When Sigismund Battori came out to view his army he was made acquainted
with the signal services of Smith at “Olumpagh, Stowell-Weisenberg, and
Regall,” and rewarded him by conferring upon him, according to the law
of--arms, a shield of arms with “three Turks' heads.” This was granted
by a letter-patent, in Latin, which is dated at “Lipswick, in Misenland,
December 9, 1603” It recites that Smith was taken captive by the
Turks in Wallachia November 18, 1602; that he escaped and rejoined his
fellow-soldiers. This patent, therefore, was not given at Alba Julia,
nor until Prince Sigismund had finally left his country, and when the
Emperor was, in fact, the Prince of Transylvania. Sigismund styles
himself, by the grace of God, Duke of Transylvania, etc. Appended to
this patent, as published in Smith's “True Travels,” is a certificate
by William Segar, knight of the garter and principal king of arms of
England, that he had seen this patent and had recorded a copy of it in
the office of the Herald of Armes. This certificate is dated August 19,
1625, the year after the publication of the General Historie.
Smith says that Prince Sigismund also gave him his picture in gold, and
granted him an annual pension of three hundred ducats. This promise of
a pension was perhaps the most unsubstantial portion of his reward,
for Sigismund himself became a pensioner shortly after the events last
narrated.
The last mention of Sigismund by Smith is after his escape from
captivity in Tartaria, when this mirror of virtues had abdicated. Smith
visited him at “Lipswicke in Misenland,” and the Prince “gave him
his Passe, intimating the service he had done, and the honors he had
received, with fifteen hundred ducats of gold to repair his losses.”
The “Passe” was doubtless the “Patent” before introduced, and we hear no
word of the annual pension.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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