14 July 1420, an hour before sunset
The assault on the works
About an hour before sunset the crusaders attack with trumpets, take the first ditch and a watchtower in the vineyards, and try to climb the wall. The defenders hold them off with stones and spears, as they have no arrows left and no powder for their guns. The Margrave of Meissen writes the same day that his men crossed the Hussite ditches and were fighting for the third.
The fight for the blockhouses on Vítkov on 14 July 1420, by Adolf Liebscher, 1893Wikimedia Commons, Adolf Liebscher, Public domain (Adolf Liebscher - Bitva na hoře Vítkově dne 14. července roku 1420.jpg)
Žižka comes up to the works during the fight. The Old Czech Annals tell that the crusaders threw him down into a ditch, and Laurence of Březová writes that he would have been killed if his men had not torn him from the enemy with their flails. On the narrow neck the crusaders can bring only a few men at a time against the wall.
Sources
- Laurence of Březová, Hussite Chronicle, Czech edition Husitská kronika (1979).
- Frederick, Margrave of Meissen, letter to the Duke of Bavaria, 14 July 1420.
- Josef Pekař, Zprávy pramenů o boji na hoře Vítkově 14. července 1420 (1926).
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