

S I G 



of Rome was now making great proffrefs, the emperor 

 granted a fafe-conduft to John Hufs to come to the council, 

 and defend the articles of his faith ; and it will be to his ever- 

 lallinsr difgrace, that he fuffered the council to violate the 

 proteftion he had folemnly given, and to bring this re- 

 former to the flake. He now endeavoured to re-eitabhfh 

 peace among tlie Chriltian princes, that they might concur 

 in a plan for restoring the unity of the church : with this 

 view he vifited both France and England, then at war with 

 each other, but with little fuccefs. The council, however, 

 agreed in depofing the exifting popes, and eledling a new 

 one. Upon the death of his brother Wenceflaus, in 1419, 

 Sigifmund fucceeded to the crown of Bohemia, which 

 country was in a flame, from the revolt of the perfecuted 

 Huflites, under their leader the famous Ziflva. He marched 

 with an army into Bohemia, but was entirely defeated by 

 Zifl<a, and the fame fortune attended him a fecond time. 

 After the death of that hero, a long feries of bloody wars 

 fucceeded, which at lall terminated in the fubmiflion of the 

 Thaboriies, as the infurgents were afterwards called, and Si- 

 gifmund was crowned at Prague, in the year 1436, and 

 reduced the whole kingdom to obedience. He had fome years 

 before this received the imperial crown both at Milan and at 

 Rome. His bigotry urged him to tyrannical proceedings 

 againft his Bohemian fubjedts, which excited their animofity 

 to fuch a degree, that he determined to leave the country. 

 When he was jutt upon the point of putting this refolution 

 into execution, he was feized with a mortification in his 

 toes, which was the prefage to approaching diHolution, and 

 having publicly declared his fon-in-law, Albert, duke of 

 Auitria, the heir to his dominions, he died in December 

 1437, in the 71ft year of his age, and the 27th of his imperial 

 dignity. Sigifmund is faid to have had a fine perfoii, and 

 to have pofleifed various accomplilhments, efpecially an un- 

 common n<ill in the learned languages. He was, moreover, a 

 patron of learned men, was liberal, brave, and aftive ; but, 

 on the other hand, he was cruel, vindiftive, and fuperfti- 

 tioufly devoted to the clergy. He was licentious in his 

 conduft, the confcioufnefs of which made him indulgent to 

 the open and abandoned debauchery of his fecond wife, 

 Barbara de Cilley, denominated the Mell'alina of Germany. 

 SiGisMUND I. king of Poland, furnamed the Great, was 

 the fon of Cafimir IV. He fucceeded his brother Alex- 

 ander in I J07, and immediately applied himfelf to the re- 

 medying of abufes that had crept into the adminiftration of 

 public affairs. In this arduous tnflc he was aintled by the 

 able and faithful minilter John Bonner, whofe name is flill 

 held in veneration by the Poles. A rebellion in Litiuiania, 

 abetted by the tzar of Mufcovy, joined to an incurflon of 

 the Walachians and Moldavians, obliged him to put him- 

 felf at the head of the troops, and he completely fucceeded 

 againft his enemies. The next antagonill with whom he 

 had to coiiteiul, was the marquis of Brandeiiburgh, grand- 

 malter of the Teutonic order, who had rtfiifed to acKiiow- 

 ledge the fovereignty of the king of P(Jand over the pro- 

 vince of PrnlTia : in this difpute he was alfo fuccelsful, and 

 obliged the marquis to grant him half the province of PrnlTia, 

 as a barrier againft the Teutonic knii;hts. Sigifmund now 

 fat down the peaceful fovereign of Poland, Lilliiiania, the 

 duchies of Smolenflco and Severia, and confiderablc terri- 

 tories on the Euxinc and Baltic, while his nephew Lewis 

 was king of Hungary and Bohen.ia. This accumulation of 

 power gave umbrage to the houfe of Auftria ; which, by 

 its intriiiues, incited the Walachiaii'!, Tartars, and Mufco- 

 vites, to make new inroads. Thefe, however, were fion driven 

 back with great lofs to their own countries, and Sigifmund 

 left again in peace. He died, after a wife, fortunate, and 



S I G 



long reign, in the eighty-fourth year of his reign, and in the 



year 1548. 



SiGisMUND II. named Auguftus, king of Poland, fon of 

 the preceding, was eledted to the crown before his father's 

 death. He oft^ended the nobles by manning the widow of 

 an obfcure perfon ; and it is aflerted, that, in order to re- 

 cover their favour, he permitted them to fend their font for 

 education to the Proteftant univcrtities of Germany, which 

 was the means of introducing their opinions into Poland. 

 He himfelf remained attached to the old religion, and br 

 his prudent and moderate conduft kept out of the king- 

 dom thofe diforders which difturbed the peace of fo many 

 other European countries. He was extremely diligent ia 

 promoting the improvement of his ftates by wife laws and 

 regulations, and the corredtion of abufes, which enabled 

 him to maintain a powerful Handing army without the ad- 

 dition of new taxes. This force he had occafion to employ- 

 as an auxiliary to his kinfman the archbifhop of Riga, againft 

 an invafion of the Ruflians. He made himfelf mailer of 

 great part of Livonia, and forced the grand-niafter of the 

 Teutonic order, who had called in the Ruffians, to renounce 

 their alliance, and put the order under the protection of Po- 

 land. From this period Livonia was annexed to Poland, and 

 the grand-mafter abdicating his dignity, received in com- 

 penfation the duchies of Courland and Semigallia, which 

 long remained in his family. The tzar, John Bafilowitz, 

 made an irruption into Lithuania, which occafioned much 

 bloodflied and devaftation, and Sigifmund was glad to pro- 

 pofe an armiitice ; and while this meafure was in difcuflion, 

 the king of Poland died ia 1572, leaving only two daugh- 

 ters, and with him terminated the male line of the houfe of 

 Jagellon. He left a high charafter for courage, ability, and 

 every princely quality, but he is faid to have been too much 

 attached to the fair fex. 



SiGiSMUND III. king of Poland, furnamed De Vafa,v!i% 

 the f»n of John III. king of Sweden, and Catharine, daugh- 

 ter of Sigifmund I. king of Poland. He was born in 1566, 

 and in 1587 was elefted to the crown of Poland, in compe- 

 tition with Maximihan of Auftria. Through the exertions 

 of Zamoflci, the crown-general, after a civil war, in which 

 Maximilian was defeated and taken prifoner, Sigifmund 

 was firmly feated on the throne. He governed fuccefsfully 

 with the afTiflance of Zamoflci, till the death of his father, in 

 T592, left him heir to the crown of Sweden. As he was 

 a zealous Catholic, and the Swedes were friendly to the 

 Reformation, they felt difinclincd to come under Ins autlio- 

 rity ; befides that, the duties of a king of Sweden, and of a 

 king of Poland, feemed to be quite incompatible. His uncle, 

 duke Charles, who had been declared regent during Sigif- 

 mund's abfence, inflamed thofe difcontents. Sigifmund 

 having obtained permillion from the Polifti diet to vilit his 

 other kingdom, arrived in Sweden in 1 5931 accompanied by 

 the pope's nuncio, and his proceedings foon proved how 

 much the relloration of the Catholic religion was the objeft; 

 of hirt willus. Violent diffentions arofe between him ai d llic 

 ftates, and in 1595 he returned lit Poland, leaving Sweden 

 in the greatefl difonler. In 1598, Sigifmund again entered 

 Sweden at the head of a foreign army, and a civil war en- 

 fiied, which terminated in a pacilication, and the king re- 

 turned to Poland. Peace did not laft long, and in 1604 the 

 Swedes formally depofed him, and raifed his uncle Charles 

 to the throne. War fucceeded between Poland and Swe- 

 den, which ended in the tonqueit of Livonia by the Polifli 

 general. 



Ruftia, at this time, being thrown into confufion by a re- 

 volution, Sigifmund took part in its diforders, and entering 

 that country, in l6io, at the head of a numerous army, 

 4 R 2 gained 



