CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Jan Zizka – aka – John One-Eye!
Jan (John) Zizka was born in Bohemia to a minor noble family. As a child, he was blinded in one eye during a childhood fight. According to legal records from 1378, the name Zizka seems to be a nickname meaning one-eye. During younger years, he was the Chamberlain (manager of the household) to Queen Sophia.
Zizka was a supporter of John Hus, a religious reformer some time before Martin Luther and, like Luther did in later years, Hus opposed the sale of Indulgences to pay for sins, taught that people should appeal directly to Christ for forgiveness and was a vocal opponent of the church’s abuses. Hus would later be betrayed when he traveled to the Council of Constance for ecclesiastical reform.
During the Council of Constance, a series of church reform meetings to end “The Great Schism”, a time when there were several popes vying for the Catholic Church, John Hus was asked to give his testimony for charges of heresy against him. He was promised safe conduct but, upon his arrival, he was arrested and told to recant his views on the Church. He refused, and on July 06, 1415, he was burned at the stake. Many Bohemian peoples were followers of the teachings of John Hus and word of his execution led to a long revolt against the Roman Catholic Church. Zizka’s support for Hus lost him the ear of the king.
The council would eventually mend the schism in 1417 by removing 3 popes and electing just one pope, Martin V as the single head of the Catholic Church.
Zizka soon emerged as a leader of the Taborites, a rather riotous division of Hus followers in 1409. However, in 1410, Zizka found himself fighting with the Poles as a mercenary defending against Teutonic knights. He fought in the final battle at Grunwald where the Polish – Lithuanian forces defeated the Teutonic knights, ending their territorial claims in the area. Zizka returned during the religious upheaval following the death of John Hus.
During King Wenceslaus IV’s final year in 1419, Zizka wound up leading the storming of Prague’s town hall. It should be noted that this was NOT the same Wenceslaus of the ever popular Christmas Carol “Good King Wenceslaus” who died in 935AD, 484 years earlier, and was actually just a Duke). While King Wenceslaus IV was an intelligent man, he was also known as being lazy and ineffective as a ruler. He was responsible for a beautiful Illuminated Manuscript known as the Wenceslaus Bible, but his many other shortcomings, such as nepotism, moodiness, instability, etc., left him with an unfavorable legacy. He died of a heart attack while hunting in 1419, leaving no heirs. Though his reign was troubled, the vacancy of a ruling monarch left the country in political turmoil.
Through the complex web of royal alliances, this situation actually left King Sigismund, the King of Hungary, Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor of the House of Luxembourg, with the title of King of Bohemia. At the time, Sigismund was not popular with a large portion of the country, as it was known that King Sigismund was responsible for the betrayal of John Hus and his subsequent execution. After the death of King Wenceslaus IV, Zizka played a key role in organizing the armed resistance against forces loyal to the Emperor Sigismund. From 1420 through 1434 the Hussite wars ensued, with the Hussites, ardent followers of the late John Hus, seeking not only to change how the church conducted itself, but also to rid themselves not only of the influence of King Sigismund.
During the Hussite wars Zizka assembled an army consisting mainly of peasants, but instead of teaching them how to use military equipment, he had them convert their farming tools, which they were already comfortable in handling, into weapons. One of the most famous was the Wagenburgen, armed farm wagons. As a predecessor to modern armored tank warfare, they were found very effective when used to combat the heavily armored knights of the day. The wagonburgen were reinforced with angled outer planks to help against projectiles and cannon. These could be used to move close to the enemy but could be defended as a mobile armed mini fort, thus using a defensive position as an offensive tactic.
Manned with about 20 men – gunners, bowmen, cavalry and infantry, these mobile fortresses, complete with gunports, could also emplace howitzers. Once in place, they would typically wait for the knights to come into range on their horses, then the bowmen and gunners would take out the horses, making it easier take out the slow-moving heavy knights. The English terms for Howitzer and Pistol are derived from the Czech language for these weapons.
In 1420 Zizka defended the hill Vitkov near Prague and fended off the German forces led by King Sigismund. After many subsequent battles with the Germans, Sigismund was routed out, which helped Zizka to be elected as a representative of the Tabor region.
In 1421 Zizka lost sight in his other eye during the siege of Raby. He was now fully blind, yet he continued to lead his forces through the battle with the aid of trusted companions. Even with his trusted aides by his side, Sigismund later captured the town of Kutna Hora and trapped Zizka and an army outside the city walls. Zizka however, using the Wagenburgen in a mobile artillery movement, broke through the enemy lines, gathered up reinforcements and counter attacked, killing 12,000 of Sigismund’s men.
In 1423, finding disagreements with the Taborites, Zizka broke away and created the Orebites, a more moderate wing of the Hussites. Before he could lead his army again, he died from the plague in Prysbislav in 1424. Zizka was so beloved that after his death, the Orebites changed their name to the Orphans because they felt like they had lost their father.
Among John Zizka’s accomplishments were the modernization of warfare, fighting against church misconduct, and after his troops disobeyed his orders and killed inhabitants of a town, he wrote the Western World’s first code of military conduct. It is said that John Zizka never lost a battle.
Jan Ziska has been commemorated on at least two banknotes, the 25 Korun issued in 1958 and again in 1961 and then the 20 Korun issued in 1970. Curiously, the 25 Korun note depicts Jan Ziska’s right eye as being the one he had first injured, while the 20 Korun note depicts it as his left eye.
Note: A codex is a manuscript which replaced the scrolls. They are the earliest form of a book, whose pages are stitched or bound together. They were usually made of animal skin parchment. The Jena Codex was created to note the changes from the early Christian Church to the Church during the 15th Century. As such, it contains illustrations of Ziska and Hus within its bindings.
References:
https://warfare.x10host.com/16/Hussite-Jena_Codex.htm
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https://warfare.x10host.com/16/Hussite-Jena_Codex-Jan_Zizka_leading_his_troops.htm
https://warfare.x10host.com/16/Hussite-Jena_Codex-Wagons-lg.htm
https://warfare.x10host.com/16/Hussite-Jena_Codex-Battle_of_Domazlice_1431.htm
https://warfare.x10host.com/16/Hussite-Jena_Codex-Carrying_cross-lg.htm
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The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare by Colonel T. N. Dupuy, US Army, Ret.