SIGISMUND OF LUXEMBOURG, emperor - Large seal of S. appended to a privilege granted by the Emperor to the Canons of S. Orso (16 July 1418) - Aosta, archive of the collegiate church of SS. Peter and Orso.
to find a resolution to their mutual conflicts at the expense of the Polish noble Republic—while internally the nobility had grown ever more unruly and sought to dominate the State, reducing the royal power to servitude.
Under these conditions, S. sought to confront all his enemies with prudence and separately: first he attacked Muscovy, and between 1507 and 1537 three successive wars, though without reaching a decisive outcome, paved the way for future solutions and a five-year truce; meanwhile in 1515 he had succeeded in settling all differences with Austria and thus, isolating the Teutonic Order, in 1520 he defeated its Grand Master Albert of Hohenzollern, approved its secularization, and in 1525 the Duke Albert received East Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Vigilant also against Tatar incursions, he defeated Moldavia, a vassal of the Turks. On the other hand, in domestic policy, S. failed to impose his authority on the nobility, which in 1537, during a campaign against Moldavia, forced him to guarantee the free election of kings and to permit no alteration of the electoral law. Despite these problems and difficulties, his reign is chiefly marked by the rapid rise of Renaissance culture in Poland, thanks to the splendid patronage of the King and the activity of his second wife Bona Sforza, who exercised great influence over S. and considerable interference in political life. The Protestant Reformation penetrated Poland during the middle of S.’s reign through the merchant bourgeoisie, especially German, of Danzig and eastern Prussia, and S., a deeply Catholic ruler, opposed its spread by every means, even at his own court. Nevertheless, on the whole, when he closed his eyes in Cracow S. had not permanently resolved any of the foreign or domestic problems of the Polish-Lithuanian State, and they reappeared, aggravated, after his death.
SIGISMUND II AUGUSTUS, King of POLAND and Grand Duke of LITHUANIA. — Son of King Sigismund I and of Bona Sforza, b. 10 Aug. 1520 at Cracow, d. 7 July 1572 at Knyszyn.
Before his father’s death (1548) he had already administered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and shown interest in the Protestant Reformation; he corresponded with Melanchthon and Calvin, kept Protestant preachers at his court in Vilna, and maintained cordial relations with Lutheran rulers; yet this understanding with heretics was suddenly broken by the secret marriage of the monarch to Barbara Radziwiłł (1547), which the Polish nobility of Protestant leanings opposed, demanding its annulment in the Diet of Piotrków in 1548: there was fear that Lithuanian noble influence over government would thereby increase. With the support of high dignitaries of the Catholic Church, however, S. managed to overcome the opposition and have Barbara crowned on 7 Dec. 1550 in Cracow cathedral, and he promised special assistance to the Catholic Church, but in reality he tolerated the propagation of Protestant ideas by preachers, including several Italians. In foreign policy he maintained good-neighbour relations with the Habsburgs and opposed Russian, Danish and Swedish attempts to occupy Livonia. By the Union of Lublin in 1569 the personal union between Poland and Lithuania was transformed into a real union, based on the king and the Sejm (Diet of the Estates). — See pl. XXXVII.
Bibl. K. Volker, Kirchengesch. Polens, Berlin-Leipzig 1930, pp. 149 ff. with bibliography; D. Cantimori, Eretici italiani del Cinquecento, Florence 1939, passim; J. Pajewski, Zygmunt August and the Union of Lublin 1548–1572, in The Cambridge History of Poland, I, Cambridge 1950, pp. 348–1951.
SIGISMUND III VASA, King of POLAND and of SWEDEN. — Son of John III, King of Sweden, and of Catherine Jagellonica, b. 20 June 1566 at Gripsholm (Sweden), d. 30 Apr. 1632 at Warsaw.
He was elected King of Poland in Aug. At his father’s death in 1592 he succeeded in being crowned King of Sweden as well, giving guarantees to respect the decrees of the Uppsala Synod of 1593, which introduced the articles of the Augsburg Confession into Sweden. S., however, was a convinced and determined advocate of the Catholic Reformation in the Nordic countries and soon found himself in conflict with his Baltic subjects. After an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Sweden in 1598 with an army, he was declared deposed the following year. All his subsequent foreign policy was bent on regaining the Swedish crown, but every effort proved vain. Especially after Gustavus Adolphus came to the throne, S. not only lost all hope of returning to his father’s throne, but Poland itself, drawn into this dynastic struggle, suffered the consequences: the Peace of Altmark (1629), with the acquisition of Livonia, assured Sweden of predominance in the Baltic. Throughout his reign S. was a sincere, active and resolute supporter of the Catholic faith. The loss of the Swedish crown on the one hand, and the political opposition of Protestants within Poland on the other, only strengthened his resolve to promote the Counter-Reformation in every way and to grant every support to the Jesuits.