After the death of Jan ižka, his troops, called "orphans", were led by Kunesh from Bialowice. The former Prague craftsman Velek Kudelnik and Jan Kralovec became his deputies. Now they worked closely with the Taborites, whose authoritative commanders were Jan Hvezda, Boguslav Schwamberk, Jan Rogach.
And the general leadership of the Hussites was in the hands of Sigismund (Zhigimont) Koributovich from the Gediminich family, the son of the Novgorod-Seversky prince and the Ryazan princess (a little was told about him in the article by Jan Zhizhka. The Terrible Blind and the father of "orphans").
Sigismund Koributovich and the Spear of Destiny
A curious episode of the Hussite wars is associated with this prince - the siege of the Karlštejn castle, which contained the famous Holy spear, also known as the spear of Phinees (Hebrew priest) and the spear of Longinus, with which this centurion allegedly pierced the rib of the crucified Christ. According to legend, at different times this spear was owned by Saint Mauritius, the Roman commander Aetius, Emperor Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto I, Frederick I Barbarossa, Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Finally, Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg (who was also the king of Bohemia) brought him to Bohemia.
Actually, there are three artifacts that claim to be the "Holy Spear". One of them is located in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, the second is in the treasury of the Armenian Echmiadzin monastery. And the spear of interest to us is currently stored in the Austrian castle Hoffburg. It was it that, after the annexation of Austria, was moved to Nuremberg, and then returned by the American General George Patton.
(There was also an Antioch spear, but in the 18th century Pope Benedict XIV recognized it as a forgery, and Krakow, recognized as a copy of a Vienna one.)
The castle itself was of strategic importance, and it did not hurt to capture it, so that the crusaders would not build views on it. And the possession of the Spear of Destiny should have significantly increased the authority of Zhigimont both among the Hussites and among their opponents.
Sigismund-Zhigimont's own warriors set out on a campaign, and the Prague chasters (the troops of the Taborites and Jan Zhizhka at that time fought against the ally of Sigismund of Luxembourg - Prince Oldrich of Rozmberk).
Even considering the strength of the Karlštejn walls, the task did not seem impossible at first, since the castle's garrison consisted of only 400 soldiers. But here, as they say, she found a scythe on a stone: 163 days of siege and shelling of the walls of the fortress did not bring success. And then Zhigimont decided to use "biological weapons": with the help of throwing machines, about two thousand baskets were thrown behind the castle walls, the contents of which were a wild mixture of decomposed human and animal remains, diluted with excrement. But it was not possible to cause a full-fledged epidemic among the besieged.
On the other hand, Zhigimont, together with the Taborites, drove away the crusaders who were marching to help Karlshtein without a fight. So the Third Crusade against the Hussites ended ingloriously. After that, the defenders of the Karlštejn castle promised to remain neutral for a year. And in March 1423, the failed king of Bohemia, Zhigimont, with great reluctance, but still had to return to Krakow. Many soldiers who came with him from the Russian Voivodeship of Lithuania chose to stay in the Czech Republic.
The fighting of the Hussites after the death of Jan ižka
After the death of ižka, the Taborites and the "orphans" went to Moravia together, and in 1425 they fought against the inhabitants of Prague and the Chalice. Old leaders and generals died in continuous battles, and new charismatic leaders took their place. The first to die was the leader of the Taborites, Jan Hvezda, who led the allied army during the siege of the Vožice fortress.
Then, having again defeated the opponents in Bohemia, the "orphans" and the Taborites in the fall of 1425 again went to Moravia and further to Austria. Here, during the storming of the Retz castle, another Taborite hetman, Boguslav Švamberk, was killed. The Taborites and the “orphans” won, but the death of Jan ižka, whose name alone thrilled all the enemies of the “God's soldiers”, inspired the opponents of the Hussites. Companions and disciples of the Terrible Blind did not seem so terrible and invincible opponents, and on May 19, 1426, the imperial Diet was held in Nuremberg, which was also visited by the papal legate, Cardinal Orsini. Here it was decided to organize the next Crusade against the Hussites, in which the troops of Saxony, Austria, Poland and many small German principalities were to take part. An external threat temporarily reconciled all the Hussite trends. The new leader of the Taborites, Prokop Goliy, was appointed commander of the main army, who was also called the Great - for his high growth (in contrast to Prokop Maliy, who from 1428 headed the "orphans"). And the former Utraquist priest from a wealthy Prague family was called Naked not for his poverty and not for his love of “naked nature,” but for walking with a “bare chin,” that is, shaving his beard. However, according to another version, he allegedly shaved his head, and therefore he was sometimes called Bald. But in the portrait below, Prokop's hair is still there.
Another leader of the Hussites in that campaign was Sigismund Koributovich, who returned to Prague without permission.
The enemy troops met at the well-fortified city of Usti (Aussig), in which there was a strong garrison of their main enemy - Sigismund of Luxembourg. The Hussites came first, laying siege to the city, which was approached by the main forces of the crusaders in June 1426.
They say that their army was five times superior to the Hussite. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but no one questions the fact of the huge numerical superiority of the crusaders. The most critical historians speak of 70,000 crusaders (not counting the soldiers of the Usti garrison) and 25,000 Hussites.
Under the threat of a blow from both sides, Prokop withdrew his army from the city and, according to the tradition established by Jan ižka, placed them on a hill between two streams, surrounding himself with a double ring of carts. But, contrary to the traditions of the Hussite wars, he suddenly suggested that the enemy commanders spare the prisoners and not finish off the wounded. They took this offer as a sign of weakness and arrogantly refused.
On June 16, 1426, the German knights broke through the outer line of the Hussite fortifications, but ran into the inner wall, undergoing massive shelling and flanking attacks. Unable to bear it, they began a retreat, which soon turned into flight. The Hussites pursued them from the town of Usti to the villages of Přeblice and Grabowice, destroying more than ten thousand newcomers and capturing rich trophies.
Remember the arrogant refusal of the Crusaders to offer the Czechs mutual mercy for the prisoners? The Hussites accepted these rules of the game and, among others, killed 14 surrendered German princes and barons. The demoralized crusaders retreated, the frightened garrison of Usti surrendered.
It was not possible to completely defeat the enemy due to another split in the ranks of the Hussites. The chashniki refused to obey Prokop and withdrew their troops from his army. The trip to Saxony, planned by Prokop Noly, did not take place, but later he still visited her, as well as Silesia, Bavaria and Austria. In general, this commander was always determined to beat the enemy on his territory.
The first time he did it on March 14, 1427, when the troops of Albrecht of Austria were defeated at the Battle of Zwettl. Even the banner of the commander-in-chief was captured.
And in May, Prokop, at the head of the Taborites, and Kudelnik with the "orphans" struck Silesia, and the horror of their appearance was so great that the enemy troops fled without risking open confrontation with them.
Meanwhile, the new crusaders to the Czech Republic were led by the half brother of the English king Henry IV - Bishop of Winchester Heinrich Beaufort, with whom a detachment of famous English archers came.
The youth left in rows
Pulling on the patches, Cloak hung with crosses.
All lies, as on icons, Joy, death, battles and caresses, Even the blood from the wounds of Christ
Smells like typographic ink
In good old England.
(From the song of the "Tin Soldiers" group.)
No, pain, blood and death nevertheless turned out to be real: on August 4, 1427, Prokop Bolshoi and Prokop Maly defeated them at Takhov.
Prokop Naked did not stop there and followed the crusaders to the Saxon city of Naumburg. The townspeople bought off the Hussites. To pity them, they also sent their children, dressed in white clothes, to negotiate. The moved Prokop, according to the legend, did not cause any harm to innocent children and even treated them to cherries. On the last weekend of June, Naumburg still hosts the annual Cherry Festival, a tradition attributed to these events.
Scary Prokop and an innocent child on notgeld (emergency money) 1920
In the next 4 years, Catholics and Hussites changed places: now the "good Czechs" (as they called themselves) went on campaigns to Germany, Austria and Hungary, in 1430 they reached the Polish Czestochowa, everywhere clearly demonstrating what exactly they were carrying crusading armies to their lands, and inviting the inhabitants of neighboring countries to drink the same cup. They had already learned to fight very well, the fear they inspired deprived the local barons and dukes of strength and courage, and therefore the Czechs themselves called these raids "pleasant walks" or "wonderful trips" (spaniel jizdy).
It got to the point that Joan of Arc entered into correspondence with them, who in her letter urged them to abandon heresy, otherwise promising only heavenly punishment. But the Taborites and "orphans" had their own god - a more correct one, who hated the hypocritical Catholic hierarchs, unjust rich men and corrupted lazy monks. With his name, they crushed one army after another.
The pleasant walks of the good Czechs resulted in a series of peasant uprisings in Central Europe. So, after the campaign in Silesia in 1428, it turned out that the army of Prokop the Naked did not decrease, but increased - due to the foreign peasants who joined him. At the same time, the Russian prince Fyodor Ostrozhsky, who was in captivity, joined the Hussites, who began to command his compatriots and the Lithuanians, who had previously come to the Czech Republic with Sigismund Koributovich. On the side of the Hussites, the Polish detachment of the gentry Dobek Puhal also fought.
In the spring of 1430, the taborites of Prokop the Naked marched through Silesia, occupying a number of cities, one of which, Gliwice, was given to the failed Czech king Sigismund Koributovich. "Orphans", commanded by Velek Kudelnik and Prokupek, at that time penetrated through Moravia into Austria and Hungary, and then into Slovakia. Here they entered into a heavy battle with the army of Emperor Sigismund at Trnava. It was then that a detachment of Hungarians under the command of Fyodor Ostrozhsky, who had gone over to the side of the enemy, managed to break through to Wagenburg, but the "orphans" survived, although they lost their commander, Velek Kudelnik, in this battle. In the end, they overthrew the Imperials.
In general, the fear of the Czechs' Catholic neighbors reached such a limit that, despite the growing Ottoman threat, they organized a new, fifth crusade against the Hussites. It was headed by Cardinal Cesarini and two Friedrichs - Saxon and Bradenburg, who led up to 40 thousand horsemen and from 70 to 80 thousand infantry.
The crusaders besieged the city of Domazlice, near which the Hussite army waited - 50 thousand infantry, 3 thousand carts, more than 600 artillery pieces of various calibers and 5 thousand horsemen.
On August 14, 1431, the Hussites sang their anthem Ktož jsú Boží bojovníci? ("Who are God's soldiers?") Moved on the crusaders.
Unable to withstand their blow, the crusaders fled, abandoning the baggage train (2 thousand carts), the treasury and all the artillery (300 guns).
The most curious thing is that the cardinal's crusaders this time tried to build their Wagenburg, but they did it clumsily, and their carts were not suitable for these purposes.
Prokop with the Taborites went to Silesia, returning, joined forces with the "orphans" of Prokop the Small - together they defeated the troops of the Austrian Duke Albrecht.
In the summer of 1433, Jagailo Polsky called on the Hussites to help in another war with the Teutonic Order (and his brother Svidrigailo at the same time). "Orphans" and Taborites under the command of Jan Czapek (commander from the camp of "orphans") entered East Prussia through Neumark, occupied Tczew (Dirschau) and reached the mouth of the Vistula and Danzing (Gdansk).
It seemed that in all of Europe there were no forces capable of stopping them. In January 1433, the Czech delegation was invited to the Cathedral in Basel, and Prokop the Naked was included in it. An agreement could not be reached then, but negotiations continued in Prague. Concerned about the compromising moods of the Chaplains, Prokop Goliy did not even go to war with the Teutons, entrusting the command to Chapek. He had little strength (his army had already unsuccessfully besieged Pilsen for a long time), and therefore, when the chasniks nevertheless reached an agreement with the papists, he was forced to leave Prague, where on May 5 the Old Town met in a battle with Taborite Novy, and died in the massacre many of his supporters. Only the help of the leader and commander of the "orphans" Prokop Maly helped him to safely retreat to Tabor.
Meanwhile, the composition of his army has already changed significantly. The victories of the Taborites had unexpected consequences: in the hope of great prey, European adventurers of all stripes began to adhere to them. And the moderate Hussites now called Tabor "the focus of the rabble and scum of all nations." This could not but affect the fighting efficiency of the Taborite army, but the horror of their name alone was so great that few of the neighbors risked engaging in serious military clashes with them. Now Prokop had to fight with other Czechs, many of whom went through the school of Jan Zizka, and the leaders of the Utrakvists were able to draw the right conclusions from the failures of previous battles with the Taborites and "orphans".
