The Financial Dimension of the Pledge Policy of King Sigismund of Luxembourg in Bohemia (1419–1437)

Abstract

In the Czech historiography the pledging policy of Sigismund of Luxembourg is an issue which cannot be avoided in the assessment of his reign in the Czech lands. Already František Palacký drew attention to Sigismund’s ‘dissipation of the property of the crown and the church’¹ and following in Palacký’s footsteps Sigismund’s deeds of pledge were assessed by all the subsequent historical literature (Bárta, 2012, pp. 7–9). Before the end of the 19th century most of the relevant sources were made accessible and in the early 20th century, August Sedláček published an extensive reconstruction of the non-extant Royal Register, with an emphasis on transfers of property and deeds of pledge.² On the basis of these sources Milan Moravec attempted to appreciate Sigismund’s deeds of pledge in a comprehensive compilation (Moravec, 1985). His work was criticised mainly by Jaroslav Čechura, who dealt with the issue of secularization of church property in a number of works (e.g. Čechura, 1989, 1994, 2008). Recently, other authors have also dealt with the pledging of church property by King Sigismund (Borovský, 2003, 2005, pp. 133–242).