Sigismund of Luxemburg and the aristocracy of the Holy Roman Empire on the first stage of the Hussite wars: Frederick IV of Wettin, marggrave of MeiBen

The paper aims to study the interaction within the political elite of the Holy Roman Empire on the first stage of Hussite wars (14201422) as a factor of institutional development of Late Medieval German lands. The special attention is paid to the communication between King Sigismund (1368-1437) and Frederick IV of Wettin, margrave of MeiBen, the German noble, who took the most active part in the conflict. Thereas, the main task was to reveal and explain the chronological milestones marking their relationship, while analyzing the royal and principal charters including unpublished archivalia from Wien and Leipzig. The first milestone was the Imperial Diet held in January 1420 in Vratislav. Margrave Frederick offered his military help to King Sigismund in exchange of recognition of some illegal achievements made previously in Bohemia by his family during the reign of Sigismund's brother Wenzel. However, the king denied this offer, not at least because of the pressure from his Bohemian counsellors. As Bohemian landlords, they did not want to see their political positions harmed and the Bohemian royal fiefs being granted to the foreigners. The second milestone was the failed military campaign against the Hussites (summer 1420). While the Bohemian loyalists left their lord in trouble, the margrave shew his bravery and found the king's favour. Seeing that the traditional tactics of sieges and temporary interventions did not work, Sigismund offered a military contract to Frederick, who was to fight against the Hussites with 500 knights for a term of 6 months in exchange of 30 000 Rhenish guilder. While every single Imperial noble was obliged to provide his lord with "help, advise and support" due to his own feudal oath, Frederick was serving for hire. The final conclusion drawn by the author is that such a "daily and mounted service" was a new phenomenon in the military history of the Holy Roman Empire that had not confronted any external challenge like the Hussite wars before; nevertheless, no far-going modernization of Empire's military system took place, one would rather speak about the principles of mercenary service emerged and applied for a short time. It was very costly for the royal authority to continue paying the hire and to establish a regular army. Thus, Frederick has been serving as a "mercenary prince" for 2 years. Finally, the king was unable to pay the additional costs with gold, so he recompensed the margrave for 18 months' service with several castles belonged to the Bohemian crown. Therefore, it has been the Hussite conflict that has helped the principal authority of Wettin family to expand and territorialize its domain at the cost of royal properties and regalia.

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