January – April 1423
The Lesser Tábor and Hořice, 1423
Early in 1423 Žižka parts with some of the leaders of Tábor, for reasons that are not fully known, and turns to his followers in eastern Bohemia. They are called the Orebites after the hill of Oreb near Třebechovice, where the priest Ambrož of Hradec gathered the people in 1419, and his new union is also known as the Lesser Tábor. On 26 March Žižka writes from Vilémov that he stays one with the Taborites, and he calls his union to an assembly at Německý Brod on 7 or 8 April.
Žižka, blind, leads a Hussite field army under the chalice banner, from the Jena Codex, about 1490–1510Wikimedia Commons, attributed to Janíček Zmilelý of Písek, Public domain (Jensky kodex Zizka.jpg)
About 10 April he marches north against Čeněk of Vartenberk, a lord who has changed sides four times and sends his horse to raid the Orebites’ lands, and on 20 April the men of Hradec Králové join him under Diviš Bořek of Miletínek, the captain of Prague’s towns in the east. At Hořice Žižka closes about 120 wagons, some 3,000 men with a tenth of them mounted, into a fort on the hill of St Gothard. The lords attack up the slope under fire from guns, handguns and crossbows, and after a hard fight at the wagons Žižka sends his horse and foot out against them. They flee, Čeněk with a few men and without his wagons and guns, on 20, 23 or 27 April by the different sources.
The church of St Gothard on the hill above Hořice, where Žižka’s wagons stood in April 1423Wikimedia Commons, Prazak, CC BY 2.5 (Hořice - kostel Svatého Gottharda.jpg)
Later in 1423 Žižka’s brotherhood adopts a military ordinance of twelve articles. It binds every man to obey his captain on the march, keeps each company under its own banner, puts all booty in one heap to be shared, and punishes thieves, drunkards and dice players alike, lord or peasant.
The statue of Jan Žižka in HořiceWikimedia Commons, Lysippos, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Žižka pomník hořice.jpg)
Sources
- Frederick G. Heymann, John Žižka and the Hussite Revolution (1955).
- Stephen Turnbull, The Hussite Wars 1419–36 (2004).
- Petr Čornej and Pavel Bělina, Slavné bitvy naší historie (1993).
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