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Rh aside, a fear which was increased by the position assumed by Sigismund, king of Poland, who had married Barbara, John Zapolski’s sister. Sigismund himself likewise laid claim to some provinces in Hungary, which had not been renounced by his mother, Elizabeth of Austria, on her marriage,—the arms of which he included in his heraldic coat. The emperor, therefore, endeavoured to weaken the power of Sigismund by engaging the grand-prince of Russia in a war with that sovereign. Subsequently, however, he resorted to a different line of policy, and thought of gaining his point by bringing about marriages between his own family and that of Hungary and Poland.

One of these plans was, that Sigismund should marry Maximilian’s granddaughter Bona, the daughter of John Galeozzi Sforza, Duke of Milan. With this new view, therefore, the emperor resolved upon sending an embassy to Moscow to mediate for Sigismund. Eighteen months, however, transpired, to the emperor’s dissatisfaction, before the embassy started on its journey; for Christoff Rauber, bishop of Laybach, who had been appointed chief ambassador (Herberstein being only his second), made so many excuses, and, in spite of the instigations of the ambassador of Poland, who had been ordered at the same time for Moscow, and urged his speedy departure, took so long a time in preparing for his journey, that the emperor altered his plan, and charged Herberstein temporarily with the conduct of this embassy, in company with one Peter Mraxi, bailiff of Guntz. As a source of