Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/241

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THE HUSSITE WARS
219

their foreign enemies exclusively. Prokop now extensively adopted that system of assuming the offensive which characterised the Bohemians during the last years of the war. Probably at the beginning of the year 1428 the united armies of the Praguers under John Tovačovský, the Táborites under Prokop the Great, and the Orphans under Prokupek (Prokop the Lesser), who now first became widely known, entered Moravia and then marched to Hungary. The Bohemians evidently followed the example of Žižka, who some time previously had attempted to subdue Sigismund by invading his own kingdom. We have very little information concerning this new Bohemian invasion of Hungary. Some writers, indeed, state that no battles or sieges occurred, and that Prokop’s principal purpose was to devastate Hungary, thus rendering an invasion of Bohemia from that direction more difficult. Marching by way of Skalice and Senice the Hussites reached the Danube at Pressburg; they occupied, the suburbs, but were unable to obtain possession of the strongly fortified town and citadel. For reasons not known to us they then retired to Moravia by way of Trnova (Tyrnau),[1] after having burnt down the suburbs of Pressburg. They reached the Moravian frontier at Uherský Brod, from where they had started on their not very successful expedition into Hungary. After a short respite the Bohemians determined to invade Silesia. That country had from the beginning of the war been intensely hostile to the Bohemian national cause, and the incessant raids of the Silesians, which generally took place at the moment when the Bohemians were occupied in opposing the main armies of the Germans, greatly incensed the people. Prokop the Great again assumed command of the united

  1. Bartošek of Drahonic writes (p. 598 of Professor Goll’s edition: “[The Hussites] civitatem Prespurk suburbium excremaverunt, deinde ante Wiennam processerunt, sed illuc per Danubium venire non valentes ex ista parte in Austria per voraginem ignis magnum monumentum fecerunt.” It may be considered as certain that this statement, corroborated by no other contemporary writer, is untrue.