force—including the numerous camp-followers—amounted to about 100,000 men. Instead of advancing immediately the vast army remained for some time close to the Bavarian frontier. The terror then inspired by the Bohemian name was so great that the crusaders probably thought it more prudent to await the results of the movements of the Archduke of Austria and the Silesian princes, who were to create diversions by attacking Bohemia from their territories. Contrary to the judicious advice of Cardinal Julian, a week was spent in besieging the town of Tachov. The attempt to capture Tachov failed, and on August 8 the army continued its march, following at first the direct road to Plzeň, and then turning southward in the direction of Domážlice. Both on this march and during the siege of Tachov the crusaders plundered and devastated the surrounding country to an extent unrivalled even in the bloody annals of the Hussite wars. The entire population was murdered, irrespective of their religious creed. The crusaders were undoubtedly determined to extirpate entirely the Slavic-Bohemian race.[1]
The Hussites, who had only retired from the frontier because of the difficulty of provisioning their large army in an exhausted country, had meanwhile rallied their forces near the Karlštýn fortress, and, probably well aware of the indiscipline and licence which prevailed among the crusaders, now immediately marched on Domážlice. When the Elector Frederick was, on the morning of August 14, informed of the approach of the Bohemian armies, he immediately determined to await their attack in a defensive position and also to prepare for a retreat which, he thought, might possibly be necessary. He therefore gave orders that all the transport-wagons and impedimenta generally should be immediately conveyed to the rear. This measure, though undoubtedly justified by the circumstances,
- ↑ Even Æneas Sylvius writes: “Cardinalis numerosum exercitum ductans multas hæreticorum villas incendit, oppidaque diripuit, in quibus non avaritia tantum, verum crudelitas etiam militum grassata est qui mares cum fœminis obvios senes puerosque passim necavere (Historia Bohemica, chap. xIviii).
