Trenčín - a free royal city

Following the death of the king Louis I., Sigmund of Luxembourg (also nicknamed Red Dog) succeeded to the Hungarian throne. The king consented to the burning of John Hus and formed a strong army to fight the Husites. It was in the infamous battle at Lipany in 1434 when he gave a decisive blow to the successor of Jan Žižka, Prokop Holý. However, he plunged Hungary into much debt. The scattered Husites would later join the army of Ján Jiskra of Brandýs, still others would ransack the country (the bratrícke movement). The Husite threat was also the reason for building municipal fortification in Trenčín, dating back to this period. By the act of signing a certificate by Sigmund of Luxemburg on February, 1412, the city of Trenčín received privileges of an independent royal city and thus gained an undisputable right to wall itself. Presumably, since the oldest days in the 13^th – 14^th centuries, the city fortification had been standing on those places that were preserved until the 19^th century. And now the Central Europe was to experience something different - the Spanish Hapsburg dynasty.