Stibor of Stiboricz - Last Years

Last Years

In 1407, he fought in Bosnia. Stibor was among the first members of the Order of the Dragon founded by King Sigismund and his Queen Barbara of Celje (1408). In 1409, he was appointed again to the office of the Voivode of Transylvania and he also became the head of Trencsén county.

In 1409 Sigismund signed a treaty with Teutonic Knights which was seen as direct action against Poland and in 1410 Scibor was in charge of the negotiations between Poland and Teutonic Knights on the behalf of Sigismund where Polish side was asked to not attack the Teutonic side. On behalf of Sigismund, Stibor sold Neumark to the Teutonic Knights for a remarkably large sum. This reinforced Sigismund's finances and made it more difficult for the Teutonic Knights to hire mercenaries to fight on their side against the Poles-Lithuanians in Grunwald-Tannenberg.

In May 1410, King Sigismund entrusted Stibor and the Palatine Nicholas II Garay to mediate between the Teutonic Knights and King Władysław II of Poland, but when negotiations failed, war broke out. The Battle of Grunwald took place, with almost all of the Ostojas leaving Hungary to join Polish forces. However, Stibor and his brother Andrzej (Andrew) together with their sons, remained loyal to the Emperor. Instead, Stibor led small Hungarian army to attack Poland from south. Because of the diplomatic work of Stibor of Stiboricz, Sigismund abandoned hostile actions against Poland and turned to support the wealthy and mighty Teutonic Knights by signing never executed agreements in to order to gain financial benefit to protect his own Empire for the Ottoman threat. Leading King's army against Poland was mostly marking the support to the Teutonic Knights rather to do any serious damage. Few places have been burned down but Stibor's army did not siege of any stronghold, which Stibor easily could do leading elite army forces and well equipped. After burning down the land of Stary Sącz, Stibor's army turned back to Hungary in order to prepare the peace negotiations between Poland and Hungary. In several polish sources, there is a legend noted that small polish army chased the army of Stibor and defeated him in small battle. Having in mind that Stibor of Stiboricz and his army, defeated several Principalities and burned down entire Austria except Vienna, being victorious general in almost all the battles including against at the time powerful Venetian empire, those rumors have no scientific relevance, they are rather falsification of the history in order to glorify polish victory over Teutonic Knights.

Stibor's own army included 1.000 well equipped Knights compared to King Sigismund's army of 3.000 Knights, he also was in command of entire army in Transylvania and, as he was one of the richest Lords of the Hungarian empire he could also afford to hire mercenaries if needed.

At the end of 1411, Stibor, his brothers and other members of the Clan of Ostoja was in charge of leading troops to fight against the Venetian Republic in Friuli. In 1412 Stibor was meeting with Zawisza Czarny (The Black Knight) in his Castle of Stará Ľubovňa in Slovakia, preparing the negotiation between Sigismund and polish King Vladislav Jogaila, which ended with the Treaty of Lubowla.

Before his death, he set up a collegiate chapter for Augustinians in Vágújhely (today Nové Mesto nad Váhom in Slovakia).