“In the name of all Czechs, I swear that the Czechs will take terrible revenge on the churches in the event of the death of Hus. All this lawlessness will be paid a hundredfold. The world has been broken before God and people, and in the blood of the papists the Czech goose will wash its wings. He who has ears, let him hear."
(Pan from Chlum - speech at the Cathedral in Constanta)
I must say that the attempt of the popes to solve European problems by organizing crusades to the East not only did not solve some of the old problems, but also created new ones, which also had to be somehow solved, and these problems were very, very serious. For example, immediately after the start of agitation for the first crusade, relations between Jews and Christians deteriorated significantly in several parts of Europe. If in Spain Christians, fighting for Christ's sake, began to kill Jews long before the Reconquista and the expulsion of Muslims began there in 1063, then in Central Europe, where the troops of the crusaders were assembled for the first crusade, the persecution of the Jews began in the spring of 1096. They took place in Speyer, Worms, Trier and Metz, and then continued in Cologne, Neisse and Xanten. At the same time, not only the crusaders who were going to the Holy Land attacked the Jewish communities, but also the bandit gangs of knights who joined them, who did not gather so far, but went along with the “pilgrims”. So, in Worms, about eight hundred people were killed, and in Mainz more than a thousand died. According to the most conservative estimates, the number of those killed could have been four to five thousand people. In Regensburg, the crusaders forced local Jews to be baptized, although according to church regulations, it was strictly forbidden to do so.
Jan ižka with his warriors, 1423 Fig. Angus McBride.
It is clear that there was a very deep chasm between Christians and Jews. However, the crusade against the infidels only exacerbated this situation. Now, as soon as, for example, during Holy Week someone shouted that it was the Jews who stood up for the crucifixion of Christ, Christians immediately rushed to beat local Jews, which caused bloody clashes in the cities. At the same time, some Christians, and especially the crusaders, seized so much of all kinds of goods that they did not go further, believing that God had given them everything they needed, they no longer wanted to participate in the campaign, but tried to quickly return to their home with the plundered property.
Burning of Jan Hus. Medieval miniature.
Another problem is the problem of finance, which has been acute at all times. After all, such a large-scale thing as organizing military expeditions to the East required huge financial resources that had to be obtained somewhere. So, already during the preparation of the first campaign, its participants were advised to take more money with them, since there would be no one to support them during the campaign. In the future, the crusaders were asked to stock up on money for two years. And many knights, going to the Holy Land, sold all their property or borrowed money from usurers, hoping to never give it back!
The popular weapon of the Hussites and knights-crusaders who fought in the Czech Republic is a battle scourge. Weight 963.9 g. Germany. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The kings, accordingly, increased taxes on their subjects (in particular, this is exactly what the King of England Henry II did), and even the spiritual-knightly and monastic orders were not exempted from the taxes imposed by the popes, and only the Cistercians avoided paying them up to 1200 of the year.
However, the popes also received income from the widespread sale of indulgences, which made it possible with their help to get just any absolution. So, when the English king Henry II ordered the assassination of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket, he was imposed a large monetary fine, which the church received, and this money also went to the next crusade. It was the lack of cash receipts from Aquitaine in the south of France in the first place that caused the crusades against the Cathars, who, if they continued to pay church taxes in sufficient volumes, most likely, could have avoided the "God's punishment" that fell upon them.
Bascinet 1375-1425 Weight 2268 France. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Moreover, the tax burden during the Crusades became so heavy that it gave rise to all sorts of anecdotes directed against the pope. “Admit it openly,” asked as early as 1213 the minnesinger Walter von der Vogelweide, who, in the language of modern times, apparently, was simply “gotten” by all these papal extortions for the crusades, which he had three whole lives in his own life. Then were you sent by the Pope to bring him wealth, and to plunge us Germans into poverty and give up as a pledge?"
Minnesinger Walter von der Vogelweide. Miniature from the "Manes Codex". Heidelberg University Library.
Such an attitude towards believers on the part of the church naturally alienated the mass of parishioners from it and led to the emergence of many very different heretical teachings. Neither the Avignon Captivity of Popes, which took place in 1307-1377, nor the Great Schism, or the schism of the Catholic Church in 1378-1417, when two and then three popes were at the head of the church, did not add authority to the church. !
The crusading movement itself also began to degenerate. First, this degeneration manifested itself in the crusade of the French and German children of 1212, completely convinced by the words that adult crusaders are greedy and bad people, because of which God does not give them victory, and only they, the innocent children, can arms to recapture Jerusalem. Then they were followed by two "crusades", the so-called "shepherds" of 1251 and 1320, during which the poor people of the Southern Netherlands and Northern France went, as it were, on a crusade, and they themselves began to attack the Jews once again and ruin everything in your path. As a result, Pope John XXII spoke out against the shepherdesses with a sermon, and King Philip V of France sent troops against them, who dealt with them as with the most ordinary rioters.
A knight of 1420 fights the Hussites. Rice. Angus McBride.
Therefore, it is hardly surprising that, for example, in the same Czech Republic at this time, under the influence of the reformist ideas of Jan Hus, a departure from the traditional Catholic doctrine also began, and the movement of "Hussites" - that is, its followers, eventually turned into a real folk the war for the independence of the Czech lands. The Pope, of course, could not afford to lose the Czech Republic, because this state was economically developed and brought a lot of money to the papal treasury, therefore, on March 1, 1420, he declared the Hussites heretics and called for a crusade against them. But the main organizer of the campaign was not the then Pope Martin V, he was his ideological inspirer, but the king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, as well as the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund, who also needed Bohemia. So he immediately began to gather in Silesia the troops of the crusaders from the German, Hungarian and Polish knights, from the infantry, which was supplied to him by the Silesian cities, and also from the Italian mercenaries.
The War Hat is a popular Hussite helmet. Weight 1264 Friborg. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
However, already the first clashes between the crusaders and the army of the Hussites showed that the time of the knightly army itself, the main striking force of which was the heavily armed knightly cavalry, in general, had already passed. The first campaign was followed by four more, organized respectively in 1421, 1425, 1427, 1431, but did not bring much success to the crusaders. In turn, the Hussites undertook several campaigns into the lands of neighboring states and even besieged Vienna, although they did not manage to take it.
Battle cart of the Hussites. Reconstruction.
Combat cart on the move.
Fight from a combat cart. Angus McBride.
The Hussites skillfully defended themselves from the attacks of the knightly cavalry, building mobile field fortifications from special battle carts, shooting riders from crossbows and the first samples of hand firearms, which received the name "wrote" in the Czech Republic, and directly in hand-to-hand combat they used a threshing flail, which, being stuck with sharp nails, thus turned into a combat morgenstern.
Crossbow of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (reigned 1458-1490). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
A talented organizer of the Hussite army was a poor knight and an experienced warrior Jan ižka. Wounded in the head, he went blind, but continued to command his troops, and he did it so professionally that he did not suffer a single defeat in battles with the crusaders. Especially skillfully Jan ižka used mobile fortifications, which were assembled from ordinary peasant carts, with which his army was fenced off against their cavalry. True, the Hussites altered them a little: they provided them with thick walls of boards with loopholes and chains to firmly connect them. On each cart was a kind of "calculation": a thresher with a flail, a halberdist with a halberd and a hook, crossbowmen and arrows from the simplest firearms. These mobile fortresses have never been crushed. In addition, it was the Hussites who were the first to install small cannons on the carts and shoot them at the knights when they tried to attack their fortifications. As a result, it came to the point that the knights, it happened, began to retreat, as soon as they heard the war songs of the Hussites and the creak of their carts!
Hussites are plastic figurines.
The results of the campaigns of the crusaders against the Hussites were so deplorable that the Pope and King Sigismund were forced to use the Czechs themselves in the fight against them, only from a more moderate wing. As was usually done and is done in such cases, they were attracted by promises, as a result of which a fierce internecine struggle began on the territory of the Czech Republic, which ultimately led to the defeat of the Hussite movement.
Barbut 1460 Weight 3285 Germany. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic was never able to regain all the lost lands and restore the monasteries destroyed by the Hussites, which means they could not regain their former influence. As a result, the outcome of the war was influenced by the compromise of the moderate part of the Hussites with the empire and the Catholic Church. This brought it to an end, and, in fact, it did not bring any great benefits to any of the parties involved in it, but it thoroughly devastated Central Europe and showed the ability to successfully crush the knights with the forces of peasant infantry armed with spiked chains and firearms.
Another illustration of Angus McBride depicting the Hussites.
It is interesting that the legendary … Jeanne d'Arc, who on March 23, 1430, dictated a letter in which she called on the crusader army to oppose the Hussites and fight them until they return to the Catholic faith. Two months later, she was captured by the Burgundians and the British, otherwise, you see, she would also go to fight in the Czech Republic and join the ranks of the crusaders there!
