after the arrival of the forces of the Archbishop of Maintz, the German army at last marched to the Bohemian frontier. It consisted of two divisions, one of which was commanded by the Archbishop Otho of Trier, while the other had as its leader the Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg. No plan of campaign seems at first to have existed, and the two armies operated quite independently. Frederick began his campaign by occupying the frontier-town of Cheb. As he afterwards informed King Sigismund in his report,[1] he attempted here to obtain information concerning the movements of the other German princes who had crossed the Bohemian frontiers. Having heard that the army of the archbishop, after crossing the frontier, had marched directly on Tachov, Frederick decided to have an interview with Otho of Trier and agree on a plan of campaign. Though this does not appear very clearly from Frederick’s report, Dr. Juritsch is probably right in conjecturing[2] that it was decided at this interview that the crusaders should continue to form two armies, which were to advance separately on Prague, the centre of the Hussite movement and unite before the city. The southern army, under the Archbishop of Trier, with whom were the Duke John of Bavaria and many temporal and spiritual German princes, was to march by way of Tachov, Střibro, and Plzeň, and then follow the course of the Vltava river in the direction of Prague. The northern army, under the Elector of Brandenburg, was to combine its movements with those of the Saxons, indefatigable enemies of the Hussites, against whom they were again preparing to march. The northern army and the Saxons—whom the crusaders wrongly believed to have already crossed the frontier—were to unite at Podersam to march to Slané (Schlan) and thence to menace the neighbouring capital of Bohemia. The plan was not unskilfully conceived, but was founded on entirely false premises. A diversion was expected on the
Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/228
206
THE HUSSITE WARS
