COS 



SIGISMUND (OP GERMANY). 



6C6 



respecting the executive, which was to be vested in a Grand Elector, 

 whose sole power was to consist in the nomination of two consuls who 

 were to exercise all the powers of government, Bonaparte offered a 

 decided and successful resistance. Discontented with the overthrow of 

 his political theory, and discovering with characteristic penetration 

 that ho had found his master, he refused to act a subordinate part in 

 the new constitution, which was proclaimed on the 24th of December 

 1799. At this period he may be said to have terminated his public 

 career. His services however were richly rewarded with 600,000 francs 

 and the estate of Crosiie, which was afterwards exchanged for a 

 magnificent hotel in Paris, and the valuable lands of Faisanderie in the 

 park of Versailles. 



Under the consulate and the empire, Sieyes studiously avoided all 

 participation in power. He declined the offer of the presidency of 

 the Senate, and contented himself with accepting the title of Count. 

 Napoleon borrowed largely from his theories, which he had the talent 

 to translate into acts, and many of his political ideas formed the basis 

 of the legislative measures which he introduced. At the Restoration 

 he was exiled, and only returned to France after the Revolution of 

 1830, fifteen years afterwards. He died at Paris, in tranquil obscurity, 

 on the 20th of June 1836. 



The character of Sieyes has been graphically depicted by Du.aont in 

 his valuable and interesting memoirs. " His manner," he says, " was 

 neither frank nor engaging ; he was a man with whom it was difficult 

 to become intimate, and who was wont to express hici opinion with- 

 out deigning to enter into any discussion upon it. His writings had 

 given him a well-established reputation ; he was looked upon as the 

 oracle of the Tiers Etat, and the most formidable enemy of privileges. 

 He was easily excited to a display of ill-humour, and appeared to hold 

 in extreme contempt the existing state of society (1790). I imagined 

 that this friend of liberty had necessarily a liking for the English 

 nation, and the subject being familiar to me, I introduced it to him, 

 but I discovered to my sxirprise that the whole English constitution 

 was in his eyes a mere piece of charlatanry to impose upon the people : 

 he seemed to pity my ignorance as I described the various modifica- 

 tions that system had undergone, the cautious regard (' menagemens 

 re"ciproques ') shown towards each other by the three orders of the 

 state, the hidden checks which they opposed to each other's move- 

 ments, and the disguised but real dependence which existed between 

 them. The influence of the crown appeared to him venality, the 

 opposition a mere court trick (' manege d'antichambre '). The only 

 thing he approved of among the English was trial by jury, which 

 however he but little understood, and in common with most French- 

 men, he had formed wrong notions respecting it. In a word, it was 

 manifest that he regarded the English but as children in the art of 

 framing a constitution, and that he considered himself capable of 

 giving a much better one to France." (Dumont, ' Souvenirs de Mira- 

 beau,' p. 62, 63, Paris, 1833.) So great indeed was the vanity-of this 

 political philosopher that on one occasion he remarked that " the art 

 of government was a science which he considered he had brought to 

 perfection." This disposition may have been the cause of the surname 

 of Mahomet, which Mirabeau was in the habit of applying to him. 

 There is also an admirable sketch of his character in Mignet, ' Hist. 

 de la Revolution,' c. ii. 



The principal writings of Sieyes, not already mentioned, are, 1, 

 ' Observations sommaires sur les Biens Eccldsiastiques.' 2, 'Pre"limi- 

 naires de la Constitution.' 3, 'Reconnaissance et Exposition des 

 Droits de 1'Homme.' 4, ' Des Opinions Politiques.' 5, ' Divers 

 Rapports et Projets de Lois.' 



SIGISMUND, Emperor of Germany from 1411 to 1437, was a 

 younger son of the Emperor Charles IV., and was born in 1366. His 

 father died in 1378, leaving Bohemia to his eldest son Wenceslaus, 

 and to Sigismund the markgraviate of Brandenburg, which had been 

 previously bestowed on Wenceslaus, who by a treaty concluded at 

 Prague in June 1378, renounced his claims. For four years the young 

 Sigismund occupied himself in traversing his new dominions, and 

 receiving the homage of the nobility and the towns; but his territories 

 Buffered much during this time from the incursions of the Poles, the 

 Pomeranians, and the Mecklenburghers. In 1382 he was betrothed 

 to Maria, daughter of Ludwig, king of Hungary and Poland, who 

 designed him for his successor. In the following year he visited 

 Poland, but his pride and haughtiness rendered him so unpopular 

 that, on Ludwig's death in 1383, the nobility of Poland at the diet of 

 Wilika chose Maria's sister Hedwig for queen, who married Ladislaus 

 Jagellon, duke of Lithuania. Sigismund abandoned Poland, and pro- 

 ceeded to Hungary to celebrate his marriage with Maria. In the 

 meantime Charles of Durazzo had usurped the government, had been 

 murdered, and Sigismund's bride had been carried off from Buda by 

 the Ban of Croatia a? a prisoner. Sigismund followed with an army, 

 the Ban was affrighted, gave up his prisoner, and Sigismund was married 

 to her at Stuhlweissenberg, where he was crowned king of Hungary in 

 1386. In the following year the Ban of Croatia fell into his power 

 and was put to death, but this did not deter Stephen, the waywode of 

 Wallachia, from declaring himself independent of Hungary. Sigis- 

 mund invaded his territories, and Stephen sought the assistance of 

 Bajazet, the Turkish sultan. Their joint armies were defeated and 

 Sigismund returned to Buda in triumph, where he found his wife had 

 died, and Ladislaus of Poland claimed the crown for his wife, the 



sister of Maria. He supported his claims with an army and advanced 

 to the Hungarian frontiers, but the inhabitants flew to arms, and he was 

 forced to retire. But though the Hungarians had repelled a foreign 

 invader, Sigismund was not popular. The nobility were constantly con- 

 spiring against him, and he became morose, suspicious, and cruel, and 

 on the suppression of one insurrection the leader Stephen Conthus, 

 and thirty-two of his followers were beheaded before his eyes. The 

 Wallachians also rose against him, and invoked the assistance of the 

 Turks. Sigismund alarmed, sought the assistance of France, and a 

 large number of volunteers joined him, who, under the Count de 

 Nevers, were defeated and nearly destroyed at the battle of Nicopolis 

 in 1396. The Hungarians were affrighted, and fled without fighting. 

 Sigismund escaped with difficulty and took refuge in the isle of 

 Rhodes, whence he repaired to Constantinople, and afterwards to 

 Venice. After long wandering he returned to Hungary, where he was 

 taken prisoner on April 28, 1401, by the malcontent nobles, and con- 

 fined in the citadel of Siklos, when Ladislaus, sou of Charles, king of 

 Naples, was elected king in his stead. Sigismund escaped from 

 confinement, assembled an army, dispersed the league of the nobles, 

 and resumed the sovereign power, which he exercised with great 

 rigour. On September 10, 1410 he was elected emperor of Germany 

 by a part of the electors on the death of Ruprecht, palatine of the 

 Rhine, who had been elected on the deposition of Wenceslaus, the 

 brother of Sigismund. Ten days after this election another portion 

 of the electors chose Jobst, marquis of Moravia, a younger brother of 

 Sigismund; and Wenceslaus refusing to accede to his deposition, tho 

 three brothers wer^ all emperors at the same time. Jobst died within 

 a few months after his election, and Wenceslaus acquiescing in the 

 election of his brother, this schism was terminated, and Sigismund 

 was crowned at Aachen in 1414. He had the art of conciliating the 

 princes of the diet, he introduced many ameliorations into his govern- 

 ment, and he restored a calm to Germany which it had not enjoyed 

 for thirty years. It was however again interrupted by the council 

 of Coustanz, assembled in 1414, which, though it put an end to the 

 papal schism by deposing John XXIII. and Benedict XIII., yet by the 

 burning of John Huss, to which Sigismund imprudently consented 

 though he bad given him a safe conduct, occasioned insurrections in 

 Bohemia that endured nearly the whole of his reign. The war in that 

 country continued till 1435, when it was concluded by the treaty of 

 Iglau. In 1415 he visited Charles II. in Paris, and undertook to 

 negociate a peace for him with Henry V. of England, whom he also 

 visited ; with whom, with extreme perfidy, he however concluded a 

 secret treaty against Charles, vainly hoping by this means to recover 

 Aries to the empire. In his contests with the Bohemians he was 

 opposed by the celebrated Zisca. He was personally brave, but had 

 little talent as a military leader, and was frequently beaten in pitched 

 battles, both by Zisca and the two Procopiuses who succeeded him ; 

 but after the victory of Broda, in 1434, where a German general com- 

 manded, and in which the Bohemian army was almost annihilated and 

 their leaders were killed, he offered them an amnesty, attracted many 

 of their chiefs to Pilsen, collected them in a barn, and burnt them. 

 Sigismund had sold Brandenburg to Friedrich, burgrave of Nurnberg, 

 and as a reward for his assistance in the Hussite war, raised him to the 

 electoral dignity, and thus laid the foundation of the kingdom of 

 Prussia. He also constituted Cleves a dukedom, and elevated the 

 counts of Savoy to the rank of dukes. After a vain attempt at Eger 

 in 1437 to form a German union, he died at Znaym in Moravia, on 

 December 9, 1437, the last of the dynasty of Luxembourg, and was 

 succeeded by Albert of Austria, who had married his daughter. 



SIGISMUND, King of Poland, was the youngest son of Casimir. 

 He was born in 1466, and succeeded his brother Alexander in 1506, 

 having been previously Duke of Glogau and Oppeln, and having 

 become by inheritance grand-duke of Lithuania. He found the affairs 

 of both countries in a very unfavourable state. The southern pro- 

 vinces of the kingdom were converted into a desert by the repeated 

 inroads of the Tartars, and even some parts of Lithuania had expe- 

 rienced the disastrous effects of their ravages. The czars of Muscovy, 

 who were recently emancipated from their subjection to the Tartars, 

 and had reduced and united with their dominions the principalities 

 of Rezan and Tver, as well as the republics of Novgorod and Pskow, 

 became by these important acquisitions very formidable neighbours to 

 Poland. Though experience proved that the Muscovite armies were 

 inferior to the Polish in courage and military skill, they always sur- 

 passed them In numbers. The resources of the Muscovite sovereign 

 were immense : he ruled despotically over many rich and populous 

 provinces, and his mandate was sufficient to call round his standard 

 countless thousands. It was quite the reverse in Poland, where the 

 turbulent nobility frequently and in the most wanton manner opposed 

 the best views of the king, and often resisted his commands with no 

 other view than to assert their own rights, an encroachment upon 

 which they dreaded more than any foreign aggression. It is true that 

 the warriors who generally nocked to the royal standard were the 

 bravest of the brave, but their numbers were few, and though they 

 fought with the utmost gallantry, they were soon tired of the fatigues 

 of the camp. The arriere ban, or general levy of the nobility, called 

 Pospolite Ruszenie, that is, general movement, could only be raised 

 with great difficulty, and it soon returned home. The treasury was 

 empty, and the nobles, unwilling to submit to any taxation, sought to 



