25 March 1420, afternoon
The dike between the ponds
Overtaken on the march, the Hussites take post on the dike between the Markovec pond, which is full, and the Škaredý pond, which has been drained. A marsh, today the Prostřední pond, covers their rear. The Old Czech Annals say that Žižka came to the pond called Škaredý and could go no further, so he drew up there and set his wagons along the dike.
The Markovec pond seen from the mound of the Žižka memorial at SudoměřWikimedia Commons, O. Mejsnar, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Sudoměř, Markovec.jpg)
The 12 wagons stand chained wheel to wheel across the end of the dike and along its side towards the drained pond, the two sides that horsemen can reach. Horses cannot pass them, and handgunners and crossbowmen shoot through the gaps. On a dike a few metres wide only a few riders can attack at once, so the royalists cannot bring their numbers to bear.
Sources
- Old Czech Annals, in Ze starých letopisů českých (1980), p. 63.
- Petr Čornej and Pavel Bělina, Slavné bitvy naší historie (1993), p. 40.
- Jan Durdík, Husitské vojenství (1953), p. 140.
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