Jan Zizka
and the
Hussite Wars
1419-1434

Operations 1423

by Michael W. McGuire

Zizka moved to eastern Bohemia among the Orebite Hussite faction in April, 1423. He quickly set out to fight Cenek of Wartenberg, a Royalist since June, 1421. Against Wartenberg's several thousand troops (mostly cavalry and a few war wagons), Zizka had 120 war wagons and 3,000 men. When the Royalists responded to Zizka's initial thrusts in the Jicin region, the Hussite commander went on the defensive and deployed his wagon fortress on a hilltop near Horice. On 20 April, the Royalists attacked. Forced by the steep slopes to dismount, the Royalist cavalry was easily repulsed by the wagon cannon. When the Royalists had exhausted themselves Zizka turned his own troops loose for a shattering counter-attack down the slopes which killed many Royalists and captured much-needed wagons, guns, and horses.

Intending in May to operate in the Litomerice area, Zizka was side-tracked by the outbreak of civil war among the Hussites. Relations between Tabor and Prague had deteriorated greatly since the attempted coup in Prague in September, 1422; in May a Praguer army laid siege to the Taborite castle of Krizenec. The situation forced Bohuslav of Svamberg, commander of Taborite military forces, to send a relief army. The Praguers lifted their siege before any shots were fired, and the confrontation prompted the two sides to negotiate a solution. A tentative peace was established. In June and July the two cities united forces in operations against the Royalists north of Melnik, while Zizka led another force in a siege of Panna castle that lasted several weeks. In the latter weeks of July the new camaraderie between Hussites was demonstrated by a unified campaign into Moravia notable for the fact that Zizka was not in command.

Zizka was gathering military leaders at his castle of the Chalice to discuss the creation of a military brotherhood to supersede the established ruling structures of Prague and Tabor, and the issuance of a Military Ordinance to set rules of behavior for troops and their commanders. This meeting was the first example of Zizka taking a leading role in political affairs.

The Military Ordinance that emerged is one of the most important documents of the Hussite period. In addition to the religious rhetoric common to all documents of that era, it contained some basic but sophisticated rules goveming the proper marching order of troops; deployment of troops to properly protect van, rear, and flank positions; and the billeting of troops in towns and in the field. Further, the Ordinance contained a rudimentary set of rules of military conduct that could be considered one of the forerunners of the current American UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). Taken as a whole, Zizka's military brotherhood and the Ordinance were the beginning of a new political force in Bohemia, and marked the emergence of Jan Zizka as a politician.

Sigismund's grand invasion with Poland in 1423 had failed before it even began. By mid~uly Hussite forces had moved into Moravia to join the troops of Divis Borek of Miletinek. United they captured Slavkov and Kvasice. Moving on, they encountered a Royalist army at Kromeriz under John, Bishop of Olomouc and Premek, Duke of Opava. On 15 July, after a long battle, the Royalist line was smashed, and the Royalists fled. Two days later the city of Kromeriz surrendered. Borek proceeded to capture Vyskov and Prerov. He was engaged in occupying all of northern Moravia when his campaign was cut short by events involving his brother Jetrich, who had remained in Bohemia.

Jetrich Borek had become involved in a dispute with the city fathers of Hradec Kralove. Zizka, sympathetic to the city's Orebites, moved in and ousted Jetrich. This incurred the wrath of Divis, who returned from Moravia, gathered together his friends in Prague and marched against Zizka. Upon the approach of this force, Zizka deployed his troops in Strachuv Dvar, a hamlet near Hradec Kralove. As in May at Krizenec, Hussites were again prepanng to do battle with Hussites with all the fury characteristic of combat with the Royalists. On 4 August, Borek attacked. But Zizka's experience gave his faction the edge and he overwhelmed the Praguers, killing or captunag 300 of them. Divis narrowly escaped, but his head priest was captured and executed by the blind Zizka personally.

Leaving a garrison in Hradec Kralove, Zizka raced to Caslav to thwart another Praguer threat to a town allied with the military brotherhood. Hasek of Waldstein laid siege to the city immediately after Zizka arrived. The besiegers were never really in a position to capture the city, and the defenders were not hard-pressed to defend it, but Zizka's friends feared for his safety and prepared relief forces. Matthew Lupak, who had been left in charge of the Hradec Kralove garrison, assembled a force of Orebites to march to Caslav.

However, when the column reached Tynec on the Elbe it was attacked by Hasek's troops and soundly defeated on 22 August with 300 dead, including Lupak. Saddened by the death of his friend, Zizka swore vengeance. Striking out of Caslav, Zizka came very near to taking the Praguer-held city of Kutna Hora. Worried about that center, Hasek called off the siege of Caslav to move troops to its defense. His mobility regained, Zizka spent the period of August-October in harassing Praguer forces in the area. During October there was a pause in the fighting that permitted the negotiators from both sides to meet and settle upon a six-month truce to end fighting between the two factions until March, 1424.

As the conflict with his fellow Hussites was winding down, Zizka moved to strike again at Sigismund. In September, Zizka marched on the border town of Jihlava, scattering a force of Austrians and local militia. Continuing his southward advance, his forces occupied the formidable Moravian town of Telc. From there the offensive pushed on toward the Austrian border for several days before Zizka decided to return to Bohemia in early October.

Hussite factional disputes had not cooled much by the start of the St. Gall Diet held in November, 1423. The more conservative elements of Praguers announced that they were joining the Church Catholics in condemning Zizka and the Orebites.

Votes were taken to demand that the Orebites surrender territory they occupied, and that the Hussite movement compromise with Rome so that it might rejoin the Church. Zizka and the Orebites were stunned by what they considered a traitorous abandonment of Hussitism by the majority at the Diet. Had it not been for the truce, fighting would have broken out again among the Hussites.

More Hussite Wars

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© Copyright 1976 by Dana Lombardy
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