   190px|thumb|coat of arms of john ii sigismund. thumb|190px|right|john ii sigimund in around 1560.  john sigismund zÃ¡polya or john sigismund szapolyai (hungarian: zÃ¡polya/szapolyai jÃ¡nos zsigmond, croatian: ivan Å½igmund zapolja) (7 july 1540 &ndash; 14 march 1571) was king of hungary (as john ii) from 1540 to 1551 and again from 1556 to 1570. he reigned over the "eastern hungarian kingdom", as historians call the area which recognized as king his father and then him, instead of archduke ferdinand of austria, who ruled western hungary. john sigismund was born in buda, hungary. he abdicated as king in 1551 but was re-elected by the diet of szÃ¡szsebes in 1556.lÃszlÃ makkai, andrÃs mÃcsy, bÃla kÃpeczi, history of transylvania volume i. from the beginnings to 1606, columbia university press, new york 2001 east european monographs, no. dlxxxi in practice he ruled from 1559, after the regency of his mother isabella jagiellon. he became prince of transylvania and ruler of a part of the kingdom of hungary in 1570 after his second abdication as king of hungary. he was the first ruler of the principality of transylvania, the successor to the "eastern hungarian kingdom". ==family== john sigismund was the son of john zÃ¡polya (john i) and isabella jagiellon, daughter of king sigismund i the old of poland. he was born only nine days before his father's death. ==reign== the diet promptly elected him king as john ii sigismund, when he was only a few weeks old. for much of his reign the country was governed by his mother, isabella, and the regent, george martinuzzi, bishop of varad, who had been the princ
1540_births 1571_deaths 16th-century_Hungarian_people Burials_at_St._Michael\'s_Cathedral,_Alba_Iulia Dukes_of_Opole Hungarian_Unitarians Kings_of_Hungary People_from_Budapest Rulers_of_Transylvania ZA!polya_family