The Hussite Wars

History

It is 1414 and the Czech priest and reformer Jan Hus goes to the Church Council in Constance to defend his revolutionary ideas. For the journey he receives a Glejt from King Sigismund of Luxembourg himself, who is to guarantee his safe journey. But upon arrival, Hus is arrested and put on trial. During this he is condemned as a heretic, and subsequently handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake when he refused to recant his teachings. Jan Hus is burned at the stake on July 6, 1415. This news soon reaches the Bohemian Kingdom and causes a storm of resentment among the Bohemian nobility and common people. The result is the outbreak of the so-called Hussite Revolution, which culminates in the Prague Defenestration on 30 July 1419, when a mob of radical Hussites led by the preacher Jan Želivský throws the Catholic councillors out of the windows of Prague's New Town Hall. When the Czech King Wenceslas IV learns of these events, he suffers a massive stroke and soon dies from the effects. After the death of Wenceslas IV, the only rightful heir to the Czech throne was King Sigismund of Hungary and Rome, who decides to mount a crusade against the Hussites. Jan Žižka, a Hussite military leader, will lead the Hussite army. This is the beginning of the Hussite Wars.

Story added by darksith on September 25, 2023