Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387 - 1437)

The Angevin dynasty in Hungary really only had two kings:  Karol Robert (1310 - 1342) and Louis I the Great (1342 - 1381).  Louis, however, had no sons, so his kingdom fell to the husband of one of his three daughters.  When he died, his eldest daughter, Mary was still unmarried and ruled, although her mother, Elizabeth was the real power behind the throne.  She was engaged to Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was also Margrave of Brandenburg. 

Mary's rule was contested by Charles II of Naples, a distant cousin of Louis I, who finally was crowned King on December 31, 1385.  The queen, however, had her revenge, and her agents assassinated Charles just 39 days after his coronation.  The queen also lost her life, being strangled by agents of the nobility.  Mary was taken captive.  Sigismund, with the help of Venetian diplomacy, secured his wife's release, and was crowned King of Hungary in 1387, ruling jointly with his wife until she died in 1395.

Two years into his reign, the face of Europe changed drastically.  The Turkish Ottonmans defeated and destroyed Serbia at the battle of Kosovo Polje on June 15, 1389.  This placed the Sultan's armies at the southern border of Hungary.  Sigismund called on the chivalry of Europe to drive back the pagans (Islamic), and knights assembled from all over Europe.  They attacked Turkey in 1396, but were met and defeated by Sultan Bayazid I at Nicopolis on September 28. 

In 1403, Pope Boniface IX incites King Ladislas of Naples, son of Charles II, to invade Hungary to claim the throne.  He is quickly defeated after landing in Dalmatia.  The Venetians, however, soon also invade Dalmatia, claiming they had bought it from Ladislas.  They conquered Dalmatia during the war from 1409 to 1411, although a treaty ceding Dalmatia to Venice was not signed until 1433.

Frustrated by his inability to end the Western Schism in the Catholic church, the Imperial Diet deposes Wenceslas IV, Sigismund's brother as Holy Roman Emperor.  Sigismund is elected in his place, and presides over the Council of Constance which elects Martin V as the sole pope, ending the schism.  The Council also tries and executes Jon Hus for heresy, provoking a revolt in Bohemia 1419. 

The first act of the revolt is to throw the newly appointed town council of Prague out the window, literally.  This act so enrages Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia, that he has an apoplectic fit and dies.  He is succeeded by his brother, Sigismund, who now hold the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia as well as being Holy Roman Emperor. 

Sigismund never sits on the throne in Prague.  He is crowned in St. Vitus' Cathedral as he is fleeing the Hussite armies.  His forces are repeated defeated in their attempts to retake Bohemia, by an army formed by a group called the Taborites.  This army is led first by John Zizka, until his death in 1424, and then by the warrior priest, Prokop.  In 1436, peace is finally made with Bohemia, under Pope Eugene IV at the Council of Basel.   

While he is busy with German affiars, the Turks are not idle.  Sigismund contracts with Pipo Scolari to build a line of defense at Hungary's southern border.  The line becomes so solid that it prevents Turkish invasion of Hungary for over 100 years, well after Sigismund's death.  In 1441, the command of the line came under the control of Janos Hunyadi, son of a Wallachian nobleman.

Finally, in 1437, there is a peasant revolt in Transylvania.  This revolt lasted less than a year, but resulted in the "Union of Three Nations" which becomes the constitution of Transylvania for several centuries.  Sigismund did not witness this, however, as he died on his way back to Hungary in late 1437.