is certain that his sympathies were on the side of the Hussites. Immediately after the surrender of Ober-Glogau he proceeded to the Bohemian camp and concluded a separate treaty of peace with them. Though Bolko was the only Silesian prince who openly sided with the Hussites, whose armies he joined during the last campaigns of the war, it is certain that sympathy with the Hussites was widespread in Silesia. German writers have even attributed the fact that Martin Luther’s Reformation found early adherents in Silesia to the Utraquist traditions that still lingered among the people.
The Bohemians were, however, also to meet with bitter enemies in Silesia. They now invaded the lands of Bishop Conrad of Breslau, one of the most determined opponents of the heretics. It was mainly through his influence that the Silesians had undertaken their frequent incursions into the Bohemian district of Králové Hradec. They had on these occasions given proof of cruelty and ferocity which far surpassed that of the Bohemians, who were now seeking revenge. The nationalists, indeed, now plundered Silesia mercilessly, and destroyed many towns and villages in a fashion which the modern humanitarian would severely condemn. They, however, except on rare occasions, spared the lives of the women and children, and indeed often received soldiers as prisoners. The Silesian Romanists, on the other hand, deliberately massacred, and, as far as it was in their power, exterminated the whole Slavic population of the Bohemian frontier districts which they invaded. The Bishop of Breslau had proceeded to Neisse, one of the principal cities in his dominions, where he was joined by a large part of the Silesian nobility and by some of the dukes who ruled over the many duchies into which Silesia was then divided. The Silesians chose as their leader the Bohemian lord “sub una” Puta of Častolovice, captain of the county of Glatz,[1] who, as an old antagonist of
- ↑ Up to the time of Frederick the Great the county of Glatz formed an immediate part of the kingdom of Bohemia, and did not form part of Silesia.
