7 June 1424
Žižka turns at Malešov
Žižka draws up his army on the gentle slope above the brook south of the fortress of Malešov. The wagons stand in a line along the slope with the guns between them, the foot behind and the horse on both wings. In the centre, by the younger Old Czech Annals, stand hay wagons loaded with stones, hidden from the enemy.
The memorial stone to Žižka’s victory, north-west of the Prosík pond south of MalešovWikimedia Commons, Atillak, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Pomník bitvy u Malešova.jpg)
The army of Prague and the lords follows his track past the fortress and down into the valley in a long column. By the Annals the Praguers do not wait for all their men to come up, sure that Žižka is fleeing. Aeneas Silvius writes that Žižka chose the valley because the enemy could not deploy there. The exact site is not known: the memorial stone stands on the slope south of the town, and Hugo Toman placed the fight west of the fortress in 1898.
Hugo Toman’s plan of the battle of Malešov, 1898, which places Žižka on the hill of Štimberky west of the fortressWikimedia Commons, Hugo Toman, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Bitva u Malešova - plán bojiště.png)
Sources
- Ze starých letopisů českých (1980), p. 139.
- Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Historie česká (2010), p. 83.
- Petr Čornej and Pavel Bělina, Slavné bitvy naší historie (1993).
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