Editing Sigismund, Archduke of Austria

{{Short description|Ruler of Austria from 1439 to 1496}}
{{for|the 17th-century Archduke|Archduke Sigismund Francis of Austria}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{infobox royalty
| name = Sigismund
| title = [[List of rulers of Austria|Archduke of Austria]]
| image = Sigismund of Tirol (Alte Pinakothek) colour.jpg
| caption = Portrait by the [[Master of the Mornauer Portrait]], circa 1470 ([[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich)
| house = [[House of Habsburg]]
| father = [[Frederick IV, Duke of Austria]]
| mother = Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg
| spouse = [[Eleanor of Scotland]]<br/>[[Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria|Catherine of Saxony]]
| issue = 
| birth_date = 26 October 1427
| birth_place = [[Innsbruck]], [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]]
| death_date = {{death date|1496|3|4|df=y}} (aged 68)
| death_place = [[Innsbruck]]
| burial_place = [[Stams]] Abbey
}}
'''Sigismund''' (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the [[House of Habsburg]], was [[List of rulers of Austria|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, Duke of Austria|Frederick IV of Austria]] and his second wife {{Interlanguage link|Anna of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel|lt=Anna of Brunswick|de|3=Anna_von_Braunschweig}}, a daughter of the [[House of Welf|Welf]] duke [[Frederick I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg]]. A minor upon his father's death in 1439, the [[Inner Austria]]n duke [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|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 [[Old Swiss Confederacy|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 [[Duchy of Swabia|Swabian]] territories of the [[Sundgau]] in southern [[Alsace]], the [[Breisgau]], and numerous smaller estates. His cousin had planned to marry him off to the [[Kingdom of France|French]] princess [[Radegonde of Valois|Radegonde]], a daughter of King [[Charles VII of France|Charles VII the Victorious]], however, she died in 1445.{{sfn|Watanabe|2011|p=105}} Sigismund, represented by Ludwig von Landsee, married Princess [[Eleanor of Scotland]], the daughter of the [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] king [[James I of Scotland|James I]], on 8 September 1449, in an Augustinian church near Chinon.{{sfn|Watanabe|2011|p=105}}

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, Archduke of Austria|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 [[Bishopric of Brixen|Prince-bishop of Brixen]] and raised to [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] in 1449, for the control of the Tyrolean [[Eisacktal|Eisack]], [[Puster Valley|Puster]] and [[Inn (river)|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]].{{sfn|Classen|2018|p=206-207}} 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.
[[File:SigismundAustria.jpg|thumb|left|Sigismund of Austria]]

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 [[Duchy of Burgundy|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, Archduchess of Austria|Catherine of Saxony]], daughter of the [[House of Wettin|Wettin]] duke [[Albert III, Duke of Saxony|Albert III of Saxony]]. He had no offspring from either marriage.
[[File:Half Guldiner Sigismund 1484 691929.jpg|thumb|A half [[guldengroschen]] from 1484.]]
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, Trentino|Calliano]] and later besieged the castle at [[Rovereto]] using a massive [[Bombard (weapon)|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 [[Battle of Calliano (1487)|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 [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|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.

[[File:Zikmund tyrolsko.jpg|thumb|upright|Sigismund, Archduke of Austria and his betrothed [[Radegonde of Valois]] and successive wives [[Eleanor of Scotland]] and [[Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria|Catherine, Archduchess of Austria]].]]

==Male-line family tree==
{{Habsburg family tree}}

==See also==
*[[Burgundy Wars]]
*[[Sigmundskron Castle]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last=Baillie-Grohnman |first=William Adolph |title=The Land in the Mountains |year=1907 |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |location=Philadelphia |pages=93–96}}
*{{cite book |title= Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature |first=Albrecht |last=Classen |publisher=Routledge |year=2018 }}
*{{cite book |last=Coxe |first=William |title=History of the House of Austria |year=1847| edition=third |publisher=Henry G. Bohn, New York Street, Covent Garden |location=London}}
*{{cite book |last=Van Dyke |first=Paul |title=Renaissance Portraits |year=1905 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York}}
*{{cite book |title= Nicholas of Cusa: A Companion to his Life and his Times |first=Morimichi |last=Watanabe |editor-first1=Gerald |editor-last1=Christianson |editor-first2=Thomas M. |editor-last2=Izbicki |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2011 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.s/s575360.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en Encyclopedia of Austria]

{{S-start}}
{{s-hou|[[House of Habsburg]]|26 October|1427|4 March|1496}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Frederick IV, Duke of Further Austria|Frederick IV]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of rulers of Austria|Duke of Further Austria]]<br>[[County of Tyrol|Count of Tyrol]]|years=1439–1490}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Rulers of Austria}}
{{Austrian archdukes}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigismund, Archduke of Austria}}
[[Category:1427 births]]
[[Category:1496 deaths]]
[[Category:15th-century archdukes of Austria]]
[[Category:People from Innsbruck]]
[[Category:Counts of Tyrol]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Further Austria]]
[[Category:Monarchs who abdicated]]