The Children of Adam and Eve

Sigismund (1368-1437), Holy Roman emperor (1411-37) and king of Hungary
(1387-1437) and Bohemia (1419-37), the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles
IV. In 1385 he married Queen Mary of Hungary (1370-95), thus acceding to
the throne of Hungary two years later. In 1396 he led a great army of
Crusaders from many parts of Europe against the Turks; the latter, under
the Ottoman sultan Bayazid I, inflicted a crushing defeat upon Sigismund's
forces at Nicopolis (now Nikopol), Bulgaria. Upon the Death of Holy Roman
Emperor Rupert (1352-1410), Sigismund was elected to succeed him, but he
did not receive formal coronation at the hands of the Pope until 1433. In
1414 Sigismund persuaded the antiPope John XXIII to convoke the Council of
Constance at which a Longstanding dispute over the papal succession was
settled and ecclesiastical reforms were instituted. The council also tried
the Bohemian religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus) and condemned and
executed him as a heretic. Sigismund succeeded to the throne of Bohemia in
1419. His power in Bohemia was never More than nominal, However, as the
Bohemians believed him guilty of complicity in the Death of Huss and
repeatedly Rose in arms against him.