23 – 25 March 1420
The march from Plzeň
At Sudoměř about 400 Hussites from Plzeň with 12 wagons hold off a royalist army of horse, more than 2,000 strong by a Prague chronicle and about 700 by modern estimates. They stand on a dike between two fishponds, where horsemen can reach them only on a front a few metres wide, and close the open sides with their wagons.
The defeat of the Iron Lords at Sudoměř, after a painting by Ferdinand Hetteš, printed 1923Wikimedia Commons, Josef Ferdinand Hetteš, Public domain (Ferdinand Hetteš – Porážka železných pánů u Sudoměře dne 25. března 1420.jpg)
The Hussites leave Plzeň on about 23 March 1420 under terms that the Praguers have agreed with the royal under-chamberlain, Václav of Lešno. The column of about 400 on foot, women and children among them, with 12 wagons and 9 horsemen, marches towards Tábor by Kasejovice, Řepice and Štěkeň, led by Břeněk Švihovský of Dolany, Valkoun of Adlar and Žižka. Bohuslav of Švamberk and the Landfrieden of Plzeň follow them, and the royalists break the terms.
On 25 March the Hospitallers of the commandery of Strakonice under Jindřich of Hradec, master of their priory, join the Landfrieden. The Iron Lords, the knights of Petr Konopišťský of Šternberk and of Mikeš Divůček of Jemniště, mintmaster of Kutná Hora, come from Písek, which they have just taken. The royalists attack the same afternoon, south-east of the farm of Sudoměř.
The ground of the battle near Sudoměř, with a fishpond behind the treesWikimedia Commons, Feťour, Public domain (Battle of Sudoměř 10.JPG)
Sources
- Laurence of Březová, Hussite Chronicle, Czech edition Husitská kronika (1979), p. 49.
- Josef Macek, Tábor v husitském revolučním hnutí II (1955), p. 28.
- Petr Čornej and Pavel Bělina, Slavné bitvy naší historie (1993), p. 40.
Prev: The founding of Tábor, 1420Next: The dike between the ponds