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{{Short description|Knight of the Holy Roman Empire (1481–1523)}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox noble
| name              = Franz von Sickingen 
| image             = Franz von Sickingen (16 Jh).jpg
| more              = no
| birth_date        = 2 March 1481 
| birth_place       = [[Ebernburg Castle]]
| christening_date  = 
| christening_place = 
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1523|5|7|1481|3|2|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Nanstein Castle]]
| burial_place      = Chapel of St. Mary (present-day St. Andreas-Kirche), [[Landstuhl]]
| noble family      = [[House of Sickingen|Sickingen]]
| spouse            = {{marriage|Hedwig von Flersheim|1500|1516|end=died}}
| father            = Schweickhardt von Sickingen
| mother            = Margarethe Puller von der Hohenburg
| signature         = Signatur Franz von Sickingen.PNG
| memorials         = Hutten-Sickingen Monument
| module            = {{Infobox military person
| embed             = yes
| embed_title       = Military service
| allegiance        = [[Holy Roman Empire]]<ref group=lower-alpha>Sickingen had his soldiers fly the Imperial flag, and he claimed he was acting on behalf of the [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor]].</ref>
| battles           = "[[Knights' War]]"{{POW}}{{DOW}}
| battles_label     = Wars}}
}}

<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not change the lead paragraph without prior consensus, see [[Talk:Franz von Sickingen]]. Thank you. -->'''Franz von Sickingen''' ({{IPA|de|ˈfʁants fɔn ˈzɪkɪŋən}}; 2 March 1481{{spaced ndash}}7 May 1523) was a [[Imperial Knight|knight]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] who, with [[Ulrich von Hutten]], led the so-called "[[Knights' War]]". He is posthumously known as the "Last Knight" (''der letzte Ritter''), an epithet shared with his contemporaries [[Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard|Chevalier de Bayard]] and [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Maximilian]]. 

== Early life == 
Franz von Sickingen was born on 2 March 1481 at [[Ebernburg Castle]] in the [[Electoral Palatinate|Palatinate]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] to Schweickhardt von Sickingen and his wife Margarethe Puller von der Hohenburg. Franz was married to Hedwig von Flersheim (d. 1515). Having fought for the emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] against [[Venice]] in 1508, he inherited large estates on the [[Rhine]], and increased his wealth and reputation by numerous private feuds, in which he usually posed as the friend of the oppressed.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} 

[[Image:Sickingen-Scheibler92ps.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Coat of arms of the House of Sickingen<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not add the words "family" or "Franz von" as it would be historically inaccurate. Thank you. -->]]
In 1513, Sickingen took up the quarrel of Balthasar Schlör, a citizen who had been driven out of [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], and attacked it with 7000 men. In spite of an [[imperial ban]], he devastated its lands, intercepted its commerce, and desisted only when his demands were granted.  He made war on [[Antoine, Duke of Lorraine]], and compelled [[Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse|Philip, Landgrave of Hesse]], to pay him 35,000 [[Rhenish guilder|gulden]]. In 1518 he interfered in a civil conflict in [[Metz]], ostensibly siding with the citizens against the governing [[oligarchy]]. He led an army of 20,000 against it, compelled the magistrates to give him 20,000 gulden and a month's pay for his troops. 
In 1518, Maximilian released him from the ban, and he took part in the war carried on by the [[Swabian League]] against [[Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In the contest for the imperial throne upon the death of Maximilian in 1519, Sickingen accepted bribes from King [[Francis I of France]], but when the election took place he led his troops to [[Frankfurt]], where their presence assisted to secure the election of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]]. For this service he was made imperial chamberlain and councillor, and in 1521 he led an expedition into France, which ravaged [[Picardy]], but was beaten back from [[Charleville-Mézières|Mézières]] and forced to retreat.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In about 1517 Sickingen first met [[Ulrich von Hutten]], and gave his support to Hutten's schemes. He assisted many a creditor in procuring what was due him from a powerful debtor. Without being a scholar, he loved science and protected men of learning. In 1519 a threat from him freed [[Johann Reuchlin]] from his enemies, the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]]s of [[Cologne]].<ref name=ea>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Sickingen, Franz von}}</ref> His castles became (in Hutten's words) a "refuge for righteousness" (''Herberge der Gerechtigkeit''). Here many of the reformers found shelter, and a retreat was offered to [[Martin Luther]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Knights' War ==<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not add photographs to this section. It would quickly become too unwieldy. Thank you. -->
[[File:Franz de Sickingen, by Albert Dürer.jpg|thumb|upright|''Franz von Sickingen'', by [[Ferdinand Wolfgang Flachenecker]], after the Paumgartner altarpiece by [[Albrecht Dürer]], 1889. Lithograph on chine collé.<ref>{{cite web |title=print {{!}} British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1870-0813-926 |website=The British Museum |access-date=15 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref>]]
{{Main|Knights' War}}
After the failure of the French expedition, Sickingen, aided by Hutten, formed, or revived, a large scheme to overthrow the spiritual princes and to elevate the order of knighthood, the Knights' War. He hoped to secure this by the help of the towns and peasantry, and promote his own situation.  A large army was soon collected, many nobles from the upper Rhineland joined the standard, and at Landau, in August 1522, Sickingen was formally named commander. He declared war against his old enemy, [[Richard Greiffenklau zu Vollraths|Richard Greiffenklau of Vollraths]], [[Archbishop of Trier]], and marched against that city. [[Trier]] was loyal to the archbishop, and the landgrave of Hesse and Louis V, count palatine of the Rhine, hastened to his assistance. Sickingen, without the help he needed, was compelled to fall back on his castle, [[Nanstein Castle]], above [[Landstuhl]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

===Siege of Nanstein===
On 22 October 1522 the council of regency placed him under the ban, to which he replied, in the spring of 1523, by plundering [[Kaiserslautern]]. The Archbishop of Trier, [[Louis V, Elector Palatine|Palatine Elector Louis V]], and the [[Philip I of Hesse|Landgrave of Hesse]] decided to move against him, and having obtained help from the Swabian League, marched on Nanstein Castle. He refused to negotiate, and during the siege was mortally wounded. This was one of the first occasions artillery was used, and breaches were soon made in an otherwise impregnable fortress. On 6 May 1523 Sickingen was forced to capitulate, and died the following day.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was buried in the old Mary's Chapel (present-day St. Andreas-Kirche), Landstuhl.

== Issue ==
Sickingen's six children included two sons. Schweikhard von Sickingen zu Neuenbürg (1500-1562) and Franz Conrad (1511-1575). Franz Conrad was made [[Freiherr|baron of the Empire]] (''Reichsfreiherr'') by [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]].

== Honours ==
In 1889, the Hutten-Sickingen Monument of [[Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg]] in [[Rhineland-Palatinate]], [[Germany]], was built above the town to commemorate Hutten and Sickingen's role in the Knights' War.

== Legacy ==
[[Ferdinand Lassalle|Ferdinand Lasalle]]'s 1859 play "Franz von Sickingen: A Historical Tragedy" was a five-part drama based on the knight's life. This work sparked intense debate on socialist [[aesthetics]] between Lasalle on the one hand and [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]] on the other, which became known as the "Sickingen Debate".

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Sickingen, Franz von|volume=25|page=36}} This work in turn cites:
** H. Ulmann, ''Franz von Sickingen'' (Leipzig, 1872)
** F. P. Bremer, ''Sickingens Fehde gegen Trier'' (Strassburg, 1883)
** H. Prutz, ''Franz von Sickingen in Der neue Plutarch'' (Leipzig, 1880)
** U. von Hutten, "Flersheimer Chronik" in ''Hutten's Deutsche Schriften'', edited by O. Waltz (sic!) and Szamatolati (sic!) (Strassburg, 1891)

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{{portal bar|Biography|Evangelical Christianity|Holy Roman Empire|Middle Ages}}
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[[Category:House of Sickingen|Franz]]
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