7 – 10 January 1422
The pursuit to Německý Brod
Žižka first has the fire in Kutná Hora put out and then follows the royal army. On 8 January he catches it on a hill near Habry, about 30 km from Kutná Hora, where a stand, probably led by Pippo Spano, breaks at the first attack. The Hussites pursue the fugitives the same day to Německý Brod, about 20 km on, where the royal troops form up once more to cover the king’s flight into Moravia and are beaten again.
Kutná Hora set on fire and Sigismund’s soldiers in flight, by Hugo SchüllingerWikimedia Commons, Hugo Schüllinger, Public domain (Hugo Schüllinger - Zapálení Kutné Hory a útěk vojáků Zikmundových.jpg)
Many of those who flee past the town across the frozen Sázava drown when the ice breaks, 548 armoured men by one version of the Old Czech Annals. The versions of the annals count 12,000 or 2,000 royal dead in the flight, and six or seven banners and 540 loaded wagons are taken. Sigismund escapes into Moravia.
The Sázava at Havlíčkův Brod, the former Německý BrodWikimedia Commons, Ben Skála, Benfoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Havlíčkův-Brod-Sázava-po-proudu-z-lávky-u-sv-Jána-a-Plovárenská2016.jpg)
Some of the royal commanders hold Německý Brod, and on 9 January a whole day’s assault, with guns firing on both sides, fails. On 10 January, while the garrison is negotiating its surrender, Hussite troops break in without Žižka’s knowledge and kill most of the soldiers and townspeople, about 1,500 by the chronicle of the Old Prague Collegiate, and the town is burned. In March 1423 Žižka calls it a sin and asks his followers to do penance at Německý Brod.
A tower of the town walls of Havlíčkův BrodWikimedia Commons, František Šťastný, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Havlíčkův Brod, Městské opevnění 03.jpg)
Sources
- Ze starých letopisů českých (1980).
- Josef Pekař, Zprávy pramenů o bojích u Hory a Brodu kol vánoc 1421 (1928).
- Frederick G. Heymann, John Žižka and the Hussite Revolution (1955).
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