Editing Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (section)

=== Hussite Wars ===
{{main|Hussite Wars}}
[[File:Thuróczy krónika - Zsigmond király háborúi a husziták ellen.jpg|left|thumb|The wars of King Sigismund against the Hussites ([[Chronica Hungarorum]], 1488)]]
[[File:Albrecht Dürer 082.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Portrait of Emperor Sigismund, painted by [[Albrecht Dürer]] after the emperor's death]]

In 1419, the death of [[Wenceslaus, King of the Romans|Wenceslaus IV]] left Sigismund titular [[King of Bohemia]], but he had to wait for seventeen years before the [[Czechs|Czech]] [[Estates of the realm|Estates]] would acknowledge him. Although the two dignities of king of the Romans and king of Bohemia added considerably to his importance, and indeed made him the nominal temporal head of [[Christianity|Christendom]], they conferred no increase of power and financially embarrassed him. It was only as [[King of Hungary]] that he had succeeded in establishing his authority and in doing anything for the order and good government of the land. Entrusting the government of Bohemia to [[Sofia of Bavaria]], the widow of Wenceslaus, he hastened into Hungary.<ref name=EB1911/>

The Bohemians, who distrusted him as the betrayer of [[Jan Hus|Hus]], were soon in arms; and the flame was fanned when Sigismund declared his intention of prosecuting the war against heretics. Three campaigns against the [[Hussites]] ended in disaster although the army of his most loyal ally [[Stibor of Stiboricz]] and later his son [[Stibor of Beckov]] could hold the Hussite side away from the borders of the kingdom. The Turks took advantage of the internal disorder and soon began attacking Hungary again at this time.

At the 1422 Diet of Nuremberg, Sigismund and German territorial princes collaborated to organize two armies against the Hussite rebels. The first army was sent to relieve [[Karlštejn]], which was under a Hussite siege; the second army was ordered to destroy the Hussite field army. But [[Jan Žižka]] defeated the Imperial force at the [[Battle of Kutná Hora]] and then at the [[Battle of Německý Brod]]. These two unexpected defeats at the hands of the Hussites "ended the first Imperial and Catholic attempt to crush the Bohemian 'heretic rebellion'."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nolan |first1=Cathal J. |title=The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization |date=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33733-8 |page=429 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h9zzSH-NmwC&pg=PA429 |access-date=11 September 2022}}</ref>

The alliance against the Hussites continued to develop though, joined by Upper German princes and cities, even from "the regions furthest from Bohemia". In January 1424, the associative activity of the German electors led to the Union ('einunge') of Bingen, "within which the Rhenish princes were joined by the elector of Saxony and Sigismund's loyal partner Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg, and mutual assistance, adjudication, and cooperation in the face of the Hussite threat were stipulated."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hardy |first1=Duncan |title=Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346–1521 |date= 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-256216-6 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yB1rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |access-date=11 September 2022}}</ref>