precations threw it at their feet. The English cardinal was at last obliged to join in the general stampede, and narrowly escaped becoming a prisoner of the heretics.[1]
This rout of the invaders was again followed by internal disturbances, especially in the township of Prague. A dispute arose between the community of the Staré Město (Old Town) and the Nové Město (New Town) with regard to the distribution of the confiscated ecclesiastical property. The inhabitants of the new town were aided by the Orphans, while the more conservative burghers of the old town attempted to re-establish their former alliance with the utraquist nobles, which had been interrupted by the deposition of Prince Korybut.
These disturbances do not for the moment appear to have been of great importance, as we read that in December of the same year (1427) Prokop the Great marched into Hungary at the head of a Hussite army. He ravaged a wide extent of country apparently without experiencing any resistance from the Hungarians. Prokop afterwards returned to Moravia, where he was joined by reinforcements. He then undertook a new invasion of Germany. Penetrating far into Silesia he burnt the suburbs of Breslau, and forced many of the Silesian princes to conclude treaties of peace and even of alliance with Bohemia. The Bishop of Breslau, who, aided by some Silesian princes and towns, attempted to oppose the invincible Bohemians, was defeated in a very sanguinary encounter at Neisse (March 18, 1428), in which the Germans are said to have lost 9000 men. During the same year other Hussite bands invaded and ravaged the districts of Austria and Bavaria which are nearest to the Bohemian frontier.
The complete failure of all efforts forcibly to subdue Bohemia made Sigismund, at least for a time, seriously meditate on the possibility of a peaceful settlement. On the other hand, the utraquist nobles, among whom Menhard, lord of Jindřichův Hradec, was now the most prominent, after the departure of Korybut, began to endeavour to reconcile King Sigismund with the Bohemian people. Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec wished to arrange a meeting between Sigismund and Prokop the Great, at that moment the most important representative of the utraquist or Hussite cause. It was suggested that Prokop should visit the nominal
- ↑ Palacký.
