camps and to bind all his warriors to the four articles of Prague. To give more weight to these regulations, they were issued not only on the authority of Žižka, the commander-in-chief, but also—to quote but a few names—on that of the Lords John Roháč of Duba, Alěš of Riesenburg, John Potštýn of Žampach, as well as of the burgomasters of the three towns, who, as mentioned above, had joined the confederacy of Tábor, and many knights and nobles. It appears that many of the older Táborites, among whom anarchical and visionary views still lingered, disapproved of Žižka’s attempt to enforce military discipline. They continued, indeed, to obey his orders when engaged on a campaign against the common enemy, but the mutual distrust and dislike between the Táborites and Žižka’s more intimate friends constantly increased. Žižka at the end of his life incurred the hatred of at least some of the Táborites.[1]
Žižka immediately started on his new campaign in Moravia. He first occupied Jihlava (Iglau) in that country, and then decided to invade Hungary. King Sigismund was then residing at Buda. Žižka, whose statesmanship has often been underrated by those who saw in him only a brilliant general, rightly thought that it was only by invading his Hungarian kingdom that Sigismund could be forced definitively to renounce his claim to the Bohemian throne. To Žižka, a mortal enemy of the house of Luxemburg, but no enemy of the monarchical principle, this naturally appeared the only way by which the pacification of Bohemia could be effected.
Žižka’s Hungarian campaign was unsuccessful; yet this campaign, and particularly his retreat from Hungary, have always been considered one of the greatest proofs of his military
- ↑ “Then the old Táborites truly already hated Žižka, principally because Žižka’s priests said mass in an orderly fashion, in vestments, tonsured, and wearing a cope, and carried the body of the Lord ina monstrance.” (“Kronyka o Janovi Žižkovi.” quoted by Professor Tomek in his History of the Town of Prague, Vol. IV, p. 287, n.) This was, of course, by no means their only grievance against Žižka.
