March – 7 June 1424
The chase across Bohemia
At Malešov on 7 June 1424 Žižka’s Orebites and a Taborite troop under Jan Hvězda of Vícemilice, 7,000 foot, 500 horse and 300 wagons by Bartošek of Drahonice’s count for May, face the army of Prague and the lords, larger by every account. Žižka turns on his pursuers on ground he has chosen, a slope above the narrow valley of a brook where they cannot deploy. By the Old Czech Annals he rolls wagons loaded with stones down into their column before he attacks.
Žižka’s army leaves Kostelec nad Labem across the Elbe, by Věnceslav ČernýWikimedia Commons, Věnceslav Černý, Public domain (Věnceslav Černý - Odchod vojů Žižkových z Kostelce nad Labem.jpg)
In March Žižka moves into the regions of Jičín and Nový Bydžov, and early in May he leads a large expedition into the region of Plzeň. When the Landfried of Plzeň comes out against him on 17 May, he avoids battle and withdraws to Žatec. At the end of May the Praguers and their allies march against him, and he falls back to Kostelec nad Labem, where they surround him on three sides with the Elbe at his back.
Žižka crosses the river by night with the help of Hynek Boček of Poděbrady and retreats along the right bank, while the Praguers follow on the left bank and soon bridge the river. On 6 June Hynek tries to delay them with talks, and they take him prisoner when they see the purpose. Žižka crosses the Elbe again to reach Čáslav, but on 7 June the pursuers are close, and he chooses a position near the fortress of Malešov, 6 km from Kutná Hora, with Jan Hvězda, who knows the ground from his siege of the fortress in 1421.
The fortress of MalešovWikimedia Commons, Hadonos, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Kutnohorsko Malešov tvrz 02.JPG)
Sources
- Bartošek of Drahonice, Chronicle, in Ze zpráv a kronik doby husitské (1981), p. 233.
- Josef Pekař, Žižka a jeho doba III (1992), p. 239.
- Petr Čornej and Pavel Bělina, Slavné bitvy naší historie (1993).
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