Some members of the latter party about this date concluded a truce with the utraquists, as their expectations of help from King Sigismund gradually decreased.
King Sigismund had, however, by no means abandoned his hopes of regaining Bohemia. Before the treaty of Vožic had been concluded, the king had collected a large army in Moravia, intending to enter Bohemia. The various forces of the utraquists now united according to the agreement, marched against him, and forced him to evacuate Moravia; they then pursued him into Austria, where they besieged and captured the town of Retz. During the siege, Bohuslav of Schwamberg, who had succeeded Hvězda of Vicemilic as leader of the Taborites, was killed; and Prokop, surnamed the Great, a married Taborite priest who belonged to a family of Prague citizens, became their chief.
The German princes had meanwhile begun again to take up arms against the Bohemians, whom they hated as heretics and as belonging to a hostile race. An assembly of German princes, presided over by Duke Frederick of Saxony, took place at Nuremberg (end of May 1426), when it was decided again to invade Bohemia. The matter became more urgent when the news arrived that the Bohemians were besieging the town of Usti,[1] which, though situated in Bohemia, had been pledged by King Sigismund to the Dukes of Saxony. Even before the return of her husband, the Duchess Catherine equipped a large force, which was to march to the aid of Usti. She herself accompanied the soldiers as far as the Bohemian frontier, exhorting them not only to be brave but prudent. The German army was 70,000 men strong, while the Bohemians, led by Prince Korybut, Victorin of Poděbrad, Prokop the Great, and other commanders, only mustered 25,000 men. When the Germans arrived near Usti on Sunday morning (June 16, 1416), the Bohemians wrote to them begging them that, should God help them, they would receive them (the Bohemians) "in good grace" (as prisoners); they might then expect the same from them. But the Germans in their pride and haughtiness, relying on the strength of their army, answered defiantly "that they would let no heretic live." The Bohemians then swore to one another that
- ↑ Generally known as Usti nad Labem, to distinguish it from Usti and Orlici. The German name of the town is Aussig.
