* Sigismund the mad maths teacher, a character in the Nigel Molesworth school stories

Prussian Homage ( painting ) | Prussian Homage: Albert and his brothers receive the Duchy of Prussia as a fief from Polish King Sigismund I the Old, 1525.

The Commonwealth, assertive militarily under King Stephen Báthory, suffered from dynastic distractions during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV.

John Sigismund () ( 8 November 1572 – 23 December 1619 ) was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern.

In 1611, John Sigismund traveled from Köningsberg to Warsaw, where on 16 November 1611 he gave feudal homage to Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland ( the Duchy of Prussia was a Polish fief at the time ).

In Poland, however, the lords of Lesser Poland ( Poland's virtual rulers ) did not want to continue the personal union with Hungary, nor to accept as regent Mary's fiancé Sigismund, whom they expelled from the country.

Emperor Sigismund himself was an heir of Casimir III, as eldest son of his mother Elisabeth of Pomerania, who was since 1377 the only surviving child of Elisabeth of Poland, herself daughter of Casimir III from his first marriage with Aldona Gediminaite of Lithuania.

The Livonian Order saw no other way than to seek protection from Sigismund II Augustus, the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who had intervened in a war between Bishop William of Riga and the Brothers in 1557.

Mary's mother contemplated taking up arms, and civil war was avoided only when she agreed to absolve the nobles from their oaths to Mary and Sigismund.

News of Mary's betrothal to Louis provoked open oppposition from the House of Lacković, the master of the treasury Nicholas Zambo and the judge royal Nicholas Szécsi and continued to support Sigismund, now putting Hungary on the verge of civil war.

Sigismund ( variants: Sigmund, Siegmund ) is a German proper name, meaning " protection through victory ", from Old High German sigu " victory " + munt " hand, protection ".

A Lithuanian name Žygimantas, meaning " wealth of ( military ) campaign ", from Lithuanian žygis " campaign, march " + manta " goods, wealth " has been a substitution of the name Sigismund in the Lithuanian language, from which it was adopted by the Ruthenian language as Жыгімонт ( such are the cases of Sigismund Kestutaitis, Sigismund Korybut, Sigismund I the Old, Sigismund II Augustus ).

Here, Sigismund von Herberstein's 1549 map of Moscovia shows " Yugra from where the Hungarians originated " ( Iuhra inde ungaroru origo ), east of the Ob River.

At the end of the century the situation had changed, and Uppsala became a bastion of Lutheranism, which Duke Charles, the third of the sons of Gustavus Vasa to eventually become king ( as Charles IX ) used to consolidate his power and eventually oust his nephew Sigismund from the throne.

As attested by Sigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century Russians called the range by a variety of names derived from the Russian words for rock ( stone ) and belt.

40 dead and slightly more than 200 wounded while King Sigismund lost 2, 000 soldiers, many of them drowned in the river while they retreated.

Sigismund von Herberstein reported that 40, 000 Russians were killed.

In August, Sigismund's delegation of four knights and a bishop arrived in the court of Paris to paint a description of how " 40, 000 " Turks were despoiling and imperiling Christian lands and beg, on Sigismund of Hungary's behalf, for help.

He subsequently joined forces with Sigismund Báthory's 40, 000-man army ( led by István Bocskay ) and counterattacked the Ottomans, freeing the towns of Târgovişte ( October 8 ), Bucharest ( October 12 ) and Brăila, temporarily removing Wallachia from Ottoman suzerainty.

The modern Unitarian Church in Hungary ( 25, 000 members ) and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church ( 75, 000 members ) are affiliated with the ICUU and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Ferenc Dávid in 1565 in Transylvania under John II Sigismund Zápolya.

Sigismund set out with 90, 000 men and a flotilla of 70 galleys.

Sigismund personally led an army of almost 50, 000 " crusaders " against the Croats and Bosnians, which culminated in 1408 with the Battle of Dobor, and a massacre of about 200 noble families, many of them victors of numerous battles against the Ottomans.

Through a payment of 120, 000 golden florins in 1433, Gianfrancesco I was appointed marquis of Mantua by Emperor Sigismund, whose daughter Barbara of Brandenburg he married.

From north to south they were Feldmarchall-Leutnant Michael von Kienmayer's Right Column ( 16, 000 ), Feldmarchall-Leutnant Louis-Willibrord-Antoine Baillet de Latour's Right Center Column ( 10, 800 ), Feldzeugmeister Johann Kollowrat's Left Center Column ( 20, 000 ), and Feldmarchall-Leutnant Johann Sigismund Riesch's Left Column ( 13, 300 ).

Sigismund lost 12, 000 men and only escaped himself by rapid flight.

About 15, 000 crusaders died with only a few leaders, including Sigismund, escaping.

In the battle, an army of ca 8, 000-12, 000 commanded by Duke Charles defeated a mixed force of ca 5, 000-8, 000 consisting of an invading army of mercenaries in the king's employ and diverse but poorly co-ordinated supporting Swedish noblemen's forces commanded by King of both Sweden and the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund III Vasa, who was acting to maintain and restore his personal union against anti-Catholic forces in Lutheran Sweden.

In February 1598 Sigismund assembled an army consisting of merely 5, 000 men.

According to Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii by Sigismund von Herberstein, the primary source for the information on the battle, the much smaller army of Poland – Lithuania ( under 30, 000 men ) defeated the 80, 000 Russian soldiers, capturing their camp and commander.

Meanwhile Sigismund the Old gathered some 35, 000 troops for war with the eastern neighbor.

Sigismund left 4, 000 – 5, 000 men in the town of Barysau, while the main forces, around 30, 000, moved on to face the Russians.

King Sigismund wrote to the Pope Leo X about a " horde of Muscovites " which counted 80, 000 men.

Sigismund also claimed that his army had killed 30, 000 Russians and taken prisoner 46 commanders and 1, 500 nobles.

It remains also unclear why, if the data on 70, 000 – 80, 000 is to be trusted, King Sigismund who knew about such superiority of the Russian army from Mikhail Glinsky's letters kept a personal guard of about 5, 000 men ( about 15 % of his army ) without throwing them into the battle.

Pius II was also engaged in a series of disputes with the Bohemian King George of Poděbrady and the Sigismund of Austria ( who was excommunicated for having arrested Nicholas of Cusa, Bishop of Brixen ).

While Sigismund never managed to regain the Swedish throne, his personal ambition to do so did succeed in provoking a long series of conflicts between the Commonwealth and Sweden and Muscovy.

By the time Amadeus VIII came to power in the late 14th century, the House of Savoy had gone through a series of gradual territorial expansions and he was elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to the Duke of Savoy in 1416.

The Battle of Vyšehrad was a series of engagements at the start of the Hussite War between Hussite forces and Catholic crusaders sent by Emperor Sigismund.

Sigismund reacted to the attack only years later, leading a series of military campaigns against the Ottomans in Wallachia.

After a series of indecisive skirmishes his invasion was cut short due to the death of Vaytautas, which forced Olugh to concentrate his forces on Lithuania, where he supported Sigismund I Kestutian against Svitrigaila in the fight for the Lithuanian throne.

However, starting in 1494 the city's local autonomy ( Magdeburg rights ) gradually increased in a series of acts of Lithuanian Grand Dukes and Polish Kings which was finalized by 1516 charter granted by Sigismund I the Old.