Czech folk hero Jan 3 letters. Czech national hero Jan Zizka

During the civil war in Bohemia at the beginning of the 15th century, the leader of the Hussites and the Czech national hero Jan Zizka, already blind in one eye, lost the other. However, he continued to command his army for another three years before his death from the plague, without losing a single battle. According to one of the chroniclers of those times, the last wish of the dying Žižka was to have his skin pulled over a drum, and in this way he could inspire his soldiers even after death. Czech commander, one of the leaders of the Hussite movement. The national hero of the Czech Republic. Jan Zizka was born in South Bohemia. He came from a family of a ruined Czech knight. Early showed a desire for the national independence of his Fatherland. By the beginning of the Hussite wars in the Czech Republic, he had great combat experience, having fought a lot outside of it. Zizka took part in the famous Battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410, in which the Czech Moravian detachments fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian-Russian army under the command of the Polish king Vladislav II Jagiello against the Teutonic Order . In that battle, two banners (detachments) of Jan Zizka distinguished themselves on the left wing of the allied army, where the crusaders under the command of Liechtenstein were defeated. Jan Zizka was a participant in another big battle - the battle of Agincourt. He became one of the closest associates of Jan Hus (burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415), the leader of the Reformation of 1400-1419 in the Czech Republic. His supporters were called Hussites. Their main demands were the secularization of the vast landed property of the Catholic Church in the country and the deprivation of its political power. As the struggle intensified, the Hussite movement split into two wings: moderate (cuppers) and radical (Taborites - from the city of Tabor, the center of their movement). One of the most influential military figures of the Hussite movement, the hero of the Battle of Grunwald, Jan Zizka, sided with the Taborites. He was the organizer of the struggle of the Czech people against the crusaders who attacked their homeland in 1419–1437. The Taborite army under the command of Jan Zizka won its first victory in battle near Sudomerzh in 1420, where their detachment of 400 people, retreating from the city of Pilsen, successfully fought off the 2,000th detachment of the royal knightly cavalry. This battle is notable for the fact that the Taborites used here for the first time a field fortification made of wagons, which became an insurmountable obstacle for the mounted knights. This tactic was used by Zizka and other Taborite leaders during all the Hussite wars. After the formation in 1420 of the Hussite military camp - Tabora (now a city in the Czech Republic, 75 kilometers from Prague), Jan Zizka became one of the four hetmans of the Hussites, and in fact - their main commander. The other three hetmans did not dispute his actual power in the army and voluntarily submitted to him. In the same year, the Hussite army won its first significant victory in the defense of Vitková Gora (now Zizková Hora), when the outcome of the battle for the Czech capital, the city of Prague, was decided. Its rebellious inhabitants besieged the royal garrison in the Prague fortress. Upon learning of this, the Taborites hurried to their aid. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund I, who led the First Crusade against the Hussite Bohemia, also hurried to Prague against opponents of the power of the Catholic Church. This campaign, like all subsequent ones, was carried out with the blessing of the Pope. The crusaders attacked the Czech Republic from two sides - from the northeast and from the south. Jan Zizka, at the head of the Taborite army, approached Prague much earlier than his opponents, but did not deploy his troops in the city itself. For the camp, Jan Zizka chose Vitková Gora near the city, to which it was facing with its eastern slope. The Taborites fortified themselves on the top of the Vitková Gora, having built two wooden log cabins from the side of Prague, which they reinforced with walls of stone and clay, and dug deep ditches. It turned out to be a small field fortress. After that, the Czech soldiers began to wait for the attack of the knights of the Crusaders. The first enemy attack was repulsed by a detachment of Taborites, armed with heavy peasant flails for threshing grain. When the second attack of the knights on the top of the mountain followed, the inhabitants of Prague came to the aid of the army of Jan Zizka, among whom there were a large number of archers. Before that, the citizens of Prague watched the course of the battle from the fortress walls and towers. As a result, the battle on Vitková Gora ended in a complete victory for the Taborites and the townspeople. After this failure, many German feudal lords with their troops left the imperial army, and Sigismund I considered it best to leave Prague and go into his possessions. The victory of the Czech soldiers at Vitková Gora over the superior forces of the crusaders glorified the military leader of the Hussites and demonstrated his military abilities. Jan Zizka began his hetmanship with the reorganization of the Taborite troops. Under his leadership, the Hussites created a standing army, recruited from volunteers. Detachment commanders (hetmans) were elected. In 1423, Jan Zizka developed the first military charter in Western Europe, which clearly defined the rules for the behavior of soldiers in battle, on a campaign and at rest. The Hussite army differed significantly from the troops of the crusaders. Its main force was not heavily armed knightly cavalry, but well-organized infantry. The primary tactical unit of his army was a wagon with a “crew” of 18–20 people: a commander, two shooters from arquebuses or squeakers, 4–8 archers, 2–4 chainmen who fought in battle with heavy peasant flails, 4 spearmen, 2 shieldmen covering in battle with large wooden shields of horses and people, 2 riders, driving horses and coupling wagons in the parking lot. The wagons were organized organizationally into dozens with a common commander, and dozens into ranks, larger military detachments capable of solving combat missions on their own. All infantry was divided into tactical units - fifty. The hetman commanded the Hussite infantry. The cavalry of the Hussites was light and not numerous, in contrast to the enemy, knightly. It usually constituted the commander-in-chief's reserve in battle and was used to conduct a counterattack and pursue a defeated enemy. The pride of Jan Zizka's army was artillery, consisting of field and siege guns. The first included a short-barreled howitzer (howitzer), which fired stone cannonballs, and a long-barreled tarasnitsa on a wooden carriage, which fired stone and iron cannonballs. One such field gun accounted for five wagons. The main siege weapons were bombards with a caliber of up to 850 millimeters (one per row), with a firing range of 200–500 meters. The Hussites successfully used their numerous artillery in clashes with the heavy cavalry of the enemy. The battle formation of the Hussite army was unusual for that time. Depending on the conditions of the terrain, they created various fortifications from heavy carts linked together by chains and belts. Such a fortification was later called "Wagenburg". Artillery guns were placed between the wagons, behind which the infantry and cavalry were securely hiding. In this case, the knights had to dismount and attack the Hussites in obviously unfavorable conditions. The Hussite army was accustomed to fight day and night, in any weather. According to the military regulations, field fortifications from interlinked wagons had to rest against natural obstacles and, if possible, be installed on high places. In battle, the Hussites usually waited for the attack of the knightly cavalry and met it with the fire of their numerous artillery, arquebus and squeaker bullets, arrows with blunt armor-piercing tips. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, chainmen and spearmen entered the fray. The Hussites pursued and destroyed the defeated enemy, while the knights, after the battle won, did not pursue the fleeing enemies, but robbed the killed, wounded and captured opponents. . He saw the battlefield through the eyes of his closest assistants and gave the right orders. In January 1422, the Hussite troops defeated the main forces of the European Catholic chivalry participating in the second campaign in the decisive battle near Gabr (the pursuit of the defeated crusaders was carried out to the German Ford). In the same year, Jan Žižka removed the blockade from the Czech city of the Zatec (Zaac) fortress, besieged by the crusaders of Emperor Sigismund I, with a sudden blow, and then successfully avoided the enemy encirclement near the city of Kolin. Then the crusaders suffered another setback when they surrounded the Taborite camp on Mount Vladar , near the town of Zhlutice. In this battle, the Taborites, unexpectedly for the enemy, launched an attack from the top along with their wagons. The crusaders fled in fear, fearing an inglorious death under the wheels of heavy carts rushing at them. in 1426. In the Holy Roman Empire, they could not forget the complete defeat of the second campaign against the Czech Republic for a long time. This time, the crusaders gathered in a huge 70,000-strong army, which, it seemed, could sweep away everything in its path. However, Jan Zizka, at the head of a 25,000-strong army of Taborites, resolutely moved towards her. A big battle took place near the city of Ust. The Hussite commander once again applied his usual tactics of warfare. The knights, clad in armor, this time turned out to be powerless in attacking a field fortress built of 500 wagons firmly fastened to each other, and against well-aimed fire of the Czech field artillery. The counterattack of the Hussite cavalry outweighed the scales in this battle. Despite their almost threefold superiority, the crusaders were utterly defeated, and they had to retreat. To prevent new crusades against the Czech Republic, Jan Zizka transferred hostilities to the territory of his enemy. In the middle of 1423, he undertook a large campaign in Moravia and Hungary. Having crossed the Small Carpathians, the army of the Taborites went to the Danube. Then it deepened into the territory of Hungary for 130–140 kilometers. The Hungarian feudal lords gathered large forces. All the time of the campaign of the Taborites, the Hungarians constantly attacked them, but they were never able to break through the defensive ring from their wagons. The warriors of Jan Zizka fired cannons so accurately on the move that the Hungarian cavalry had to stop the parallel pursuit of the Czech troops. the Crusaders had to leave the Czech Republic. The last victorious battle of the Czech commander Jan Zizka was the Battle of Maleshov in June 1424. This time, the opponents of the first hetman were not German and other European knights, but their fellow citizens - chasniki, former allies in the Reformation. In the same year, the first hetman of the Hussite army died during a plague in the besieged fortress city of Přibislav, in the central part of the Czech Republic. So the Taborite army was left without its illustrious commander, whose name alone inspired fear in the crusaders. There was no worthy replacement for Jan Zizka in the Hussite army. This circumstance largely predetermined its defeat. The Hussite wars ended with the defeat of the Taborites in the battle of Lipany in 1434 and ultimately brought the long-awaited state independence to the Czech Republic. A monument was erected to the great commander near Przybislav, and on the Vitkov Hill in the north of Prague there is a National Memorial with an equestrian statue of Jan Zizka. The monument to the national hero of the Czech Republic Jan Zizka returned to Vitkov Hill after restoration. On the evening of October 24, a solemn opening ceremony was held. The weight of the monument is 16.5 tons, the width is five meters, and the height reaches nine meters. Back in 2006, specialists recorded the deplorable state of the monument. Restoration of one of the largest equestrian sculptures in the world began in April 2011. About one million euros (23 million crowns) were spent on the reconstruction. During the restoration work, a parcel was placed inside the sculpture, in which, as a greeting to the descendants, there are photographs, coins and stamps. Since the opening of the monument, for three days, citizens of Prague and guests of the Czech Republic can admire the magnificent monument under spectacular lighting. The equestrian sculpture was created by Bogumil Kafka, he worked on it for 11 years until his death in 1942. The monument was cast only in 1946, and on July 14, 1950, on the day of the 350th anniversary of the victory of the Hussites, the monument was erected on Vitkovo. Pan Zizka is rightfully considered an outstanding military talent in Czech history. An excellent commander with an iron will, he was extremely cruel in dealing with enemies. There are many stories about his gloomy character and severity, because of which he even bore the nickname "Terrible Blind Man" for some time. Jan Žižka is invincibleHow a robber from the highway became a folk hero. On Vitkov Hill in the north of Prague there is a National Memorial with one of the symbols of the Czech capital - an equestrian statue of Jan Žižka from Trocnov, the famous commander of the early 15th century, the hero of the Hussite wars, the echo of which then resounded throughout Europe. A few years ago, when the voting game “The Greatest of Czechs” was held on Czech television, during which the audience chose the most prominent figures in national history, Jan Žižka took an honorable fifth place, ahead of, in particular, Jan Hus, Antonin Dvořák and Karel Capek. The half-blind, gray-haired horseman with the traditional weapon of the Hussites - a club in his hand remains one of the most expressive figures of Czech history. But in the guise of Zizka there are not only heroic traits. His fate is an example of how, in the turbulent era of the Hussite wars, courage and cruelty, devotion to the idea and ambition, military talent and recklessness merged together ... About most of the life of Jan Zizka from Trotsnov, no detailed information has been preserved. It is only known that he was born around 1360 in the south of the Czech Republic and came from a poor noble family. According to legend, his mother gave birth to him during a summer storm under a huge oak tree. In 1908, Prince Adolf Schwarzenberg, the owner of the local estate, erected a memorial sign there. Before that, there was a small chapel in the same place, in which there was an inscription: "Jan Zizka from Trocnov, a blind man of bad memory, was born here." The chapel was Catholic, and the Catholics, as we shall see, had no reason to keep a good memory of Zizka. By the way, about Zizka's blindness: most historians are inclined to believe that he lost one eye as a result of an injury in childhood or early adolescence, while he lost the other during the Hussite wars. Therefore, in portraits depicting the commander at the beginning of his career, the rag usually covers his right eye, in later portraits both already. What exactly Zizka did until about 1405 is not exactly known. There are references to the purchase and sale of several small estates in southern Bohemia. There is evidence that Zizka was married, his wife died early, but they had a daughter, whom her father later married off as one of the offspring of a noble family of gentlemen from Dube. In the first years of the 15th century, references to Jan Zizka of Trocnov appear in Czech chronicles and other documents that tell of rampant bands of robbers on the roads of the kingdom, which, under the indecisive and alcoholic Wenceslas IV, fell into a fair decline. In the court book of the princes from Rožmberk for 1406, data are given on the interrogation of one of the captured bandits with prejudice: Matei took the money from the merchants, and Zizka killed one of the servants. From other documents we learn about the attacks of the Zizka detachment on merchants in the vicinity of the city of Ceske Budejovice, where cloth became the prey of the robbers. It should be noted, however, that in those years, robbery was not out of the ordinary among the impoverished nobles; dozens of wandering knights and hundreds of their commoner assistants hunted for it. In 1409, the townspeople of Budějovice managed to catch and hang many robbers operating in the vicinity of the city. Zizka is not destined to escape justice either. But here, when the ghost of the gallows is already looming before him, the unexpected happens: King Wenceslas himself stands up for the robber knight. We do not know on what basis the royal amnesty applies to Jan Zizka - we can only assume that even earlier he managed to acquire influential patrons at court. However, having been released, Zizka leaves for Poland, where, according to some information, he participates in the famous Battle of Grunwald in the summer of 1410. In it, the Polish-Lithuanian army of King Vladislav Jagiello defeats the knights of the Teutonic Order. On the side of the Poles, a small Czech detachment also fought, which included Jan Zizka. Returning to his homeland, Zizka begins a court career, enters the retinue of the wife of Wenceslas IV - Queen Sofia. It is possible that it was at this time that he fell under the influence of supporters of religious reform, led by the popular Prague preacher Jan Hus. Hus's teaching was a continuation of the theories of the English theologian John Wycliffe, who called on the church to be non-possessive and insisted that the only source of religious truths is the Holy Scripture. “Faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the voice of truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, hold on to the truth and defend the truth to death,” Jan Hus urged his parishioners. In 1415, by decision of the Cathedral of the Catholic Church in Constance, he was declared a heretic and sent to the stake. But the religious ideas of the Prague preacher became a moral guide for thousands of people dissatisfied with social injustice and the growing influence of prosperous German colonists in the Czech Republic. Social, religious and national ferment led to a revolutionary explosion. On July 30, 1419, unrest breaks out in Prague. After the city government scornfully rejects the demands of the reformers led by the young preacher Jan Zhelivsky, the crowd storms the town hall in the New Town and throws the city council members out of the windows - directly onto the spears and pikes of armed demonstrators. The chronicle reports that Jan Zizka was a participant in these events: "... And Jan Zizka, a servant and close associate of King Wenceslas, was at this throwing out and an unheard of murder." Probably, he not only participated, but was also one of the leaders of the uprising, otherwise he would not have been soon appointed leader of the Prague army. Meanwhile, Wenceslas IV died. Supporters of the Hussite doctrine and in general all those who were dissatisfied did not find a common language with his conservative and despotic successor - Sigismund of Hungary, nicknamed the "Red Fox". The Czech Republic embarked on the path of disobedience. At the end of 1419, a truce was concluded between the royal troops and the rebels, but Zizka does not comply with it, preferring to leave Prague and move to Pilsen. The Hussites crack down on Catholic landowners, attack monasteries, partially destroying and partially distributing their property. In response, the new king, rich nobles and foreign knights gather troops against them. Battles follow one after another, and Zizka's military talent is manifested in them. Already in his first major battle, at Sudoměř in March 1420, he successfully used the favorite fortification of the Hussites from fallen and stacked wagons (in Czech - vozová hradba). A few months later, in July, after Pope Martin V announced a crusade against the Hussites, the crusader army entered into battle with Zizka's detachments on the very Vitkovsky Hill near Prague, where the monument to the commander now stands. And again, luck was on the side of the one-eyed warrior - with an unexpected counterattack, he put the enemy to flight. By that time, Zizka is a member of the council of 12 hetmans - the actual government of the rebels. All the last years of his life, Zizka has been continuously fighting, not only with the royal army and the crusaders, but also with opponents in the ranks of the Hussist camp itself. In 1421, he led virtually punitive operations against the Pikarts and Adamites, two radical Hussite sects. Zizka knew how to be ruthless: dozens of people were executed and burned. At the same time, the Hussites continue to persecute the Catholic clergy, especially the monastic brethren. More and more power is concentrated in the hands of Zizka. From the end of 1420, he was the sole military leader of the Taborites, as they call the most organized and consistent part of the Hussite movement, the center of which is the city of Tabor, turned into a military-religious camp. In June 1421, during the siege of the town of Rabi, Zizka was wounded in his only eye. He finally goes blind, but does not stop organizing new campaigns, repelling the invasion of knightly detachments from Saxony and Bavaria. The glory of Zizka is such that in several cases the enemy prefers to retreat without even engaging in battle with him. The fighting is a tangled tangle of campaigns and pursuits, in which detachments of different cities, nobles, knightly orders, individual Hussist leaders and royal military leaders participate ... But the figure of Zizka, thanks to his military talent, rises above everyone. The forces are gradually leaving the blind commander - he is already over 60, for those times it is a deep old age - but he still has time in June 1424 at Maleshov to inflict a crushing defeat on the army of Catholics pursuing him and the Praguers who joined them. At the same time, his army captures and burns Kutná Hora, one of the largest centers of crafts and trade in the then Czech Republic. Wars ravage the country, but there is no end in sight. True, in the fall of 1424, negotiations for a general truce in the kingdom begin - once again. But Jan Zizka was not destined to wait for their end: during the siege of the city of Przebyslav on November 11, 1424, he dies - without losing a single battle. His soldiers, as a sign of grief, begin to call themselves "orphans". The Hussite wars continue for a good decade after Zizka's death. This man, who has lived such a stormy life, as if he cannot find peace even after death. He is buried in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Hradec Kralove, later the body is transferred to the city of Caslav. In 1620, after the Catholics defeated the Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain, the remains of the Hussite leader were hidden. They were only rediscovered in 1910. Modern Czech historians assess the merits of Jan Zizka from Trocnov as follows: “He created a permanent army with a certain order of organization, significantly improved the conduct of defensive operations using wagons and regularly used artillery. The name of Zizka is associated with the defensive phase of the Hussite revolution and the strengthening of the state structures created during it. To the credit of the blind commander is the fact that, when he died, he had almost no property. Jan Zizka is rightfully considered the most outstanding military talent in Czech history"...

Write about Jan Hus - who is he, when was he born, where did he die, when did he die, what did he do, and so on and got the best answer

Answer from Unknown[newbie]
Wikipedia has an article about it, check it out.

Answer from Kirrrrra[guru]

Answer from Vasily Dubovets[active]
Jan Hus (Czech. Jan Hus, 1369 or 1371-1415) is a national hero of the Czech people, a preacher, thinker, ideologist of the Czech Reformation. He was a priest and for some time the rector of the University of Prague. July 6, 1415 in Constanta was burned along with his works. The execution of Hus sparked the Hussite Wars (1419-1434).
From 1401, Hus read sermons in the church of St. Michael, and in 1402 Hus was appointed rector and preacher of a private Bethlehem chapel in the old part of Prague, where he was mainly engaged in reading sermons in Czech, which gathered up to three thousand people. In these sermons, Hus not only often touched on everyday life (which was unusual at that time), but also openly criticized the clergy, feudal lords and burghers. Although he criticized the church, he considered himself a faithful member of it, revealing the shortcomings of people and serving for the good of the church.
As early as the mid-1380s, the writings of the English reformer John Wyclif began to spread in Bohemia. Gus also fell under the influence of Wyclif's ideas. During the Great Western Schism (schism) in the Roman Catholic Church, Hus was among those who remained neutral towards the opposing sides.
While preaching in the Bethlehem chapel, Hus expressed an opinion that differed from the official church dogma. Listed below are his views on some of the issues.
You cannot charge for ordinances and sell Church positions. It is enough for a priest to charge a small fee from the rich to satisfy his basic necessities of life.
You can’t blindly obey the church, but you need to think for yourself, using the words from the Holy Scriptures: “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit.”
Authority that violates the commandments of God cannot be recognized by Him.
Property must belong to the just. An unjust rich man is a thief.
Every Christian must seek the truth, even at the risk of well-being, peace and life.
In order to spread his teachings, Hus not only preached from the pulpit: he also ordered the walls of the Bethlehem chapel to be painted with drawings with edifying stories, composed several songs that became popular, and carried out a reform of Czech spelling that made books more understandable to the common people.
In 1409, a sharp discussion took place at the University of Prague about the teachings of Wyclif, among the supporters of Wyclif was the Archbishop of Prague, who invited Hus to speak at a meeting of the synod. The strong resistance of the clergy forced the archbishop to withdraw his support for Hus.
In 1408, Hus's friends Stanisław of Znojm and Stefan Paleč were arrested and charged with heresy, who later renounced their beliefs.
In 1409, the pope issued a bull against Hus, which allowed the archbishop of Prague, an opponent of the reformer, to take punitive action against him. Hus' sermons were banned, all suspicious books were collected and burned. However, the authorities supported Hus, and his influence among the parishioners continued to grow. In the autumn of that year, sermons were banned in private chapels, one of which was the Bethlehem chapel. Hus refused to obey the order and appealed to Christ.
From 1411 Archbishop Zbinek directly accused Hus of heresy. This accusation cast a shadow over the university and King Wenceslas IV, who supported Hus. Wenceslas called Zbinek's statement a slander and ordered the confiscation of the possessions of those priests who spread this "slander". Zbinek fled to Hungary. He died on the road on 28 October 1411.
In 1412, Pope John XXIII began selling indulgences because he wanted to organize a campaign against the antipope Alexander V. Hus opposed both indulgences and the right of the hierarchs of the Christian church to raise a sword against their enemies. John XXIII placed a curse and interdict on Hus. In order not to subject the whole of Prague to interdict, Hus left for South Bohemia, where the gentry did not obey the decisions of the pope, where he continued to openly criticize church and secular authorities.

Answer from Quentin Torantino[active]
everyone stupidly downloaded from Wikipedia, well done citizens pretenders)

Answer from Ivan Firsov[newbie]
Jan Hus is a famous theologian and church reformer, the founder of the Hussite movement, the main ideologist of the Czech Reformation.
On July 6, 1415, in the German city of Konstanz, he was burned along with his books.
This was preceded by Gus' criticism of the church of those times, although he himself called himself her faithful son.
Jan Hus was greatly influenced by the work of the British reformer John Wyclif.
Hus opposed many church fees and said that "property should belong to the just", carried out a reform of Czech spelling.
As a result, he was declared a heretic, a papal curse was imposed on him, and he was forced to leave Prague for South Bohemia.
After the trial and refusal to renounce his beliefs, Jan Hus was burned.
His death led to bloody Hussite wars between his supporters and the Catholics.
The Catholic Church has not yet officially rehabilitated Jan Hus, but in 1999, at a symposium in Rome, the Catholic Church recognized Jan Hus as a reformer, and Pope John Paul II expressed regret that Hus was burned.
Pope Benedict XVI, during a visit to Prague, set Hus as an example of a principled fighter and a Christian who is capable of uniting Christian denominations in our time.
Currently, there is the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, officially founded in 1920. Relations with the Catholic Church remain strained. Especially Catholics do not like that there are women bishops in the Hussite Church.

Answer from Oksana Kozhokhina[newbie]

Authority that violates the commandments of God cannot be recognized by Him.
Property must belong to the just. An unjust rich man is a thief.

In 1408, Hus's friends Stanisław of Znojm and Stefan Paleč were arrested and charged with heresy, who later renounced their beliefs.
In 1409, the pope issued a bull against Hus, which allowed the archbishop of Prague, an opponent of the reformer, to take punitive action against him. Hus' sermons were banned, all suspicious books were collected and burned. However, the authorities supported Hus, and his influence among the parishioners continued to grow. In the autumn of that year, sermons were banned in private chapels, one of which was the Bethlehem chapel. Hus refused to obey the order and appealed to Christ.

Answer from Ilya Kalinin[newbie]
Jan Hus was born in the town of Husinec in South Bohemia in 1369. He entered the University of Prague, in 1396 received a master's degree in arts and began to lecture. Four years later, he accepted the priesthood and soon became dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. Almost at the same time, he began his preaching work.
From 1401, Hus read sermons in the church of St. Michael, and in 1402 Hus was appointed rector and preacher of a private Bethlehem chapel in the old part of Prague, where he was mainly engaged in reading sermons in Czech, which gathered up to three thousand people. In these sermons, Hus not only often touched on everyday life (which was unusual at that time), but also openly criticized the clergy, feudal lords and burghers. Although he criticized the church, he considered himself a faithful member of it, revealing the shortcomings of people and serving for the good of the church.
As early as the mid-1380s, the writings of the English reformer John Wycliffe began to spread in Bohemia. Hus also fell under the influence of Wycliffe's ideas. During the Great Western Schism (schism) in the Roman Catholic Church, Hus was among those who remained neutral towards the warring parties.
While preaching in the Bethlehem chapel, Hus expressed an opinion that differed from the official policy of the Catholic Church. Listed below are his views on some of the issues.
You cannot charge for ordinances and sell Church positions. It is enough for a priest to charge a small fee from the rich in order to satisfy his basic necessities of life.
You can’t blindly obey the church, but you need to think for yourself, applying the words from the Holy Scriptures: “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit.”
Authority that violates the commandments of God cannot be recognized by Him.
Property must belong to the just. An unjust rich man is a thief.
Every Christian must seek the truth, even at the risk of well-being, peace and life.
In order to spread his teachings, Hus not only preached from the pulpit: he also ordered the walls of the Bethlehem chapel to be painted with edifying scenes, composed several songs that became popular, and carried out a reform of Czech spelling that made books more understandable to the common people. His Latin work "Czech Orthography" is well known. It was he who achieved the transfer of each sound of speech by a separate letter: he developed diacritical marks (those that are written above the letters).
In 1409, a heated discussion took place at the University of Prague about the teachings of Wycliffe, among the supporters of Wycliffe was the Archbishop of Prague, who invited Hus to speak at a meeting of the synod. The strong resistance of the clergy forced the archbishop to withdraw his support for Hus.
In 1408, Hus's friends Stanisław of Znojm and Stefan Paleč were arrested and charged with heresy, who later renounced their beliefs.
In 1409, the pope issued a bull against Hus, which allowed the archbishop of Prague, an opponent of the reformer, to take punitive action against him. Hus' sermons were banned, all suspicious books were collected and burned. However, the authorities supported Hus, and his influence among the parishioners continued to grow. In the autumn of that year, sermons were banned in private chapels, one of which was the Bethlehem chapel. Hus refused to obey the order and appealed to Christ.
In 1411, the Archbishop of Prague, Zbinek Zajic, directly accused Hus of heresy. This accusation cast a shadow over the university and King Wenceslas IV, who supported Hus. Wenceslas called Zbinek's statement a slander and ordered the confiscation of the possessions of those priests who spread this "slander". Zbinek fled to Hungary. He died on the road on 28 October 1411.
Hus opposed both indulgences and the right of the hierarchs of the Christian church to raise the sword against their enemies. John XXIII imposed an interdict on Hus. Not to expose the interdict

Czech commander, one of the leaders of the Hussite movement. National hero of the Czech Republic.

Jan Zizka was born in South Bohemia. He came from a family of a ruined Czech knight. Early showed a desire for the national independence of his Fatherland. By the beginning of the Hussite wars in the Czech Republic, he had extensive combat experience, having managed to fight a lot outside of it.

Zizka took part in the famous Battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410, in which the Czech-Moravian detachments fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian-Russian army under the command of the Polish king Vladislav II Jagello against the Teutonic Order. In that battle, two banners (detachments) of Jan Zizka distinguished themselves on the left wing of the allied army, where the crusaders under the command of Liechtenstein were defeated. Jan Zizka was a participant in another big battle - the battle of Agincourt.

He became one of the closest associates of Jan Hus (burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415), leader of the Reformation of 1400-1419 in Bohemia. His supporters were called Hussites. Their main demands were the secularization of the vast landed property of the Catholic Church in the country and the deprivation of its political power. As the struggle grew, the Hussite movement split into two wings: moderate (cuppers) and radical (Taborites - from the city of Tabor, the center of their movement). One of the most influential military figures of the Hussite movement, the hero of the Battle of Grunwald, Jan Zizka, sided with the Taborites.

He was the organizer of the struggle of the Czech people against the crusaders who attacked his homeland in 1419-1437.

The Taborite army under the command of Jan Zizka won its first victory in the battle near Sudomerzh in 1420, where their detachment of 400 people, retreating from the city of Pilsen, successfully fought off the 2,000th detachment of the royal knightly cavalry. This battle is notable for the fact that the Taborites used here for the first time a field fortification made of wagons, which became an insurmountable obstacle for the mounted knights. This tactic was used by Zizka and other Taborite leaders during all the Hussite wars.

After the formation in 1420 of the Hussite military camp - Tabora (now a city in the Czech Republic, 75 kilometers from Prague), Jan Zizka became one of the four hetmans of the Hussites, and in fact - their main commander. The other three hetmans did not dispute his actual authority in the army and voluntarily submitted to him.

In the same year, the Hussite army won its first significant victory in the defense of Vitková Gora (now Zizková Gora), when the outcome of the battle for the Czech capital, the city of Prague, was decided. Its rebellious inhabitants besieged the royal garrison in the Prague fortress. Upon learning of this, the Taborites hurried to their aid. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund I, who led the First Crusade against the Hussite Bohemia, also hurried to Prague against opponents of the power of the Catholic Church. This campaign, like all subsequent ones, was carried out with the blessing of the Pope.

The crusaders attacked the Czech Republic from two sides - from the northeast and from the south.

Jan Zizka, at the head of the Taborite army, approached Prague much earlier than his opponents, but did not place his troops in the city itself.

For the camp, Jan Zizka chose Vitková Gora near the city, to which it was turned by its eastern slope. The Taborites fortified themselves on the top of the Vitková Gora, having built two wooden log cabins from the side of Prague, which they reinforced with walls of stone and clay, and dug deep ditches. It turned out to be a small field fortress. After that, the Czech soldiers began to wait for the attack of the crusader knights.

The first enemy attack was repelled by a detachment of Taborites, armed with heavy peasant flails for threshing grain. When the second attack of the knights on the top of the mountain followed, the inhabitants of Prague came to the aid of the army of Jan Zizka, among whom there were a large number of archers. Before that, the citizens of Prague watched the course of the battle from the fortress walls and towers. As a result, the battle on Vitkova Gora ended in a complete victory for the Taborites and the townspeople.

After this failure, many German feudal lords with their detachments left the imperial army, and Sigismund I considered it best to leave Prague and go into his possessions.

The victory of the Czech soldiers at Vitková Gora over the superior forces of the crusaders glorified the military leader of the Hussites and demonstrated his military leadership abilities.

Jan Zizka began his hetmanship with the reorganization of the Taborite troops. Under his leadership, the Hussites created a standing army, recruited from volunteers. Detachment commanders (hetmans) were elected.

In 1423, Jan Zizka developed the first military charter in Western Europe, which clearly defined the rules for the behavior of soldiers in battle, on a campaign and on vacation.

The Hussite army differed significantly from the troops of the crusaders. Its main force was not heavily armed knightly cavalry, but well-organized infantry. The primary tactical unit of his army was a wagon with a "crew" of 18-20 people: a commander, two shooters from arquebuses or squeakers, 4-8 archers, 2-4 chainmen who fought in battle with heavy peasant flails, 4 spearmen, 2 shieldmen who covered in battle with large wooden shields of horses and people, 2 riders who controlled horses and coupled wagons in the parking lot. The wagons were organized organizationally into dozens with a common commander, and dozens into ranks, larger military detachments capable of solving combat missions on their own.

All infantry was divided into tactical units - fifty. The hetman commanded the Hussite infantry. The cavalry of the Hussites was light and not numerous, in contrast to the enemy, knightly. It usually constituted the commander-in-chief's reserve in battle and was used to conduct a counterattack and pursue a defeated enemy.

The pride of the army of Jan Zizka was artillery, consisting of field and siege guns. The first included a short-barreled howitzer (howitzer), which fired stone cannonballs, and a long-barreled tarasnitsa on a wooden carriage, which fired stone and iron cannonballs. One such field gun accounted for five wagons. The main siege weapons were bombards with a caliber of up to 850 millimeters (one per row), with a firing range of 200-500 meters. The Hussites successfully used their numerous artillery in clashes with the heavy cavalry of the enemy.

The battle formation of the Hussite army was unusual for that time. Depending on the conditions of the terrain, they created various fortifications from heavy carts linked together by chains and belts. Such a fortification was later called "Wagenburg". Artillery guns were placed between the wagons, behind which the infantry and cavalry were securely hiding. In this case, the knights had to dismount and attack the Hussites in obviously unfavorable conditions.

The Hussite army was trained to fight day and night, in any weather. According to the military regulations, field fortifications from interlinked wagons had to rest against natural obstacles and, if possible, be installed in high places.

The Hussites in battle usually waited for the attack of the knightly cavalry and met it with the fire of their numerous artillery, arquebus and squeaker bullets, arrows with blunt armor-piercing tips. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, chainmen and spearmen entered the fray. The Hussites pursued and destroyed the defeated enemy, while the knights, after the battle won, did not pursue the fleeing enemies, but robbed the killed, wounded and captured opponents.

In the summer of 1421, during the siege of Rabi's castle, Jan Zizka was wounded and lost his sight, but remained at the head of the Hussite army. He saw the battlefield through the eyes of his closest assistants and gave the right orders.

In January 1422, the Hussite troops defeated the main forces of the European Catholic chivalry, which participated in the second campaign, in the decisive battle at Gabr (the pursuit of the defeated crusaders was carried out to the German Ford). In the same year, Jan Zhizhka lifted the blockade from the Czech city of the Zatec (Zaac) fortress, besieged by the crusaders of Emperor Sigismund I, with a sudden blow, and then successfully avoided the enemy encirclement near the city of Kolin.

Then the crusaders suffered another setback when they surrounded the Taborites' camp on Mount Vladar, near the town of Zlutice. In this battle, the Taborites, unexpectedly for the enemy, launched an attack from the top along with their wagons. The crusaders fled in fear, fearing an inglorious death under the wheels of heavy carts rushing at them.

The defeat of the crusader troops, commanded by Rino Spana di Ozora, at the German Brod and the capture of the fortified city of German Brod by the Hussites were so impressive that the third campaign in the Czech Republic took place only in 1426. In the Holy Roman Empire for a long time they could not forget the complete defeat of the second campaign against the Czech Republic.

This time, the crusaders gathered in a huge army of 70,000, which, it seemed, could sweep away everything in its path. However, Jan Zizka, at the head of a 25,000-strong army of Taborites, resolutely moved towards her. A big battle took place near the city of Ust. The Hussite commander once again applied his usual tactics of warfare.

The knights, clad in armor, and this time proved powerless in the attack of the field fortress, built from 500 wagons, firmly fastened to each other, and against the well-aimed fire of the Czech field artillery. The counterattack of the Hussite cavalry outweighed the scales in this battle. Despite their almost threefold superiority, the crusaders were utterly defeated, and they had to retreat.

To prevent new crusades against the Czech Republic, Jan Zizka moved military operations to the territory of his opponent. In the middle of 1423, he undertook a large campaign in Moravia and Hungary. Having crossed the Small Carpathians, the army of the Taborites went to the Danube. Then it deepened into the territory of Hungary for 130-140 kilometers. Hungarian feudal lords gathered large forces.

All the time of the campaign of the Taborites, the Hungarians constantly attacked them, but they never managed to break through the defensive ring from their wagons. The warriors of Jan Zizka fired cannons so accurately on the move that the Hungarian cavalry had to stop the parallel pursuit of the Czech troops.

During the Third and Fourth Crusades - in 1427 and 1431 - the Hussite army, led by their hetmans, successfully repelled enemy attacks, and the crusaders had to leave the Czech Republic.

The last victorious battle of the Czech commander Jan Zizka was the Battle of Maleshov in June 1424. This time, the opponents of the first hetman were not German and other European knights, but their fellow citizens - chashniki, former allies in the Reformation.

In the same year, the first hetman of the Hussite army died during a plague in the besieged fortress city of Přibislav, in central Bohemia. So the Taborite army was left without its illustrious commander, whose name alone inspired fear in the crusaders. There was no worthy replacement for Jan Zizka in the Hussite army. This circumstance largely predetermined her defeat.

The Hussite wars ended with the defeat of the Taborites in the Battle of Lipany in 1434 and eventually brought the long-awaited state independence to the Czech Republic.

A monument was erected to the great commander near Przybislav, and on the Vitkov Hill in the north of Prague there is a National Memorial with an equestrian statue of Jan Zizka.

The monument to the national hero of the Czech Republic Jan Zizka returned to Vitkov Hill after restoration. On the evening of October 24, a solemn opening ceremony was held.

The weight of the monument is 16.5 tons, the width is five meters, and the height reaches nine meters. Back in 2006, experts recorded the deplorable state of the monument.

The restoration of one of the largest equestrian sculptures in the world began in April 2011.

About one million euros (23 million kroons) were spent on the reconstruction. During the restoration work, a parcel was placed inside the sculpture, in which, as a greeting to the descendants, there are photographs, coins and stamps.

From the moment the monument was opened, for three days, Praguers and guests of the Czech Republic can admire the magnificent monument under spectacular lighting. The equestrian sculpture was created by Bogumil Kafka, he worked on it for 11 years until his death in 1942.

It was possible to cast the monument only in 1946, and on July 14, 1950, on the day of the 350th anniversary of the victory of the Hussites, the monument was erected on Vitkovo.

Pan Žižka is rightfully considered the greatest military talent in Czech history. An excellent commander with an iron will, he was extremely cruel in dealing with enemies. There are many stories about his gloomy character and severity, because of which he even bore the nickname "Terrible Blind Man" for some time.

Jan Zizka - invincible

How a highway robber became a folk hero.

On Vitkov Hill in the north of Prague, there is the National Memorial with one of the symbols of the Czech capital - the equestrian statue of Jan Zizka from Trocnov, the famous commander of the early 15th century, the hero of the Hussite wars, the echo of which then resounded throughout Europe. A few years ago, when the voting game “The Greatest of Czechs” was held on Czech television, during which the audience chose the most prominent figures in national history, Jan Žižka took an honorable fifth place, ahead of, in particular, Jan Hus, Antonin Dvořák and Karel Capek.

The half-blind, gray-haired horseman with the traditional weapon of the Hussites - a club in his hand remains one of the most expressive figures of Czech history. But in the guise of Zizka there are not only heroic traits. His fate is an example of how courage and cruelty, devotion to the idea and ambition, military talent and recklessness merged together in the turbulent era of the Hussite wars...

Jan Zizka - sculpture in Prague's Vitkov

For most of the life of Jan Zizka from Trotsnov, no detailed information has been preserved. It is only known that he was born around 1360 in the south of the Czech Republic and came from a poor noble family. According to legend, his mother gave birth to him during a summer storm under a huge oak tree. In 1908, Prince Adolf Schwarzenberg, the owner of the local estate, erected a memorial sign there. Before that, there was a small chapel in the same place, in which there was an inscription: "Jan Zizka from Trocnov, a blind man of bad memory, was born here." The chapel was Catholic, and the Catholics, as we shall see, had no reason to keep a good memory of Zizka. By the way, about Zizka's blindness: most historians are inclined to believe that he lost one eye as a result of an injury in childhood or early adolescence, while he lost the other during the Hussite wars. Therefore, in portraits depicting the commander at the beginning of his career, the rag usually covers his right eye, in later portraits both already.

What exactly Zizka did until about 1405 is not exactly known. There are references to the purchase and sale of several small estates in southern Bohemia. There is evidence that Zizka was married, his wife died early, but they had a daughter, whom her father later married off as one of the offspring of a noble family of gentlemen from Dube. In the first years of the 15th century, references to Jan Zizka of Trocnov appear in Czech chronicles and other documents that tell of rampant bands of robbers on the roads of the kingdom, which, under the indecisive and alcoholic Wenceslas IV, fell into a fair decline. In the court book of the princes from Rožmberk for 1406, data are given on the interrogation of one of the captured bandits with prejudice: Matei took the money from the merchants, and Zizka killed one of the servants. From other documents we learn about the attacks of the Zizka detachment on merchants in the vicinity of the city of Ceske Budejovice, where cloth became the prey of the robbers. It should be noted, however, that in those years, robbery was not out of the ordinary among the impoverished nobles; dozens of wandering knights and hundreds of their commoner assistants hunted for it.

Jan Zizka - sculpture in the city of Tabor

In 1409, the townspeople of Budějovice managed to catch and hang many robbers operating in the vicinity of the city. Zizka is not destined to escape justice either. But here, when the ghost of the gallows is already looming before him, the unexpected happens: King Wenceslas himself stands up for the robber knight. We do not know on what basis the royal amnesty applies to Jan Zizka - we can only assume that even earlier he managed to acquire influential patrons at court. However, having been released, Zizka leaves for Poland, where, according to some information, he participates in the famous Battle of Grunwald in the summer of 1410. In it, the Polish-Lithuanian army of King Vladislav Jagiello defeats the knights of the Teutonic Order. On the side of the Poles, a small Czech detachment also fought, which included Jan Zizka.

Zizka at the Battle of Grunwald (painting by Jan Matejko)

Returning to his homeland, Zizka begins a court career, enters the retinue of the wife of Wenceslas IV - Queen Sofia. It is possible that it was at this time that he fell under the influence of supporters of religious reform, led by the popular Prague preacher Jan Hus. Hus's teaching was a continuation of the theories of the English theologian John Wycliffe, who called on the church to be non-possessive and insisted that the only source of religious truths is the Holy Scripture. “Faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the voice of truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, hold on to the truth and defend the truth to the death,” Jan Hus urged his parishioners. In 1415, by decision of the Cathedral of the Catholic Church in Constance, he was declared a heretic and sent to the stake. But the religious ideas of the Prague preacher became a moral guide for thousands of people dissatisfied with social injustice and the growing influence of prosperous German colonists in the Czech Republic. Social, religious and national ferment led to a revolutionary explosion.

On July 30, 1419, unrest breaks out in Prague. After the city government scornfully rejects the demands of the reformers led by the young preacher Jan Zhelivsky, the crowd storms the town hall in the New Town and throws the city council members out of the windows - directly onto the spears and pikes of armed demonstrators. The chronicle reports that Jan Zizka was a participant in these events: "... And Jan Zizka, a servant and close associate of King Wenceslas, was at this throwing out and an unheard of murder." Probably, he not only participated, but was also one of the leaders of the uprising, otherwise he would not have been soon appointed leader of the Prague army. Meanwhile, Wenceslas IV died. Supporters of the Hussite doctrine and in general all those who were dissatisfied did not find a common language with his conservative and despotic successor - Sigismund of Hungary, nicknamed the "Red Fox". The Czech Republic embarked on the path of disobedience.

At the end of 1419, a truce was concluded between the royal troops and the rebels, but Zizka does not comply with it, preferring to leave Prague and move to Pilsen. The Hussites crack down on Catholic landowners, attack monasteries, partially destroying and partially distributing their property. In response, the new king, rich nobles and foreign knights gather troops against them. Battles follow one after another, and Zizka's military talent is manifested in them. Already in his first major battle, at Sudoměř in March 1420, he successfully used the favorite fortification of the Hussites from fallen and stacked wagons (in Czech - vozová hradba). A few months later, in July, after Pope Martin V announced a crusade against the Hussites, the crusader army entered into battle with Zizka's detachments on the very Vitkovsky Hill near Prague, where the monument to the commander now stands. And again, luck was on the side of the one-eyed warrior - with an unexpected counterattack, he put the enemy to flight. By that time, Zizka is a member of the council of 12 hetmans - the actual government of the rebels.

All the last years of his life, Zizka has been continuously fighting, not only with the royal army and the crusaders, but also with opponents in the ranks of the Hussist camp itself. In 1421, he led virtually punitive operations against the Pikarts and Adamites, two radical Hussite sects. Zizka knew how to be ruthless: dozens of people were executed and burned. At the same time, the Hussites continue to persecute the Catholic clergy, especially the monastic brethren. More and more power is concentrated in the hands of Zizka. From the end of 1420, he was the sole military leader of the Taborites, as they call the most organized and consistent part of the Hussite movement, the center of which is the city of Tabor, turned into a military-religious camp.

Against the crusaders

In June 1421, during the siege of the town of Rabi, Zizka was wounded in his only eye. He finally goes blind, but does not stop organizing new campaigns, repelling the invasion of knightly detachments from Saxony and Bavaria. The glory of Zizka is such that in several cases the enemy prefers to retreat without even engaging in battle with him.

The fighting is a tangled tangle of campaigns and pursuits, in which detachments of different cities, nobles, knightly orders, individual Hussist leaders and royal military leaders participate ... But the figure of Zizka, thanks to his military talent, rises above everyone. The forces are gradually leaving the blind commander - he is already over 60, for those times it is a deep old age - but he still manages in June 1424 at Maleshov to inflict a crushing defeat on the army of Catholics pursuing him and the Praguers who joined them. At the same time, his army captures and burns Kutna Hora - one of the largest centers of crafts and trade in the then Czech Republic.

Wars ravage the country, but there is no end in sight. True, in the autumn of 1424, negotiations for a general truce in the kingdom begin - once again. But Jan Zizka is not destined to wait for their end: during the siege of the city of Przebyslav on November 11, 1424, he dies - without losing a single battle.

Painting by Josef Manes "Death of Jan Zizka"

His soldiers, as a sign of grief, begin to call themselves "orphans". The Hussite wars continue for a good decade after Zizka's death. This man, who has lived such a stormy life, as if he cannot find peace even after death. He is buried in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Hradec Kralove, later the body is transferred to the city of Caslav. In 1620, after the Catholics defeated the Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain, the remains of the Hussite leader were hidden. They were only rediscovered in 1910.

Modern Czech historians assess the merits of Jan Zizka from Trocnov as follows: “He created a permanent army with a certain order of organization, significantly improved the conduct of defensive operations using wagons and regularly used artillery. The name of Zizka is associated with the defensive phase of the Hussite revolution and the strengthening of the state structures created during it. To the credit of the blind commander is the fact that, when he died, he had almost no property. Jan Zizka is rightfully considered the most outstanding military talent in Czech history"...

(c. 1360 - 1424)

Czech commander, one of the leaders of the Hussite movement. National hero of the Czech Republic.

In the history of the Czech state, perhaps, there is no more famous warrior-hero than Jan Zizka, whom the enemies of his fatherland called the "terrible blind man." He was born in South Bohemia, came from a family of a ruined knight, the owner of a small wooden castle in Trontsov. Early showed a desire for national independence of his native land. By the beginning of the Hussite wars in the Czech Republic, Zizka already had extensive combat experience, having managed to fight a lot outside the Czech Republic.

Jan Zizka took part in the famous Battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410, in which the Czech-Moravian detachments fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian-Russian army under the command of the Polish king Vladislav II Jagiello and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt against the German Teutonic Order. In that battle, two banners (detachments) of Zizka distinguished themselves on the left flank of the allied army, where the crusader knights under the command of Liechtenstein were defeated. The Czech knight was severely wounded in the head and blinded in his left eye.

The legendary Czech knight was also a participant in another big battle on European fields - at Agincourt.

Zizka became one of the closest associates of Jan Hus (burned at the stake at the Cathedral of Constance as a heretic in 1415), the leader of the Reformation of 1400-1419 in the Czech Republic. His supporters were called Hussites. Their main demands were the secularization of the vast landed property of the Catholic Church in the country and the deprivation of its political power. As the struggle grew, the Hussite movement split into two wings: moderate (cuppers) and radical (Taborites - from the city of Tabor, the center of their movement). One of the most influential military figures of the Hussite movement, the hero of the Battle of Grunwald, Jan Zizka, sided with the Taborites.

He glorified himself in the history of his fatherland by being the organizer of the struggle of the Czech people against the crusaders who attacked his homeland in 1419-1434.

The Taborite army under the command of Jan Zizka won its first victory in the battle near the city of Sudomerzha in 1420, where their detachment of 400 people, retreating from the city of Pilsen, successfully fought off the 2,000th detachment of the royal knightly cavalry. This battle was notable for the fact that the Taborites for the first time used a field fortification made of wagons here, which became an insurmountable obstacle for the mounted knights. This tactic was used by Zizka and other Taborite leaders during all the Hussite wars.

After the formation in 1420 of the Hussite military camp - Tabora (now a city in the Czech Republic 75 kilometers from Prague), Jan Zizka became one of the four hetmans of the Hussites, and in fact their main commander. Three other hetmans did not challenge his true power in the army and voluntarily submitted to him.

The electors of Brandenburg, Palatinate, Trier, Cologne and Maine, Italian mercenaries, as well as the Austrian and Bavarian dukes entered the emperor's army with their detachments. The crusaders attacked the Czech Republic from two sides - from the northeast and from the south.

Jan Zizka, at the head of the Taborite army, approached Prague much earlier than his opponents, but did not place his troops in the city itself outside its fortress walls. For the camp he chose Vitkov Hill near the capital, to which it was turned by its eastern slope. The length of the mountain was 4 kilometers. The Taborites fortified themselves on the top of the Vitková Mountain, having built two wooden log cabins from the side of Prague, which they reinforced with walls of stone and clay, and dug deep ditches. It turned out to be a small field fortress. After that, the Czech soldiers began to wait for the attack of the crusader knights.

After this failure, many German feudal lords left the imperial army with their detachments. Sigismund I considered it best to leave Prague and go into his own domain.

The victory of the Czech soldiers at Vitková Gora over the superior forces of the Crusader Knights glorified the military leader of the Hussites and demonstrated his military leadership abilities.

The Hussite army differed significantly from the troops of the crusaders. Its main force was not heavily armed knightly cavalry, but well-organized infantry. The primary tactical unit of the Hussite army was a wagon with a "crew" of 18-20 people: a commander, 2 shooters from an arquebus or squeakers, 4-8 archers, 2-4 chainmen who fought in battle with heavy peasant flails, 4 spearmen, 2 shieldmen who covered in battle with large wooden shields of horses and people, 2 riders who controlled horses and coupled wagons in the parking lot.

Carts were organizationally united in dozens with a common commander, and dozens - in ranks, larger military detachments. Rows as a tactical unit of the Hussite army could independently solve combat missions.

The pride of the army of Jan Zizka was artillery, consisting of field and siege weapons. The first included a short-barreled howitzer (howitzer), which fired stone cannonballs, and a long-barreled "tarass" on a wooden carriage, which fired stone and iron cannonballs. One such field gun accounted for 5 wagons. The main siege weapons were bombards with a caliber of up to 850 millimeters (one per row) with a firing range of 200-500 meters. The Hussites successfully used their numerous artillery in clashes with the heavy cavalry of the enemy, which on the battlefield did not differ in maneuverability and was a good target.

Usually the Hussite army consisted of 4-8 thousand people - well trained, disciplined and organized. However, if necessary, the commander Jan Zizka could call on significantly more Hussite warriors under his banners, primarily militias from nearby cities and villages.

The battle formation of the Hussite army was unusual for that time. Depending on the conditions of the terrain, they created various fortifications from heavy carts linked together by chains and belts. This fortification was later called Wagenburg. Artillery guns were placed between the wagons, behind which the infantry and cavalry were securely hiding. In this case, the knights had to dismount and attack the Hussites in obviously unfavorable conditions.

The Hussite army was trained to fight day and night, in any weather. According to their military regulations, field fortifications from interlinked wagons had to rest against natural obstacles and, if possible, be installed on high places.

The Hussites successfully besieged the knight's castles and bravely went to storm them. In the summer of 1421, during the siege of Rabi Castle, hetman Jan Zizka was wounded and completely lost his sight, but remained at the head of the Hussite army. He saw the battlefield through the eyes of his closest assistants and gave the right orders.

In January 1422, the Hussite troops defeated the main forces of the European Catholic chivalry participating in the Second Crusade in the decisive battle at Gabr (the persecution of the defeated crusaders was carried out to the German Ford). In the same year, Jan Zizka lifted the blockade from the Czech city of the Zatec (Hare) fortress, besieged by the crusaders of Emperor Sigismund I, with a sudden blow, and then successfully avoided the enemy encirclement near the city of Kolin.

Then the crusaders suffered another setback when they surrounded the Taborite camp on Mount Vladar near the town of Zlutice. In this battle, the Taborites, unexpectedly for the enemy, launched an attack from the top along with their wagons. The crusaders fled in fear, fearing an inglorious death under the wheels of heavy carts rushing at them. Those who avoided a collision with wagons and did not seek salvation in retreat were defeated on foot and on horseback by the Taborites.

In 1422, a squad consisting of Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian soldiers came to the aid of the Taborites from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For about eight years they fought side by side with the Czechs against the Crusaders.

The defeat of the crusader troops, commanded by Rino Spana di Ozora, at the German Brod and the capture of the fortified city of German Brod by the Hussites were so impressive that the Third Crusade to Bohemia took place only in 1426. In the Holy Roman Empire, for a long time they could not forget the complete defeat of the Second Crusade.

This time, the crusaders gathered in a huge army of 70,000, which, it seemed, could demolish everything in its path. However, Jan Zizka, at the head of the 25,000th army of the Taborites, resolutely moved towards her. A big battle took place near the city of Ust. The Hussite commander once again applied his usual tactics of warfare.

The knights, clad in armor, and this time proved powerless in the attack of the field fortress, built from 500 wagons, firmly fastened to each other, and against the well-aimed fire of the Czech field artillery. The counterattack of the Hussite cavalry tipped the scales in the battle. Despite their almost threefold superiority, the crusaders were utterly defeated, and they had to retreat.

By that time, a new split had occurred in the Hussite camp. Jan Zizka headed its left wing and founded in 1423 in the northeastern part of the Czech Republic the so-called Orebit Brotherhood with its center in the city of Hradec Kralove (Small Tabor). Now the enemies of the independent Czech Republic had a good chance to crush the anti-Catholic Hussite movement.

To prevent new crusades against the Czech Republic, Jan Zizka moved military operations to the territory of his opponent. In the middle of 1423, he undertook a large campaign in Moravia and Hungary. Having crossed the Small Carpathians, the army of the Taborites went to the Danube. Then it went deep into the Hungarian territory for 130-140 kilometers. Local feudal lords gathered large forces to repel the attack.

During the campaign of the Taborites, the Hungarians constantly attacked them, but they never managed to break through the defensive ring from their wagons. On the march, the Czech soldiers fired cannons so accurately on the move that the Hungarian cavalry had to stop the parallel pursuit of the Hussite troops.

During the Third and Fourth Crusades - in 1427 and 1431 - the Hussite army, led by their hetmans, successfully repelled enemy attacks, and the crusaders had to leave the Czech Republic. The third campaign ended for them in a lost battle near Tachov, where the Hussites were commanded by Prokop the Great and Prokop the Small.

The Fourth Crusade ended with a big battle at Domazlice. A huge army of Hussites fought here - 50 thousand infantry and 5 thousand horsemen. The Hussites had about 3,000 wagons and over 600 different guns. Their blind commander was no longer in their ranks, but the hetmans trained by him remained...

The last victorious battle of the Czech commander Jan Zizka was the Battle of Maleshov in June 1424. This time, the opponents of the first hetman were not German and other European crusader knights, but their own fellow citizens, former allies in the Reformation.

The Taborites habitually fortified themselves on the top of the mountain, which had gentle slopes. Zizka decided to give the initiative to the enemy. Chashniki were the first to attack the Wagenburg Taborites on the top of the mountain, lining up in a column. When she approached the Wagenburg, Jan Zizka ordered carts loaded with stones to be lowered onto the attacking bowlers going uphill. The enemy column immediately fell into complete disarray and came under a counterattack by the infantry and cavalry of the Taborites. To top it off, the bowlers were fired upon from heavy bombards. The Battle of Maleshov ended with the complete victory of the troops of Jan Zizka.

In the same year, the first hetman of the Hussite army died during a plague in the besieged fortress city of Příbislav in central Bohemia. So the Taborite army was left without its illustrious commander, whose name alone inspired fear in the crusaders. There was no worthy replacement for Jan Zizka, the Czech national hero, in the Hussite army. This circumstance largely predetermined her defeat.

From the book Hussite Wars (Great Peasant War of the 15th century in the Czech Republic) author Rubtsov Boris Timofeevich

Chapter VI Defeat of the Second and Third Crusades. Jan Zizka. Gap between Taborites and Chashniki (1421-1424) The victories of the Hussites in the spring of 1421 brought most of the country's territory under their rule. By this time, in the center of the Czech Republic, under the control of Prague, there were cities

From the book Great Historical Figures. 100 Stories of Reform Rulers, Inventors and Rebels author Mudrova Anna Yurievna

Zizka Jan ca. 1360–1424 Leader of the Czech religious reform movement that took revolutionary forms. Jan Zizka was born in South Bohemia to an impoverished noble family. At a young age, having sold the property left by his parents, he moved to the court and spent his youth as a page

Reason: 6th place is given to a person who played an important role in the history of the Czech state, but is known in absentia only to historians, people who are enlightened and familiar with the history of the Czech Republic, tourists who visited the country. This name is not on everyone's lips, but this does not diminish the significance of his deeds.

Charles IV (1316-1378) - Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of the Czech Republic and Germany. The period of his reign of the Czech state went down in history as the "Golden Age". How did Charles IV “golden” the Czech Republic? Charles did enough for Bohemia to make it prosperous under his rule.

The most expensive and important regalia of the Czech monarchs is associated with the name of Charles IV: the St. Wenceslas crown, kept in (currently the crown is kept in in). It was made especially for the coronation of the emperor.

Charles IV gravitated toward enlightenment and construction, was a patron of the arts and science. Under his leadership, the Karlovy Vary resort opens, the castle in Hradcany and the Karlstejn castle are being built. The latter became a treasury of royal regalia and a place of storage of the holy relics of the monarch's collection. According to his decree, the Cathedral of St. Vitus (Prague) is also being built.

The merits of Charles include the development of Czech cities, the opening of the University of Prague. Under his rule, the Vltava becomes a navigable river, vineyards are planted in the Czech state.

He established the Zemstvo Peace Union - these are agreements prohibiting for a specified time to wage internecine wars in Europe. If tourists are lucky with a guide, they will learn a lot about the deeds of Charles IV for the benefit of the Czech Republic.

5. Golden Style by Alphonse Mucha

Reason: this name is associated in the West with the "Golden Age of Painting". In Russia, he is little known. The younger generation did not even hear the name of the artist, and yet he introduced his own style into art, later called the “Fly style”.

Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939) - artist, poster artist, illustrator, jewelry designer, representative of the Art Nouveau style. The artist began his career as an actor and poster decorator. He painted the ancestral castle of Count Karl Kuen-Belassi and his ceremonial palace Emmahof in Grushovani. He headed the Association of Slavic Artists.

Glory, recognition came to him in Paris, when he made a poster for the premiere of "Gismonde" with the participation of Sarah Bernhardt. His graphic series "Flowers", "Seasons", "Trees", "Stars", "Months", "Arts", "Precious Stones" are still printed in the form of art posters. Reproductions of his paintings are in demand among tourists as.

There were two muses in his life: the Czech Republic and his wife Maria. In 1928, the artist's dream comes true: he finishes the "Slavic Epic" in his homeland (a monumental canvas tells the story of the Slavic peoples). The work is located in the castle in Moravsky Krumlov. Later it was presented to them by Prague.

In the capital, A. Mukha creates the interiors of the Municipal House, the Imperial and Europe hotels. The main stained-glass window of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle was created according to the sketches of A. Mucha.

Portal for the student. Self-training

Jan Zizka - invincible

5. Golden Style by Alphonse Mucha

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