Sigismund was descended from an old noble family whose residence was in Șimleu Silvaniei. His father, Christopher Báthory, was a trusted servant of Queen Isabella (1556-1559) and Prince John Sigismund Zápolya (1559-1571). His mother was descended from Bocskai family. After Prince Stephen Báthory became king of Poland, he appointed his older brother, Christopher Báthory, as his lieutenant on the throne of Transylvania. Sigismund spent his early childhood in Oradea, and in 1575 he moved, with his family, to the capital of the principality. The May 1581 Diet of Cluj voted Sigismund heir to the throne of Transylvania. His father died on 27 May 1581, and the nine-year-old heir to the throne was placed under the supervision of two Jesuit priests who were in charge of his education. The government of the Principality was entrusted to twelve councillors until Sigismund came of age.

The young prince was educated at the princely palace in Alba Iulia by the two Jesuits – one Italian one Hungarian – both of whom had attended universities in the Italian states. He became a lover of Italian culture and later invited many Italians to the princely court, to the bewilderment of his subjects. These were singers, music players, artists, gardeners, cooks and even producers of Italian cheese. There were also magi and wizards who called upon spirits, such as that of John Hunyadi, whom he consulted about the prospects of his proposed actions.

Franco Sivori, secretary of Peter Cercel (Earring), Prince of Wallachia, visited the court of Alba Iulia in 1584. He left an evocative account of the atmosphere in the princely palace. He wrote of conversing in Latin with the 12-year-old prince. While dinning at the palace, the young prince kindly allowed him to drink according to his own disposition, ignoring the custom of Transylvanians who would typically drink a lot to guests’ health. Sivori concluded that it was a royal banquet in the Italian fashion.

In 1588, at the age of sixteen, the Protestant estates represented in the Diet of Transylvania made recognition of his coming of age (and thus fitness to rule) conditional on the expulsion of the Jesuits. A fervent Catholic, Sigismund was forced to concede to this demand. He was also confronted with strong opposition, led by his cousins, Balthasar and Stephen Báthory. In 1593, the prince proposed that the Diet should start preparations for war, as the Habsburgs were looking for allies against the Ottoman Empire. However, the estates were reluctant to engage in an alliance that could jeopardize the very existence of the Principality. His first attempt at abdication occurred in July 1594, after repeated failures to persuade the Diet to join the anti-Ottoman alliance. In August 1594, with the aid of the troops led by his maternal uncle, Stephen Bocskai, who accompanied him at Cluj, Sigismund forced the Diet to declare war against Ottomans. The leaders of opposition were arrested and then executed.

The year 1595, brought his most remarkable, but ephemeral, gains in external affairs and military actions. In January 1595, a treaty of alliance with the Habsburg Empire was signed. This treaty was followed by Sigismund’s marriage to Archduchess Maria Christina, niece of Emperor Rudolph II. On 20 May 1595, Wallachia recognized the suzerainty of the Prince of Transylvania, followed shortly by Moldavia on 3 June the same year. After this, he used the title Princeps Transylvanie, Valachiae Transalpinae et Moldaviae [Prince of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldova]. In October 1595, Sigismund came to Wallachia with Ștefan Răzvan’s Transylvanian and Moldovan troops, to support the military efforts of Michael the Brave. By the end of 1595, the Transylvanian, Wallachian and Moldovan troops had expelled Sinan Pasha’s Ottoman army to lands beyond the Danube.

However, the war against the Ottomans subsequently stalled, and the Christians’ victory became ever more uncertain. The Ottomans’ victory against Transylvanian and Habsburg troops in the battle at Mezőkeresztes (24-26 October 1596) had a demoralizing effect on Sigismund Báthory, who announced the imperial court in Prague his intention to abdicate and hand the Principality to the emperor. The imperial councillors dissuaded him from this step. Feeling that his decisions had endangered the principality, and being influenced by the Italians in his proximity, he started to long for a peaceful life and a religious career as cardinal.

On 23 December 1597, he handed a charter of abdication to Emperor Rudolph II. The latter agreed to take over Transylvania, where he planned to appoint one of his brothers. In exchange for the principality, he offered to Sigismund an annual pension of 50,000 thalers, the dukedoms of Racibórz and Opole in Silesia, and the promise of obtaining an appointment as cardinal from the pope. The agreement was kept secret.

Sigismund announced his abdication at the April 1598 Diet in Alba Iulia, informing the representatives of the estates that he had ceded Transylvania to Emperor Rudolph and decreeing that anyone opposing this decision would be condemned to capital punishment. The Diet was not held in the cathedral, as was customary, but in the princely palace, surrounded by the prince’s armed guards. To paralyze any attempt at opposition, the prince had pre-emptively captured the chancellor Stephen Jósika, who was accused of betrayal before the participants at the Diet. No one dared to whisper against the ceding of the Principality, and the estates swore allegiance to the emperor, who was represented by three imperial commissars sent to Transylvania for this purpose.

After handing authority over the Principality to the imperial representatives, Sigismund took a most surprising action, which betrays the contradictory feelings that overwhelmed his mind. He seized the money, together with gold and silver vessels, from the treasury and sent them to the fortress of Gurghiu, which was controlled by his uncle, intending them to form the material foundation of his future peaceful, lavish life. He then went on to plunder, disperse and destroy a huge variety of objects which had been used and preserved by the former princes of Transylvania, apparently in an attempt to wipe away all material traces of the princely institution. He destroyed or gave away weapons, cuirasses, helmets, swords, mantles and uniforms used by the former princes. Some objects were simply thrown in the latrines of the palace. A set of egg-sized pygmy heads carved in ivory, a gift from Sultan Suleyman to King John Zápolya, turned up as toys in the hands of common children. A simple soldier received the sword and belt of King Matthias Corvinus. The charters obtained by the Transylvanian princes from sultans, along with deeds cementing the diplomatic ties of the Principality with other states, were burnt. Portraits of John Hunyadi and George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg) were destroyed and left to rot on the palace’s garbage heap.

He returned on the throne of Transylvania for short periods, only to abdicate again or to be expelled. In July 1602, he retreated to Bohemia for good. In the complex context of the war between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans, he was urged to claim the throne of Transylvania, but he declined the proposals. He died in March 1613, at his residence in Libochovice and was buried in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague (C.P.G.)