Sigismund I the Old

Sigismund I of Poland (Polish: Zygmunt I Stary;Lithuanian: Žygimantas I Senasis) (1 January 1467 –1 April 1548), of the Jagiellon dynasty, reigned as Kingof Poland and also as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from1506 until 1548. Earlier, Sigismund had been invested asDuke of Silesia. A successful monarch and a great patronof arts, he established Polish suzerainty over Ducal Prus-sia (East Prussia) and incorporated the duchy of Mazoviainto the Polish state, securing the nation’s wealth, cultureand power.Sigismund I, the fifth son of Casimir IV and Elisabethof Habsburg, had ruled Głogów, Silesia, since 1499 andbecame margrave of Lusatia and governor of all Sile-sia in 1504. In a short time his judicial and adminis-trative reforms transformed those territories into modelstates. He succeeded his brother Alexander I as grandprince of Lithuania and king of Poland in 1506. Al-though he established fiscal and monetary reforms, he of-ten clashed with the Polish Diet over extensions of royalpower. At the Diet’s demand he married Barbara, daugh-ter of Prince Stephen Zápolya of Hungary, in 1512, tosecure a defense treaty and produce an heir. She diedthree years later, however, leaving only daughters. In1518 Sigismund married the niece of the Holy Romanemperor Maximilian, Bona Sforza of Milan, by whom hehad one son, Sigismund II Augustus, and four daughters.His daughter Catherine later married John III of Sweden,from whom the Vasa kings of Sweden were descended.[1]

In 1521 Sigismund’s army, led by one of the principaladvisers and commanders, Jan Tarnowski, subdued theOrder of the Teutonic Knights, a paramilitary religiousorder that ruled East Prussia. In 1525 the Teutonic grandmaster Albert became a Lutheran and agreed to do pub-lic homage to Sigismund in return for being granted thetitle of secular duke of Prussia; Albert then dissolved theorder, and Ducal Prussia came under Polish suzerainty.Sigismund added the duchy ofMazovia (now the provinceof Warsaw) to the Polish state after the death, in 1529,of the last of its Piast dynasty rulers. Again under thecommand of Tarnowski, Sigismund’s army defeated theinvading forces of Moldavia at Obertyn in 1531 andMuscovy in 1535, thereby safeguarding Poland’s easternborders.[1]

Sigismund, influenced by his wife, brought Italian artiststo Kraków and promoted the development of the Polishvariety of the Italian Renaissance. Although a devoutCatholic, he accorded religious toleration to Greek Or-thodox Christians and royal protection to Jews. At first hevigorously opposed Lutheranism but later resigned him-

self to its growing power in Poland.[1]

Sigismund I was a member of the Order of the GoldenFleece.

1 Early life

The son of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elisabethof Austria, Sigismund followed his brothers John I ofPoland and Alexander I of Poland to the Polish throne.Their elder brother Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hun-gary became king of Hungary and Bohemia. Sigismundwas christened as the namesake of his mother’s maternalgrandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who haddied in 1437.After his father’s death, Sigismund was the only son whodid not hold any land titles. In the years 1495-1496, headdressed his older brother, the Lithuanian Grand DukeAlexander, and demanded the separation of a domainfrom the Lithuanian Duchy, but was refused. QueenDowager Elisabeth Habsburg also tried without success toensure the succession of his son to the throne of Austria.Also, the disastrous and unsuccessful invasion of Bukov-ina led by his oldest brother King John I Albert dispelledthe plans for placing Sigismund on the Moldavian throne.Eventually Sigismund came under the care of VladislausII, King of Bohemia and Hungary, from whom he re-ceived the duchy of Głogów (1499) and Opava (1501)and in 1504 became governor of Silesia and Lower Lusa-tia.

2 Coronation

After the death of King Alexander I, Sigismund arrivedin Vilnius, where he was elected by the Lithuanian DucalCouncil on 13 September 1506 as Grand Duke of Lithua-nia, contrary to the Union of Mielnik, which involved ajoint Polish-Lithuanian election of a monarch. On 8 De-cember 1506 during the session of the Polish Senate inPiotrków, Sigismund was elected King of Poland. He ar-rived in Kraków on 20 January 1507 and was crownedfour days later in Wawel Cathedral by Primate AndrzejBoryszewski.In February 1507 he urged the Lithuanian parliament todeclare war on the Grand Duchy of Muscovy which sub-sequently strengthened the Polish-Lithuanian ownershipin the east.

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2 3 INTERNAL POLITICS

3 Internal politics

3.1 Crown of the Kingdom of Poland

At that time the internal situation in Poland was char-acterised by broad authorisation of the Chamber ofDeputies, confirmed and extended in the constitution ofNihil novi. During Alexander’s reign, the law of Nihilnovi had been instituted, which forbade kings of Polandfrom enacting laws without the consent of the Sejm. Sigis-mund had little control over the act, unlike the senators,whom he personally appointed. Eventually, during hisreign, Sigismund benefited from the advice of the localnobility, competent ministers in charge of the royal ju-diciary system, and the wealthy and influential treasurersof Kraków. Although he was reluctant to the parliamen-tary system and political independence of the nobility, herecognised the authority of legal norms, supported legal-ism and summoned annual sessions of the Sejm, usuallyobtaining funds on state defence. However he was unsuc-cessful at attempting to create a permanent fund for de-fence from the annual income tax. Despite this “Achillesheel”, in 1527 he established a conscript army and the bu-reaucracy needed to finance it. He set up the legal codesthat formalised serfdom in Poland, locking the peasantsinto the estates of nobles.Likely related to tax matters was an unsuccessful attempton the life of the king, made on 5 May 1523. Identity ofthe King-slayer - who shot the ruler while strolling in theevening around the Wawel castle's cloisters - and his po-tential supporters was never established. Unclear motivesremained after the assassination attempt. The only cluewas the fact that three weeks before the event, SigismundI introduced a new edict that was very unfavourable andsomewhat rather hostile to the high-ranking nobles.Several economic successes that Sigismund I achieved in-clude partial debt reduction, separation of accounts ofpublic taxation from the royal treasury, strengthening of

the activities of the mint operating in Kraków and the at-tempt to organise the processing of income from oper-ating salt mines. Furthermore, he issued a statute for theArmenians (1519) and strongly intended to harmonise thelaw across the country.Between 1530 and 1538 the king issued two statutes,defining the rules for the selection of the monarch, whichpermanently established the election viritim. On the dayall social groups, despite their wealth, could watch theelection process (unusquisque qui vellet) and the electionwas to be free (electio Regis libera).The king successfully organised the agricultural econ-omy, looked after the development of the royal cities andrecovered numerous goods of the treasury belonging tothe crown which were under lien. During the financial ac-tivities, the king received full support of his wife, QueenBona, who aimed to expand the royal estates by purchas-ing and improving economic efficiency.

3.2 Chicken War - the rebellion of Lwów

Chicken War by Henryk Rodakowski

The rebellion of Lwów (the so-called Chicken War) wasan anti-royalist and anti-absolutist rokosz (rebellion) bythe Polish nobility that occurred in 1537. The derisivename was coined by the magnates, who for the most partsupported the King and claimed that the “war’s” only ef-fect was the near-extinction of the local chickens, eaten bythe nobles gathered for the rebellion at Lwów, in LesserPoland. The nobility, gathered near the city to meet witha levée en masse, called for a military campaign againstMoldavia. However, the lesser and middle strata of thenobility called a rebellion, or semi-legal rebellion, to forcethe King to abandon his risky reforms. The nobles pre-sented him with 36 demands, most notably: a cessationof further land acquisitions by Queen Bona, exemptionof the nobility from the tithes, a clean-up of the Treasuryrather than its expansion, confirmation and extension ofthe privileges of the nobility, lifting of the toll or exemp-tion of the nobility from it, adoption of a law concerningincompatibilitas — the incompatibility of certain officesthat were not to be joined in the same hand, the carrying

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out of a law requiring the appointment of only the localnobles to most important local offices and the creation ofa body of permanent advisors to the king.[2] Finally, theprotesters criticised the role of Queen Bona, whom theyblamed for the “bad education” of young Prince Sigis-mund Augustus (the future King Sigismund II Augustus),as well as for seeking to increase her power and influencein the state.It soon transpired, however, that the nobility’s leaderswere divided and that achieving a compromise was almostimpossible. Too weak to start a civil war against the King,the protesters finally agreed to what was thought a com-promise. The King rejected most of their demands, whileaccepting the principle of incompatibilitas the followingyear and agreeing not to force the election of the futureking vivente rege, that is, in the lifetime of the reigningking.Thereupon the nobility returned to their homes, havingachieved little.

4 Foreign politics

4.1 European affairs

Intermittently at war with Vasily III of Muscovy, start-ing in 1507 (before his army was fully under his com-mand), 1514 marked the fall of Smolensk (under Lithua-nian domination) to the Muscovite forces (which lentforce to his arguments for the necessity of a standingarmy). Those conflicts formed part of the Muscovitewars. In 1515 he entered into alliance with the Holy Ro-man Emperor Maximilian I. After the death of Janusz IIIof Masovia in 1526, he succeeded in annexing the Duchyof Masovia. In return for Maximilian lending weightto the provisions of the Second Peace of Thorn (1466),Sigismund consented to the marriage of the children ofVladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary, his brother, tothe grandchildren of Maximilian. Through this doublemarriage contract, Bohemia and Hungary passed to theHouse of Habsburg in 1526, on the death of Sigismund’snephew, Louis II.Worried about the growing ties between the Habsburgsand Russia, in 1524 Sigismund signed a Franco-Polishalliance with King Francis I of France.[3] The agreementfell through, however, when Francis I was vanquished byCharles V at the Battle of Pavia (1525).[4]

In other matters of policy, Sigismund sought peaceful co-existence with the Khanate of Crimea, but was unable tocompletely end border skirmishes.

4.2 Teutonic Knights

The Polish wars against the Teutonic Knights ended in1525 when Albert, Duke of Prussia, their marshal (and

Prussian Homage, by Jan Matejko, 1882. Albrecht Hohenzollernreceives the Duchy of Prussia in fief from Poland’s King Sigis-mund I the Old, 1525

Sigismund’s nephew), converted to Lutheranism, secu-larized the order, and paid homage to Sigismund. In re-turn he was given the domains of the Order as the FirstDuke of Prussia. This was called the "Prussian Homage".Later, Sigismund’s eldest daughter Hedwig (1513–1573)married Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg.

5 Succession

On Sigismund’s death, his son Sigismund II Augustus be-came the last Jagiellon king of Poland and Grand Dukeof Lithuania.

6 Interest in Renaissance move-ment

Sigismund was interested in Renaissance humanism andthe revival of classical antiquity. He and his third consort,Bona Sforza, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Sforza of Milan,were both patrons of Renaissance culture, which underthem began to flourish in Poland and in the Grand Duchyof Lithuania.

7 Portraits and art

Portraits of Sigismund I

Portrait by Hans Süß von Kulmbach, 1511/1518

4 8 MARRIAGES AND ISSUE

Portrait made by Andrzej Master, 1546

Portrait of Sigismund I in an advanced age by MarcinOstrowski, 1550

Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger made in around1553

The Vienna double wedding in 1515. Woodcut by

Albrecht Dürer. Sigismund I the Old is on the far right.

Portrait by Aleksander Lesser

8 Marriages and issue

Medal of Sigismund I the Old.

In 1512, Sigismund married a Hungarian noblewomannamed Barbara Zápolya (d. 1515), with whom he hadtwo daughters:

• Electress Hedwig of Brandenburg (15 March 1513– 7 February 1573);

• Anna (1 July 1515 – 8 May 1520).

In 1517, Sigismund married Bona Sforza, with whom hehad:

• Queen Isabella of Hungary (18 January 1519 –15 September 1559), wed 1539 John Zápolya (d.1540);

• Sigismund II Augustus (1 August 1520 – 7 July1572);

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• Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (13 July1522 – 28 May 1575), wed 22/25 February 1556Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneberg (d. 11 June1568);

• Anna I of Poland (18 October 1523 – 9 September1596), wed 1 May 1576 Stephen Báthory (d. 12December 1586);

• QueenCatherine of Sweden (1November 1526 – 16September 1583), wed 4 October 1562 John, Dukeof Finland (later John III of Sweden) (d. 17 Novem-ber 1592);

• Wojciech Olbracht (b. and d. 20 September 1527).

By his mistress, Katarzyna Telniczenka (d. 1528), he alsofathered three children out of wedlock:[5]

• Jan (8 January 1499 – 18 February 1538), Bishopof Vilnius (1519) and of Posen (1536);

• Regina (1500/1 – 20 May 1526), wed ca. 20 Oc-tober 1518 Hieronim von Szafraniec, Starost ofTeschen (d. 1556/59);

• Katharina (Katarzyna) (1503 – before 9 September1548), wed after 1522 George II Count von Mont-fort in Pfannberg (d. 1544).

9 Ancestry

10 See also• History of Poland (1385–1569)

• Zygmunt (bell)

• List of Polish monarchs

11 Notes[1] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/543619/

Sigismund-I

[2] Chicken War

[3] The Cambridge History of Poland by Oskar Halecki p.309

[4] The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571) by Kenneth M.Setton p.312

[5] Marek, Miroslav. "Genealogy.eu, Miroslav Marek,Poland and Lithuania, Jagelon Family”. Genealogy.EU.

6 12 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

12 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1 Text• Sigismund I the Old Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_I_the_Old?oldid=675874747 Contributors: JHK, WojPob, DavidParker, H.J., Space Cadet, Fonzy, Dan Koehl, Mic, Docu, Andres, John K, AZhnaZg, Gutsul, Lord Emsworth, Joy, Wetman, Eugene vander Pijll, Caius2ga, Robbot, Nico~enwiki, Altenmann, Halibutt, JackofOz, Cautious, Anthony, Lysy, Ausir, Curps, Per Honor et Gloria,Kpalion, Matthead, Piotrus, Domino theory, Emax, Sam Hocevar, D6, EugeneZelenko, Darwinek, Ardric47, Logologist, Woohookitty,Lokyz, Graham87, Gryffindor, Bloomfield, Dunemaire, Volunteer Marek, YurikBot, Alma Pater, Rjensen, Renata3, Bota47, Lt-wiki-bot,Shyam, Curpsbot-unicodify, Appleseed, GrinBot~enwiki, Shilkanni, SmackBot, Elonka, Mira, MJSplant, Eskimbot, Mikiapole3~enwiki,Feens, Dr. Dan, Gustav Korwin-Szwedowski, Laslovarga, OrphanBot, Ohconfucius, Mathiasrex, Iridescent, Joseph Solis in Australia,Adam sk, FairuseBot, Flying Saucer, Cydebot, Tsalreve, M.K, Juraune, Thijs!bot, Lopakhin, Qp10qp, RobotG, Yarovit, Magioladitis,Waacstats, JRWalko, R'n'B, CommonsDelinker, DrKiernan, Numbo3, DD2K, Master shepherd, Student7, DorganBot, Steel1943, Idioma-bot, TXiKiBoT, Rei-bot, Hburdon, Mario1952, RomualdWróblewski, SieBot, Nihil novi, Auntof6, Castra12, BurgererSF~enwiki, RogDel,Surtsicna, FactStraight, Addbot, CarsracBot, Lightbot, Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, Daaviiid, The Emperor’s New Spy,Againme, HurricaneSarah, Kazimier Lachnovič, Marcin kapitaniak, Mark Schierbecker, FrescoBot, LucienBOT, GiW, RedBot, FoxBot,Atomicarrow, RjwilmsiBot, Risk34, Spacejam2, EmausBot, John of Reading, PBS-AWB, Liuthar, Fromthemitten, Mały koleżka, Oliszyd-lowski, Sobiepan, Msmchicago, WikiOriginal-9, KasparBot and Anonymous: 50

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