Sigismund of Habsburg

Sigismund
Archduke of Austria
Portrait by the Master of the Mornauer Portrait, circa 1470 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)
Spouse(s)	Eleanor of Scotland Catherine of Saxony
Noble family	House of Habsburg
Father	Frederick IV, Duke of Austria
Mother	Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Born	(1427-10-26)26 October 1427 Innsbruck, Tyrol
Died	4 March 1496(1496-03-04) Innsbruck
Buried	Stams Abbey

Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.

Sigismund (or Siegmund, sometimes also spelled Sigmund) was born at the Tyrolean court in Innsbruck; his parents were the Further Austrian duke Frederick IV of Austria and his second wife Anna of Brunswick (), a daughter of the Welf duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A minor upon his father's death in 1439, the Inner Austrian duke Frederick V, Sigismund's first cousin, acted as regent until 1446. Frederick, elected King of the Romans (as Frederick IV) in February 1440, exploited all opportunities to extend his influence over the Further Austrian lands. He also interfered in the Old Zürich War in order to regain the former Habsburg territories lost to the Swiss Confederacy, while the Tyrolean nobles urged him to cede the rule to Sigismund.

The mines of Tyrol remained an important source of revenue for Frederick and not until 1446, upon the end of his regency, Sigismund could accede to rulership over the Further Austrian (Vorderösterreich) possessions, which also included the Swabian territories of the Sundgau in southern Alsace, the Breisgau, and numerous smaller estates. His cousin had planned to marry him off to the French princess Radegonde, a daughter of King Charles VII the Victorious, however, she died in 1444 and Sigismund married Princess Eleanor of Scotland, the daughter of the Stewart king James I, in 1449.