Nicolaus von Redewitz – ein Diplomat und Informant des Deutschen Ordens am Hof von Sigismund von Luxemburg

Abstract

Nicolaus von Redewitz – the Teutonic Order’s diplomat and informant in the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg   At the end of 1422, Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor, allowed the Teutonic Order to have a permanent diplomatic representation in his court, in the person of Nicolaus von Redewitz. This was related to the fact that from the beginning of the 1420s, the Ottoman Empire posed an increasingly serious threat to the southern borders of Hungary again, and Sigismund wanted to win over the Order for the fight against the Turks. Arriving in the court of the king, von Redewitz kept the Grand Master of the order informed of Sigismund’s political plans, decisions, negotiations, military actions against the Turks, and all-important events. A recurring theme in his letters was the king’s urge that the Order take on the defence of the southern borders of the Hungarian Kingdom. In return, he first offered the Grand Master the Burzenland in Southern Transylvania, from where Andrew II, King of Hungary, expelled the Order in 1225, then the Banate of Severin by the lower Danube. Following long negotiations, at the end of July 1429, a few Teutonic Knights arrived in Hungary. These knights did not undertake the armed protection of the southern borders, only its organisation. Sigismund entrusted the management of twenty-one fortresses and military watch-posts to the Knights, who envisioned the reinforcement of the defence with the involvement of mercenaries. However, the Hungarian Treasury was unable to provide the expenses for this plan. When, at the end of the summer of 1432, the Turks launched an attack at the lower Danube, they managed to occupy three fortresses under the control of the Order. Recognising that the Order’s idea of the protection of the borders is impossible to finance, at the end of 1434, Sigismund agreed to the gradual return of the Teutonic Knights who had arrived in Hungary in 1429 to Prussia.