Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-02-01 / 2. szám
— Part Fourteen — SIGISMUND’S FIFTY YEARS On the death of Louis the Great, the succession fell upon his elder daughter, Maria, a girl of twelve. Reluctantly, but as a sign of great respect for their late King, the Hungarian nobles accorded the Princess the Holy Crown. Of course, there were immediate complications. The Poles, who had been united to Hungary through the person of the King, refused to accept Maria unless she relinquished her Hungarian rule and moved permanently to the Polish capital. A resolution of this problem was achieved when Maria’s younger sister, Hedwig, became Queen of Poland. This action, however, led to a severance of the union between the two countries. A Troubled Beginning Maria had been engaged to marry young Sigismund of Luxemburg at the time she ascended the throne. And it had been the desire of Louis to see Sigismund share the throne with his daughter. But additional difficulties arose because the Queen Mother Elizabeth had her own ideas about who should be on the throne of Hungary. Suffice it to say that Elizabeth’s determination brought considerable turmoil into the realm, even to the point of having another candidate for the throne actually crowned. This, naturally, led to civil war, a conflict that Sigismund eventually won. On March 31, 1387, with his wife Maria still held prisoner by his rivals, Sigismund was given the Holy Crown at Szekesfehervar. While Sigismund was busy consolidating his position with the Hungarian nobles and pursuing his war with his rivals, the deadly and dangerous encroachment of the Ottoman Turks became an ever increasing danger. Not until he had crushed the rebellion was Sigismund able to turn his attention to this major peril. Nicopolis This time, and it was unusual, the entire European community recognized the threat of the Ottomans. Pope Boniface II was persuaded to proclaim a Crusade: this led to the participation of troops and leaders from France, England, Germany and the rest of Europe. The result was the formation of a huge army — some 100,000 men along with the Hungarians — that moved to confront the Turks. The Hungarian-led force met a much larger Turkish army at Nicopolis in September of 1396. And in a pattern that was to become distressingly familiar, the Hungarians were on the brink of winning a brilliant victory over the Ottomans, when the other European forces, unfamiliar with Turkish tactics, threw themselves into the battle in such a disorganized fashion that all was lost. The surviving Hungarian nobles fled to defend their own estates; Sigismund had to flee for his life — he was out of Hungary for more than six months — and the Turks kept up their pressure. It was at this moment that it became clear that the Ottoman menace was to be a constant and unrelenting threat to Hungarian and European peace and security. A RESTLESS REALM Sigismund’s absence from his land provided an opportunity for the restive nobles to react. Their attitude towards Sigismund was never completely friendly; they regarded him as not quite Hungarian enough. And a great revolt led by Stephen Lackfi, one of the late King Louis’ most trusted advisers, inflamed the land. It was only with great difficulty that Sigismund was able to put down this uprising, punishing its leaders with great severity. But Sigismund’s practice of being away from his kingdom frequently and for long periods of time was something that constantly interfered with his setting things to order within his own realm. His ambitions to become King of Germany and eventually Holy Roman Emperor led him ito incessant diplomatic and military into maneuvering that did not always sit well with his subjects. The cost of his many expeditions caused him to impose heavy taxation upon his nobles and upon the church. Unfortunately, however, these financial burdens were shifted to the shoulders of the lowest social orders, the peasants and serfs who were forced to turn over larger and larger portions of their earnings to their overlords and to the church. And under Sigismund this payment had to be in cash, not in goods. EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to space limitations, we had to cut off this article at this point, but will continue the rest of it in our next issue. 18 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW FEBRUARY 1987
