A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

In September, 1421, a second Crusade of 200,000 men, commanded by five German Electors, entered Bohemia from the west. It had been planned that the Emperor Sigismund, assisted by Duke Albert of Austria, to whom he had given his daughter in marriage, and who was now also supported by many of the Bohemian nobles, should invade the country from the east at exactly the same time. The Hussites were thus to be crushed between the upper and the nether millstones. But the blind Ziska, nothing daunted, led his wagons, his flail-men and mace-wielders against the Electors, whose troops began to fly before them. No battle was fought; the 200,000 Crusaders were scattered in all directions, and lost heavily during their retreat. Then Ziska wheeled about and marched against Sigismund, who was late in making his appearance. The two armies met on the 8th of January, 1422, and the Hussite victory was so complete that the Emperor narrowly escaped falling into their hands. It is hardly to be wondered that they should consider themselves to be the chosen people of God, after such astonishing successes.

1422. DEFEAT OF THE SECOND CRUSADE.

At this juncture, Prince Witold of Lithuania, supported by king Jagello of Poland, offered to accept the four articles of the Hussites, provided they would give him the crown of Bohemia. The Moderates were all in his favor, and even Ziska left the Taborites when, true to their republican principles, they refused to accept Witold's proposition. The separation between the two parties of the Hussites was now complete. Witold sent his nephew Koribut, who swore to maintain the four articles, and was installed at Prague, as "Vicegerent of Bohemia." Thereupon Sigismund made such representations to king Jagello of Poland, that Koribut was soon recalled by his uncle. About the same time a third Crusade was arranged, and Frederick of Brandenburg (the Hohenzollern) selected to command it, but the plan failed from lack of support. The dissensions among the Hussites became fiercer than ever; Ziska was at one time on the point of attacking Prague, but the leaders of the moderate party succeeded in coming to an understanding with him, and he entered the city in triumph. In October, 1424, while marching against Duke Albert of Austria, who had invaded Moravia, he fell a victim to the plague. Even after death he continued to terrify the German soldiers, who believed that his skin had been made into a drum, and still called the Hussites to battle.

1426.

A majority of the Taborites elected a priest, called Procopius the Great, as their commander in Ziska's stead; the others, who thenceforth styled themselves "Orphans," united under another priest, Procopius the Little. The approach of another Imperial army, in 1426, compelled them to forget their differences, and the result was a splendid victory over their enemies. Procopius the Great then invaded Austria and Silesia, which he laid waste without mercy. The Pope called a fourth Crusade, which met the same fate as the former ones: the united armies of the Archbishop of Treves, the Elector Frederick of Brandenburg and the Duke of Saxony, 200,000 strong, were utterly defeated, and fled in disorder, leaving an enormous quantity of stores and munitions of war in the hands of the Bohemians.

Procopius, who was almost the equal of Ziska as a military leader, made several unsuccessful attempts to unite the Hussites in one religious body. In order to prevent their dissensions from becoming dangerous to the common cause, he kept the soldiers of all sects under his command, and undertook fierce invasions into Bavaria, Saxony and Brandenburg, which made the Hussite name a terror to all Germany. During these expeditions one hundred towns were destroyed, more than fifteen hundred villages burned, tens of thousands of the inhabitants slain, and such quantities of plunder collected that it was impossible to transport the whole of it to Bohemia. Frederick of Brandenburg and several other princes were compelled to pay heavy tributes to the Hussites: the Empire was thoroughly humiliated, the people weary of slaughter, yet the Pope refused even to call a Council for the discussion of the difficulty.

As for the Emperor Sigismund, he had grown tired of the quarrel, long before. Leaving the other German States to fight Bohemia, he withdrew to Hungary and for some years found enough to do in repelling the inroads of the Turks. It was not until the beginning of the year 1431, when there was peace along the Danube, that he took any measures for putting an end to the Hussite war. Pope Martin V. was dead, and his successor, Eugene IV., reluctantly consented to call a Council to meet at Basel. First, however, he insisted on a fifth Crusade, which was proclaimed for the complete extermination of the Hussites. The German princes made a last and desperate effort: an army of 130,000 men, 40,000 of whom were cavalry, was brought together, under the command of Frederick of Brandenburg, while Albert of Austria was to support it by invading Bohemia from the south.

1434. END OF THE HUSSITE WARS.

Procopius and his dauntless Hussites met the Crusaders on the 14th of August, 1431, at a place called Thauss, and won another of their marvellous victories. The Imperial army was literally cut to pieces: 8,000 wagons, filled with provisions and munitions of war, and 150 cannons, were left upon the field. The Hussites marched northward to the Baltic, and eastward into Hungary, burning, slaying and plundering as they went. Even the Pope now yielded, and the Hussites were invited to attend the Council at Basel, with the most solemn stipulations in regard to personal safety and a fair discussion of their demands. Sigismund, in the meantime, had gone to Italy and been crowned Emperor in Rome, on condition of showing himself publicly as a personal servant of the Pope. He spent nearly two years in Italy, leading an idle and immoral life, and went back to Germany when his money was exhausted.

In 1433, finally, three hundred Hussites, headed by Procopius, appeared in Basel. They demanded nothing more than the acceptance of the four articles upon which they had united in 1420; but after seven weeks of talk, during which the Council agreed upon nothing and promised nothing, they marched away, after stating that any further negotiation must be carried on in Prague. This course compelled the Council to act; an embassy was appointed, which proceeded to Prague, and on the 30th of November, the same year, concluded a treaty with the Hussites. The four demands were granted, but each with a condition attached which gave the Church a chance to regain its lost power. For this reason, the Taborites and "Orphans" refused to accept the compact; the moderate party united with the nobles and undertook to suppress the former by force. A fierce internal war followed, but it was of short duration. In 1434, the Taborites were defeated, their fortified mountain taken, Procopius the Great and the Little were both slain, and the members of the sect dispersed. The Bohemian Reformation was never again dangerous to the Church of Rome.