15 September – 1 November 1420
Vyšehrad, 1 November 1420
Prague’s army begins the siege of Vyšehrad, the royal fortress south of the New Town, on 15 September 1420. The Orebites arrive on 4 October under Hynek Krušina of Lichtenburk, who is elected commander of all the Hussite troops, and the men of Žatec and Louny and the Taborites under Mikuláš of Hus follow. Their main camp lies on the Pankrác plain, across the road to Benešov. When Sigismund tries to bring food from Beroun by river, they close the Vltava with iron-shod stakes and chains.
Vyšehrad as it stood in 1420, a print of 1862 after an older paintingWikimedia Commons, unknown artist, Public domain (Starý Vyšehrad, 1420.jpg)
On 28 October the starving garrison agrees to surrender at eight in the morning of 1 November unless the king brings food by 31 October. Sigismund gathers 15,000 to 20,000 men by Laurence of Březová, but waits at Nový hrad near Kunratice for the Moravians and arrives on 1 November after three in the afternoon. The garrison keeps its word and stays inside. The Moravian lords dismount and attack across the marshes and ponds on the slope towards Podolí, and the Hungarians come down the road to the church of St Pancras.
The battle below Vyšehrad, in Karel Vladislav Zap’s Česko-moravská kronika, 1868Wikimedia Commons, unknown illustrator, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Bitva na Vyšehradě (Česko-moravská kronika, 1868).png)
The Praguers in the trenches first fall back to the church, until Krušina rallies them, and they drive the royalists off and pursue them through the ponds, vineyards and fields. The peasants with flails take no prisoners. Laurence counts about 400 royalist dead, 25 lords among them, Petr Konopišťský of Šternberk and Jindřich of Plumlov, governor of Moravia, against 30 Hussites. Vyšehrad surrenders, and Sigismund retreats to Kutná Hora.
Sources
- Laurence of Březová, Hussite Chronicle, Czech edition Husitská kronika (1979).
- Eberhard Windecke, Book of Emperor Sigismund.
- Petr Čornej, Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české V (2000).
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