1 March – 10 July 1420
Sigismund’s crusade, 1420
Sigismund, King of Hungary and King of the Romans, claims Bohemia as the heir of his brother Wenceslas IV. The Moravian lords accept him at Brno at Christmas 1419, but the Hussites will take him only if he allows communion in both kinds, and he refuses. On 1 March 1420 Pope Martin V issues the bull Omnium plasmatoris domini, which calls a crusade against the Wycliffites and Hussites, and on 17 March the papal legate proclaims it at Breslau, where the princes of the Empire are meeting. Two days earlier Sigismund has had the Hussite Jan Krása executed in Breslau.
Pope Martin V, engraving of his medal by Bernard Picart, 1713Wikimedia Commons, Bernard Picart, Leiden University Libraries, CC BY 4.0 (Medal with portrait of Pope Martin V PK-P-128.300, PK-P-127.410.tiff)
At the end of April the crusade army leaves Silesia by Kladsko. Hradec Králové surrenders without a fight on 3 May, and Sigismund makes Kutná Hora, a mining town of mostly German Catholics, his base. On 7 May Čeněk of Vartenberk hands Prague Castle to the king’s men. In the middle of May Sigismund rejects the terms of the Praguers’ envoys, and Prague calls the Hussites of the country to its aid.
Sigismund’s wars against the Hussites, a woodcut in the Chronicle of the Hungarians of János Thuróczy, 1488Wikimedia Commons, unknown artist, Public domain (Thuróczy krónika - Zsigmond király háborúi a husziták ellen.jpg)
Žižka and the Taborites march north, beat Petr of Šternberk’s horse and foot before Benešov and reach Prague on 20 May, and the men of Žatec, Louny and Slaný arrive three days later. While they are away, Oldřich of Rožmberk besieges Tábor, until about 350 horsemen under Mikuláš of Hus ride back from Prague and scatter his army at the end of June. The crusaders reach Prague on 30 June. By 10 July their army, about 30,000 men by modern estimates and 80,000 by the chroniclers, stands in camps on the left bank of the Vltava, from Prague Castle to the village of Bubny.
Sources
- Laurence of Březová, Hussite Chronicle, Czech edition Husitská kronika (1979).
- Petr Čornej, Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české V (2000).
- František Šmahel, Husitská revoluce 3: Kronika válečných let (1996).
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