Emperor Sigismund: Lordship in Practice in three Monarchies

Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368-1437) was crowned King of Hungary (1387), King of the Romans (1410/11), King of Bohemia (1420) and King of the Lombards (1431). In 1433 he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The territories he reigned over formed a vast geographical "empire" within Europe, which stretched entirely or partly across today`s Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. As Sigismund ruled as a "Reisekönig" (travelling King), for long periods of time he was a "distant" Emperor and King for his "subjects" and exercised a "reign from afar". This project`s aim is to research how this situation, which required a well-developed communication network, influenced recruitment and change in Sigismund`s personal entourage and the communication between him, his court and the "subjects" seeking him out. Moreover, the question of how this communicative situation is - quantitatively and qualitatively - expressed in written testimonials will also be answered. The basis for this project will be fundamental archive research. Because of the great number of Sigismund charters (about 20,000), this project will focus research on three representative territories of Sigismund`s lordship in East and Central Europe: Hungary 1413-1419 (about 900 abstracts of the Zsigmondkori Oklevéltr will be translated and significantly amended), Bohemia (about 350-400 charters from archives) and Upper and Lower Lusatia and Silesia (about 400 charters from archives). The result of the project will be two supplementary journals of the Regesta Imperii (Bohemia; Upper and Lower Lusatia and Silesia), which will also be accessible via open access at the "Regesta Imperii Online", the publication of abstracts at the "Regesta Imperii Online" (Hungary) and related analytical studies about the above-mentioned topics. This project`s aim is also to define Sigismund`s ruling practice as an important transitional period between his predecessors Charles IV, Wenzel and Ruprecht, who ruled in a "typically" medieval way, and his successors Frederick III and Maximilian I, whose ruling is considered early modern. Moreover, the comprehensive inventories of Sigismund charters in Hungary will be made available to German-speaking research and a revision of the Regesta Imperii XI concerning the historical lands of Bohemia, Upper and Lower Lusatia and Silesia will be realised. This will be an important step towards a modern edition of about 20,000 Sigismund charters. In addition to publications by the project team members and their participation in conferences, the research results will be presented at an international conference in the final year of the project.

The project which ran from 2008-2012, Der ferne Kaiser. Herrschaftspraxis, Netzwerke und Kommunikation Sigismunds von Luxemburg (1368-1437) als Kaiser und König der drei Reiche Deutschland, Ungarn und Böhmen was made up of an international blend of co-workers from Austria, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary and incorporated in the Austrian-German historical publication firm, Regesta Imperii. In the course of the project, essential research results on Sigismunds lordship and charters were made public: The conference volume, Kaiser Sigismund (1368-1437) ) Zur Herrschaftspraxis eines europäischen Monarchen (Vienna 2012, 564 pages) whose 19 contributions from Austrian, German, Swiss, Czech, Slovakian and Hungarian historians presents a multifaceted illumination of the administration, conflict resolution, granting of charters, and the ceremonial behavior of Sigismund. The first volume of the revised edition of Sigismunds Regesten (scientific abstracts of documents), J. F. Böhmer, Regesta Imperii XI. Regesten Kaiser Sigismunds (14101437). Band 1: Die Urkunden und Briefe aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken Mährens und Tschechisch-Schlesiens (Vienna 2012, 303 pages), a big step in the edition of Sigismunds documents and letters, after more than100 years of an editorial stand-still in German-speaking regions, and demonstrates that many unedited sources and yet unknown sources of the emperor can be found. The monographic study, Herrschaft und Urkunden Sigismunds in Mähren is completed as a manuscript. The translation and reworking of the Hungarian Zsigmondkori oklevéltrs Regesten during this project (record books from the time of Sigismund), whose first publication will appear in 2013 via Regesta Imperii-Online, will enable a great number of Sigismunds charters, foremost of Hungarian provenience, to be presented to a (predominantly non-Hungarian) scientific community and will make it possible to integrate Sigismunds reign in Hungary much more precisely in his European total rule and to see a much clearer picture of his reigning from afar. The project leader and project staff have given lectures and published essays on these aspects. Furthermore, charters of Sigismund have, with few exceptions, been secured from all relevant archives and libraries from Bohemia, Upper and Lower Usatia and Silesia and serve as the basis for further volumes of the revised edition of Sigismund at Regesta Imperii. Project staff also participated in the organization of the international conference Kommunikation im Krieg im späten Mittelalter which took place over several days in Prague, in 2011. The establishment of an office of the Sigismund Regesten at the Masaryk University in Brno (CZ) upon the initiative by the project leader can be counted as a great success. Overall the Institute for Medieval Studies at the ÖAW was able to establish itself as an international center of research on Sigismund due to the location of the project therein and whose scientific findings and wide-ranging cooperation were met with much recognition.