Jan Zizka
and the
Hussite Wars
1419-1434

The Land

by Michael W. McGuire

The first recorded inhabitants of Bohemia were the Marcomanni. Conquered by the Romans in 165 A.D. the tribe was so decimated by continuous uprisings that when the Legions finally withdrew to fight the German barbarians, the tribe could not resist the onslaught of the Huns, and so vanished. They were replaced by the Czechs, a branch of the Slavonic race, who successfully fended off the incursions of Avares, Franks, Germans and Magyars for some seven centuries. During this time, the area of Bohemian domination fluctuated, as the country was beset by two chronic problems: succession to the throne, and relations with Germany.

From 900 A.D. onward, Bohemian kings would attempt to establish a means of succession, only to be thwarted by assassination, fatal illness, or accidents, either leaving an heir too young to govern, or no heir at all. Always there were disgruntled nobles who would contest the deceased king's will, and occasionally one would succeed in setting himself upon the throne, only to find that the basic problem still remained -- who would succeed him?

Compounding the intemal problem was the external influence of Germany. Not adverse to taking advantage of Bohemia's continuing problem of royal succession, the German emperors would often nominate themselves or their relatives for the position. Such suggestions were always received with mixed emotions by the Bohemians. When pressed by the Teutons, they would resist; sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Occasionally this quarrel would be postponed while Bohemia and Germany united to repel incursions of Magyars or Mongols, but this unity lasted only for the duration of the extemal threat and no longer. Germany wished to annex Bohemia in one way or another; Bohemia wished to be left alone.

Christianity, introduced in 935, rather than providing a solution to Bohemia's two chronic problems, provided a third problem -- religion. Growing theological and political disputes of the Catholic Church lapped outward from Rome and washed over Bohemia, leaving still more turmoil in their wake.

Such was Bohemia's situation in 1346, when a conflict in France -- the battle of Crecy -- triggered a chain of events that culminated in the Hussite wars some eighty years later. Along with several thousand French knights, John the Blind, King of Bohemia, was killed and his son, Charles, was severely wounded. Recovered from his wounds, Charles IV assumed his duties as monarch of Bohemia and Germany, his father John having been placed upon the Bohemian throne by his grandfather, Henry VII, Emperor of Germany, without Bohemian concurrence.

While his responsibilities required him to spend most of his time in Germany, Charles' heart remained in Bohemia. He began to revitalize its society. The reestablishment of a regular administration of law ended a period of legal anarchy that had existed under John. Charles IV founded the university in Prague and invited the greatest scholars of Europe to frequent its halls; within less than a decade it had become one of the major centers of learning on the continent. During his reign Bohemia reached new heights of prosperity, as the treaties negotiated with foreign powers usually contained clauses designed to benefit Bohemian merchants.

Reform

Reform of the Roman Church at this time had become one of the great issues of the day and the new university in Prague became a center of debate on this issue. In 1365, Charles IV travelled to Avignon in France to confer with the Pope. During the ten-day conference he was able to persuade the Pope to return to Rome as soon as the King would march into Italy with an army to protect the Pope from his enemies. Charles IV undertook his Italian expedition in 1368, but was forced to cancel it to deal with a threat posed in Germany by King Louis I of Hungary and King Casimir II of Poland. It required five years and papal mediation to resolve the disputes of the three kings.

Charles IV was never able to effect the transfer of the papal court back to Rome. Ironically, he died in 1378 at the very same time that the death of Pope Gregory XI would result in the election of an Italian Pope in Rome and trigger the beginning of the bitter Papal Schism that would last forty years.

Two years before his death, Charles IV had made provisions for each of his three sons to rule a specific realm. Wenceslas, the eldest, would rule Germany and Bohemia; Sigismund and John would rule Brandenburg and Lusatia.

Surrounded by his father's advisors, Wenceslas IV endeavored to rule his realm by his father's principles, at first. He also dedicated himself to ending the Papal Schism. Wenceslas IV was a strong supporter and loyal friend of the Roman Pope, Boniface IX, but the people were disturbed by the turmoil of allegiances divided between Avignon and Rome. Unfortunately, Wenceslas IV never understood the spiritual life of Bohemia well enough to provide guidance for his people. This failure caused the massive popular upheavals that rocked Bohemia throughout the latter years of his reign.

Wenceslas IV not only misunderstood the people, but the clergy and nobles as well. He became involved in disputes with local Church leaders over certain fiscal and legal immunities the Church claimed. Although the Roman Pope declined to support the local Church officials for fear of alienating the powerful King of the Germans, Wenceslas' attitudes and actions incurred angry resentment of the local prelates. On the domestic level his policies irritated the nobles to such a degree that a disenchanted group calling themselves the League of Lords sprang up to limit the King's power to make appointments to state offices. For a short time Wenceslas IV was held prisoner by these nobles until he agreed to appoint League members to vacant state offices.

In 1398, the King travelled to France to confer with Charles VI about a solution to the Papal Schism. They agreed that both popes should abdicate and an assembly of cardinals should hold a new election. This change in Wenceslas' attitude drew an immediate reaction from Pope Boniface IX in Rome. He set in motion the events that deposed Wenceslas IV as King of the Germans, and installed Rupert III in his place. Emboldened by this deposition, the League of Lords took up arms against their former monarch in Bohemia in 1399. He vainly tried to appease them by offering a new series of state appointments but the violence continued. In deaperation Wenceslas IV called upon his younger brother, King Sigismund of Hungary, for assistance in quelling the insurrection.

Betrayal

Sigismund immediately betrayed Wenceslas by kidnapping and leaving him in the custody of the Duke of Austria. Sigismund then entered Bohemia to seize the throne and consolidate his power. The short-lived rule of Sigismund and his lackeys was detested by the Bohemian people and nobility. Fortunately, an uprising in Hungary forced Sigismund to leave. Shortly thereafter Wenceslas IV escaped from Vienna and speedily resumed to Prague. He was cordially received by all his subjects, including previously hostile nobles. The League of Lords, outraged by Sigismund, voluntarily dissolved itself and pledged allegiance to Wenceslas IV.

By 1411 Sigismund had managed to have himself unanimously elected as King of the Germans. In this new role he approached his brother with a proposal to work together to end the ecclesiastical turmoil. For awhile it appeared that they might make progress, but Sigismund's abortive attempt to take over Bohemia made complete trust impossible and their reconciliations proved meaningless. In 1413, Sigismund persuaded Pope John XXIII to call a new Council at Constance to resolve the Church's impasse. Wenceslas IV, believing that the Council might still be able to provide a solution, supported his brother's motion.

In late 1414 the representatives assembled at Constance and in March of 1415 they deposed Pope John XXIII, replacing him with Martin V. They then turned to the problem of the radical refonners who were fomenting dissent among the common people. John Huss, leader in the Bohemian reform movement, was singled out in the belief that he was the catalyst for much of the dissent. The Council found him guilty of heresy and demanded his submission to the Church's edicts. Huss refused to obey and was burned at the stake in July, 1415.

John Huss' death did not end religious dissent. On the contrary, it triggered a new wave of protest in Bohemia. In 1417, the continuing Council at Constance passed twenty-four articles intended to end the Hussite heresy. A general excommunication was pronounced against the Hussites. Money was offered for information identifying them; their churches were seized and often destroyed. Prisons were soon filled to overflowing while hundreds were burned at the stake, drowned, or died as slaves in the Kutna Hora silver mines.

But no matter what Wenceslas IV and the other authorities did, they could not quash the unrest. Demonstrations and protests continued unabated. In 1418, Sigismund warned his brother that inability to control the upheavals in Bohemia might have grave consequences. Wenceslas IV was invited to Hungary in February, 1419, to discuss an anti-Hussite crusade, but wary of his younger brother's intentions, the King declined to attend. Wenceslas IV stepped up efforts to quell the Hussites, but was unable to comprehend that the Hussites were simply too many and too strong in their faith to meekly return to the old ways. In Prague, authorities ruthlessly suppressed the movement, but in the countryside the reformers took to collecting in fortified communities; the most famous one located on a hilltop south of Prague called Tabor.

Hussite Movement

The Hussite movement was not limited to just the Bohemian commoners. Many of the King's own court were sympathetic including Jan Zizka, an escort of the royal couple who had served the King for over thirty years. Raised in the countryside, Zizka had been deeply moved by Huss' preaching which had unified the Bohemian people in a way that King Wenceslas IV had never been able to. For many years Zizka had been a troubled man of divided loyalties: his entire life had been dedicated to serving his King, but his heart yearned to join his people in creating a free, Bohemian, Slavic nation living by God's laws, not the Pope's.

On 30 July, 1419, the fate of the Hussites and Jan Zizka came together irrevocably. In Prague, a procession of reformist demonstrators was overwhelmed with a hail of boulders thrown from the windows of the City Hall. Present at this attack, an enraged Zizka led the angry crowd in storming the Hall. In the ensuing melee, seven city councillors were killed. In that one brief violent outburst, the Hussite movement had gone from civil disobedience to armed resistance; from a mob mourning a dead martyr to a militant community following the leadership of the dynamic Jan Zizka.

Wenceslas IV vowed vengeance, but two weeks after the attack on City Hall he died of apoplexy, leaving no heir. With him died the traditional concepts of Church, King, and Country. The first shots of the Hussite wars had been fired.

More Hussite Wars

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© Copyright 1976 by Dana Lombardy
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