THE LITHUANIAN UNION 113and accepted the demands of the Lower House. The Statute of Nihil Novi estab-
lished the principle that 'nothing new' should be introduced without the consent
of the nobility as a whole.
Sigismund I Stary, the 'Elder' (1467-1548), received his nickname at the end of
his life. At the start of his reign, he was not yet forty, and he brought a touch of
style and energy to his brother's faltering fortunes. Having ruled in Silesia in the
name of his elder brother, Wladyslaw, he was accustomed to govern; and having
lived for several years at the court of Buda, he had acquired the taste for artistic
patronage at an early age. Long before his second marriage in 1518 to Bona
Sforza, he had brought numerous Italians to Cracow, and had developed an
expert interest in architecture and music. In political outlook, he was decidedly
conservative, preferring to rely on the great magnates of the Senate, and punish-
ing rebels and heretics alike with severity. In foreign affairs, he opted for an
enterprising opening towards the Habsburgs. This new departure was sealed at
the Congress of Vienna in 1515, where a double marriage contract was signed.
Young Louis Jagiellon, King of Hungary and Bohemia, was betrothed to the
Emperor's daughter, Maria; the Emperor's son, Ferdinand, took Anna
Jagiellonka. The arrangement had obvious advantages for the Jagiellons. It drew
the sting of potential conflicts over Hungary and Bohemia, and blocked the
feared rapproachement between Austria, Muscovy, and the Teutonic Order. It
left Sigismund free to fight in the east and north without fear of intervention from
the west. At the same time, it represented an obvious gamble. If young Louis
should survive, the Jagiellonian inheritance would be preserved; if he should die,
it would pass to his Habsburg relatives. At first, all went well. Sigismund held the
Muscovites at bay; and he solved the Teutonic problem for the duration. But the
real initiative in Central Europe lay beyond his control. The Ottoman Turks of
Suleiman the Magnificent were already on the move. In 1521 they took Belgrade;
in 1522, Rhodes; in 1526, Buda. In 1529 Vienna itself was besieged. Worst of all,
from Sigismund's standpoint, the childless Louis Jagiellon was killed at the
Battle of Mohacs. His Bohemian kingdom passed without dispute to Ferdinand
of Habsburg; his Hungarian kingdom was turned into a three-cornered bat-
tlefield, contested by the Habsburgs, the Turks, and the Magyar lords under
John Szapolyai. The whole of Central Europe was thrown into turmoil, whilst
the Jagiellonian share of its inheritance was much diminished.
Sigismund's wars were largely conditioned by the circumstances of the day. The
Muscovite onslaught, which in its first stage had been solely directed against
Lithuania, now engulfed Poland as well. In 1507-8, that same Michal Glinski, who
had once distinguished himself in Aleksander's service, now headed a rebellion in
Wilno. Sigismund rode straight from his coronation in Cracow to drive Glinski
into exile, and to repulse the Muscovites who came to his aid. The Tsar responded
in 1512, and sustained his attacks with savage tenacity for ten years. The three-
year siege of Smolensk cost him ten thousand dead each season; and after one sin-
gle battle at Orsha, on 8 September 1514, Prince Ostrogski counted 30,000
Muscovite corpses, including 1,500 boyars. But still they came on. As always, their