Jan Zizka
The tenant Jan Zizka of Trocnov is
considered by to be the greatestCzech warrior and
commander. He was born about the year 1360in the family of yeoman Rehor
and his wife Jana. There is only very little newsabout the first 40 years
of his life. He was a mercenary and lived in variouscountries when he was
young.
Jan Zizka led the storming of Pragues town hall in 1419 and after the death of King Wenceslas took a key role in the organising of armed resistance against forces loyal to the Emperor Sigismund. The "phoney war" that temporily gripped the rival forces allowed Zizka time to organise and train his essentially peasant army. Zizka was responsible for the innovative wagon tactics that served the Hussite cause well over the following years.
In 1421 while besieging Raby Zizka lost the sight in his
other eye. Some sources say by natural causes others by a crossbow bolt.
Even blind Zizka continued to direct his army in battle, using the eyes
of trusted captains. Prokop the Great and Propok the lesser were two such
men.
In 1423 Zizka split from the Taborites
creating the more moderate Orebite faction which he led until his death of the
plague at the siege of Pribyslav, in 1424. On his death the Orebites renamed
themselves the Orphans.
At his death Jan Zizka had fought 16 major battles, innumerable skirmishes and sieges, involved the Polish in Bohemian affairs and left an army of well trained soldiers who would continue to defeat their enemies time and time again.
Zizka although a National hero in the Czech Republic was until recently a little known General in the West. His "combined arms" tactics are increasingly being seen as the fore runner to Polish and Swedish tactics of the following century.
