Sickingen, FRANZ VON, born on 2d March 1481 at the castle of Ebernburg near Krenznach, fought in 1508 against the Venetians in the service of the Emperor Maximilian, but in peace led the life of a free-lance. He could bring 20,000 followers into the field, and during 1513-19 we find him warring against Worms, the magistrates of Metz, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and Württemberg. He twice levied ransoms of 20,000 and 30,000 gulden, and Charles V.'s election to the imperial crown was largely due to his influence. Reuchlin was protected by him at the capture of Stuttgart, and he formed a close friendship with Ulrich von Hutten (q.v.), who from 1520 was his constant guest, and won over his rude but lofty spirit to the cause of the Reformation. His fortresses, Landstuhl and Ebernburg, became the 'asylums of righteousness;' Bucer, Aquila, and Ecolampadius found refuge within their walls. In 1521 he assisted the emperor in his French campaign; in 1522, with the nobles of the Upper Rhine, he opened a Protestant war against the archbishop of Treves. That war miscarried; and put to the ban of the empire, and besieged in his castle of Landstuhl, on 2d May 1523 he received a musket-shot, of which six days later he died. In 1889 a stately monument to him and Hutten was erected at Ebernburg.
See works cited at HUTTEN, and monographs on Sickingen by Ulmann (Leip. 1872), Bremer (Strasb. 1885), and Hüll (Ludwigsh. 1887).