Sigismund ploughed through his life flush with promise but slow of payment. He lived like a housefly, ever on the move lest some circumstance strike at him. Outstanding in his character was his instability. Within his flaccid self he was a creature of flighty impulse and indulgence, yet every exterior inch of him showed him to be a monarch among men – tall, majestic, handsome; manly, with a flowing yellow beard which turned grey in later years. His wife was wilfully pagan, a fair and graceful woman, although her face was marred with spots. Each time he strayed from her bed, she left his for two other women, three men and a stable boy, but in all this her husband never interfered. His magpie interest was kindled only by the glitter of material things.

More than anything else it was his amour-propre, somewhat of a lesser thing than ambition, which drove him to seek the position of Holy Roman Emperor, as the co-equal with the sort of people who had not existed since Boniface VIII. It was Sigismund's intention, when the great day came, not to admit even the pope as his peer. His father had `almost' re-established the unity of the Latin and Greek churches. Sigismund took it as his destiny to be hailed as the one man whose leadership would restore the unity of the Church by ending its schism. Sigismund, the most barbaric, ruthless and left-handed of the princes, the grinning knave of German royalty, was obsessed and besotted with the idea of the abolition of the offending schism in the church.

Sigismund's great-shield, his cloak of respectability and instant honour was the Holy Church. When all else failed, he knew that by rushing to its defence – whether to seal off its enemies, or to heal its schism, or to cry out for its reform by attacking its heretics and simoniacs or battling Turks – he could keep his lustre from fading.

To place Sigismund upon the imperial throne suited the First Elector, the Archbishop of Mainz, who had eliminated Wenzel. Rupert had alienated his support by destroying nine castles in Wetterau in order to clean out nests of freebooters who had been pillaging the merchants of Swabia, Thuringia and Hesse. These castles, as it happened, were within the jurisdiction of the archbishop and paid full tribute to him. What the marchesa had known before she had proposed my expedition to Mainz was that the archbishop had decided to depose Rupert as King of the Romans. The pope's support, of Sigismund would be, for the archbishop, a political coup.

Therefore the marchesa knew that, when my embassy train reached Mainz in the autumn of 1410 with its household of 128 people, there to be joined with the mission of Cosimo di Medici, who had travelled with a staff of fifty-six; the Archbishop of Mainz was already inclined towards the views we would present. Cosimo was suitably impressed with my explicit authority. So was I. I had learned my part well, but the fact is, I have always had explicit authority and, if I couldn't stare down a little runt like Cosimo, what would be the sense of Cossa making me a cardinal in the first place?

I spoke only in German to Nassau and in Latin to Cosimo, easily dominating both men with genuinely rumbling dignity at banquets, masses and other occasions of state – more impressive in my scarlet robes, white beard and tragic eye swags than any of the candidates for emperor. Thank God it wasn't in Cossa's power to make me emperor. I persuaded Cosimo to allow me to outline for the archbishop; the generalities of the tremendous financial opportunity which was about to be offered to the First Elector, then at once turned to the subject of Pope John's deep thoughts on the erasure of the, schism by bringing Sigismund's youth and power into the awful breach. What was wanted, I told them, was that Sigismund should be elected, first; King of the Romans, then emperor, but, of equal importance, that Sigismund should know well that it had been the pope who had sponsored him with the electors.

A coup of statesmanship was struck. Cossa could believe that he was again preventing the reform of the Church while, at the same time, acquiring via Sigismund military protection on his northern and eastern flanks. Cosimo intended, however, that it would be through stringent Church reform that the strategy which he and the marchesa had so carefully developed would sweep the schism into history, eliminate the three present popes and sustain Europe as a stable place for the sensible conduct of business affairs. I warned Cossa about those people until I was blue in the nose, but he only shrugged and mouthed nonsense like `What will be will be.' The fact was that, as pope, Cossa was making more money than he had ever made in his life, and that was where contentment rested for him. Things like the Medici's determination to bring about structural and religious reform in the Church were indefinite and always far in the future. The only reform Cosimo truly believed in was that which would bring about an end to the schism for the benefit of European business. Cosimo was charming to Cossa at all times; while the marchesa fulfilled his sexual needs and satisfied his lust for power – but more important, their advice was making him an enormous amount of money. I warned him that it all had to end in our ruin. I told him again and again; but popes have never listened to their cardinals.

37

In late 1410, Rupert, King of the Romans, died. The marchesa convinced Cossa that it was, of infinite importance to him that the future King of the Romans should bring all Germany under the obedience of Pope John XXIII. This obedience depended upon the Council of Pisa, whose authority the dead Rupert had opposed and which King Sigismund of Hungary had not acknowledged.

The marchesa's daughter Maria Louise, Sterz transmitted the news to her mother from Mainz when Sigismund was provisionally elected king in Rupert's place, saying that John of Nassau had made it clear to Sigismund, that it was the sponsorship of Pope John XXIII which, had decided the matter in his favour against the candidacies of his two brothers, Wenzel and John. Maria Louise advised her mother that Sigismund would send the Count of Ozoro, Pippo Span, as his ambassador to Bologna to show his appreciation to the pope.

This was Sigismund's first recognition of Cossa's papacy over the claims of Gregory – whom the king had previously supported, and Cossa needed Sigismund. In return, Cossa removed the sentence of closure on the churches of Hungary; which had been passed on 6 April 1404. Intercourse between Sigismund and the curia was renewed and the possibly heretical acts of Sigismund were indirectly legalized. Bishop Branda of Piacenza was sent as papal legate, to Hungary to arrange for the institution of a university and to correct certain abuses – and abolish certain privileges, which certain bishops had received from Gregory XII. At the special desire of the king, Cossa agreed to the creation of new benefices on the borders of Sigismund's kingdom. '

Even before she told Cossa the news, the marchesa sent a messenger to her daughter Rosa, with Spina in Naples, to tell her that she must travel at once to Bologna on family business. Rosa reached Bologna three days before the Count of Ozoro.

`Let me tell you about Pippo Span,' the marchesa said to her daughter. 'He is Sigismund's favourite. Seven years ago, when Sigismund was seized by his nobles in the Hall of Audience at Buda, Pippo Span defended him with drawn sword and would have been killed if the Bishop of Strigonia had not thrown his robe over Pippo's head and declared him to be his prisoner. Pippo raised troops to free Sigismund. He wrote to the king constantly in prison. When Sigismund was freed, he gave Pippo a castle and made him a general, out of gratitude.'

`Oh, God! How wonderful!'