"On Tour" from Aachen to Rome: King Sigismund and His Hungarian Entourage (1414–1433)

In: East central Europe: L' Europe du centre-est : eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, Band 47, Heft 1, S. 107-137

Abstract

Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary spent much time journeying abroad. His "itinerant" court visited diverse places from Istria to Wallachia. The members of his entourage, mainly a new generation of homo novus lords, escorted him from the Aachen (1414) to the Rome (1433) coronations and were active in foreign service. This article reconstructs the itinerant entourage mostly during the Council of Constance (1414–18). It also aims to explore which "core" members of the retinue accompanied the king most of the time and show that there emerged an inner circle commissioned with special tasks. As an evidentiary control sample, the article uses Sigismund's second period of journeys (1430–1434). There will be two further pieces of corresponding evidence examined, a list enumerated by Eberhard Windecke (1422) and a 1430 Nuremberg register. In order to give a descriptive list, the range of the available sources undergo a methodological analysis (direct and indirect evidence: royal letters and commissions; safe conducts; charters issued in personis and in praesentibus; armales and ius gladii donations; prorogatio and papal supplicatio documents; chancery writs signing someone's relatio; narrative and iconographic sources).
A possible reconstruction of Sigismund's retinue is given in an appendix, on the grounds of which one may conclude that the king had a special company by his side. The presence of "a Constance group" was constant in the 1420s–30s. There are some "permanently" serving families. A nucleus was being formulated, remaining together from Aachen to Rome.