When the Emperor Charles IV died, he was followed by his 26-year-old son, Wenzel. His younger son, Sigismund, was only 10. However, Wenzel not only preferred hunting but was so fond of his dogs
that he took them to bed with him. Indeed, according to one story, his first wife, Johanna of Bavaria, had been bitten to death by one of them. Wenzel took to drink and, roaming the streets at night, would 
violate the wives of respectable citizens even in their own homes.Upon his father's death, Sigismund had been made Markgraf of Brandenburg but was educated in Hungary. Here he took as his first
wife Maria, the heir to the Hungarian crown; and in 1387 he was crowned King of Hungary.

Sigismund had grown up tall, slim and good-looking; but he, too, was a drinker, a womanizer, and cruel. On the other hand, he was also charming, ambitious and could speak seven languages.
Sigismund, apart from trying to stabilize his power in Hungary, had to contend with invading Turks. These incursions resulted in a crusade against Constantinople proclaimed by Pope Boniface IX and led by Sigismund. However, quarrels amongst the knights as well as with the Pope resulted in their failure. Sigismund then returned to Hungary and secured it from further invasions.

After thirteen years, the Empire had tired of Wenzel and, as Sigismund at that time was fighting the Turks, Wenzel was deposed in 1400 to be replaced by Rupert III, Count Palatine of The Rhine, who
died in 1410. In these ten years, Sigismund was confronted with the doctrine of Johannes Huss, who maintained that all men were equal and God should be worshipped according to one's conscience and not according to the rulings of the Vatican.

However, in 1411, Sigismund was elected Emperor only to be confronted by a far greater evil: schisms in the church had produced three popes, each excommunicating the others, and each being supported
by different countries. Wycliff and Huss not only complained of the wealth, immorality and corruption of the clergy, they also questioned the authority of the Papal position. When Huss was captured, Sigismund at first wanted to release him, but the cardinals maintained that a heretic was worse than the schisms dividing the church. On 5 June 1415, Huss went to trial where he was not allowed to speak nor have anyone else defend him. After he refused to recant his teachings, he was burned on 6 July 1415. His death caused the Hussite wars in Bohemia which lasted for several decades.

At the death of Sigismund's brother, the deposed Emperor Wenzel who was still King of Bohemia, Sigismund also became King of Bohemia. However, it would take 17 years before his subjects would acknowledge him. Being regarded as the betrayer of Huss, nobody would support him in putting down the Hussite revolts and even a Papal crusade failed. Though he may have failed in Germany and Bohemia, he nevertheless succeeded in building up the defence of Hungary to make it safe
against the Turks for many decades. The German princes then began to move away from Papal authority as well as trying to strengthen themselves by keeping the Emperor Elect weak. This attitude would support Protestantism a century or so later.

In 1431 Sigismund became King of Lombardy and, in 1433, was finally crowned Emperor by the Pope. In 1437 he died at the age of sixty-nine.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas