victorious, however, she died in 1445.[1] Sigismund, represented by Ludwig von Landsee, married PrincessEleanor of Scotland, the daughter of theStuart kingJames I, on 8 September 1449, in an Augustinian church near Chinon.[1]
Sigismund was able to acquire large parts of the formerCounty of Bregenz (in present-dayVorarlberg) in 1451 and further estates in theGroßwalsertal andKleinwalsertal. Nevertheless, he had to cope with claims raised by Frederick's brother, ArchdukeAlbert 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 withNicholas of Cusa, thenPrince-bishop of Brixen and raised toCardinal in 1449, for the control of the TyroleanEisack,Puster andInn valleys. Sigismund sided with Nicholas' opponentGregory of Heimburg and in 1460, when he marched against the bishop's residence atBruneck Castle, he was excommunicated byPope Pius II.[2] Nicholas fled toTodi in thePapal 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 theRhine river, including the Alsace landgraviate, theCounty of Pfirt (Ferrette), the Breisgau and further cities, to theBurgundian DukeCharles 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 theCounty of Sonnenberg in 1474 and, together with the Swiss (with whom he had concluded a peace treaty inKonstanz) and the Alsatian cities, he sided against Duke Charles of Burgundy in theBattle of Héricourt.
In 1477, his cousin Frederick, crownedHoly Roman Emperor in 1452, elevated him toArchduke. Three years later, Princess Eleanor died, and in 1484, Sigismund married the 16-year-oldCatherine of Saxony, daughter of theWettin dukeAlbert 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, theguldengroschen, which the Habsburgs inBohemia developed later into thethaler. 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 ofder 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 theRepublic of Venice, sometimes called theWar of Rovereto. Tyrolean forces quickly seized silver mines in theValsugana valley owned by Venice, and in April 1487 Sigismund outraged Venice further when he imprisoned 130 Venetian merchants traveling to the fair at Bozen (modernBolzano) and confiscated their goods. Tyrol stormed the Pass ofCalliano and later besieged the castle atRovereto using a massivebombard, 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 notablecasualty of the conflict was the condottieroRoberto Sanseverino d'Aragona.
By 1490 the opposition of Tyrolean nobles compelled Sigismund to hand over the rulership to Frederick's sonArchduke 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.
Sigismund, Archduke of Austria Born: 26 October 1427 Died: 4 March 1496 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duke of Further Austria Count of Tyrol 1439–1490 | Succeeded by |
