October – 21 December 1421
Sigismund’s winter campaign
Sigismund’s army is about 50,000 men by the Old Czech Annals, 80,000 Hungarians and 12,000 Austrians by Eberhard Windecke, and three times the Hussites by Thomas Ebendorfer. On 21 December 1421 it surrounds Žižka’s Taborites and Praguers in the open before Kutná Hora. The battle turns on the wagon fort: chained wagons that horsemen cannot ride through, guns that keep them at a distance, and a fort that moves through the enemy lines and fires as it moves.
Žižka before Kutná Hora, by Josef Mathauser, from the History of the Czech Nation in PicturesWikimedia Commons, Josef Mathauser, Public domain (Josef Mathauser - Žižka před Kutnou Horou (Historie českého národa v obrazech, obr. 047) retouched.jpg)
Sigismund sets out only at the start of October, with his Hungarian army and the Austrian troops of his son-in-law Albert V. About 25 October his Hungarians under Ladislav Blagay beat the Hussites of Moravia at Uherský Ostroh, and on 17 November most Moravian lords renounce the Four Articles at a diet in Brno. The army then marches by Jihlava towards Kutná Hora, with a second column by Litomyšl, its core Hungarian under the Florentine Pippo Spano.
Pippo Spano, the Florentine commander of Sigismund’s Hungarians, by Andrea del Castagno, about 1448Wikimedia Commons, Andrea del Castagno, Public domain (Pippo spano, andrea del castagno.jpg)
Žižka reaches Prague with the Taborites on 1 December and marches out on 8 December, the Praguers a day behind. Kutná Hora opens its gates to them. Žižka strengthens the garrison of Čáslav and returns to Kutná Hora, while the royal army comes on from Německý Brod by Ledeč nad Sázavou, burning villages on the way, and reaches the town on 21 December.
Emperor Sigismund, portrait of about 1433, formerly attributed to PisanelloWikimedia Commons, formerly attributed to Pisanello, Public domain (Pisanello 024.jpg)
Sources
- Frederick G. Heymann, John Žižka and the Hussite Revolution (1955).
- Josef Pekař, Zprávy pramenů o bojích u Hory a Brodu kol vánoc 1421 (1928).
- Jan Durdík, Husitské vojenství (1953), p. 146.
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