the possibility of his accession to the Bohemian throne.[1] It has already been noted that some of the new leaders of the Utraquists no longer entertained the intense personal resentment against Sigismund which Žižka had felt, and which the Orphans—who all cherished memories of their dead leader—still preserved. Prokop was not disinclined to recognise Sigismund as king should he accept the articles of Prague.[2] It was, however—as stated by the chronicler quoted below—decided that, in consequence of the resistance of the Orphans and the new town of Prague, the attempt to confer the Bohemian crown on Sigismund should be deferred to a later period. At the same time the diet decided to inform Sigismund of the conditions under which it would consent to a truce. For this purpose a new Bohemian embassy, again headed by Prokop the Great, started for Pressburg. The delegates arrived there probably at the end of June. Prokop informed Sigismund of the decision of the diet and questioned him as to the composition of the proposed council, at which, he said, the Hussites could only appear as one of the contending parties, not as contrite penitents. Sigismund had at the time of Prokop’s first visit already come to the conclusion that the negotiation would at that moment inevitably be resultless; he was, indeed, then already busily engaged in organising a new crusade against Bohemia. Yet both parties wished to avoid the odium of renewing the hostilities, and no immediate rupture
- ↑ The ancient chroniclers write: “This year [1429] there was a great assembly of the Bohemian nation in Prague (of) lords, knights, gentry [“zemane”], Taborites, Orphans, and citizens. They met in the house of the masters of the great college [the Carolinum] and debated as to how they could come to an agreement with King Sigismund of Hungary, and receive him as their Lord and the hereditary sovereign of the land. All agreed to this except Valek Koudelnik, captain of the Orphans. He and the citizens of the New Town [of Prague] would not consent to it, and opposed it” (“Scriptores rerum Bohemicarum,” Vol. III. p. 76).
- ↑ Professor Goll writes: “Prakop had no objection to the accession of Sigismund, should he conform to the teaching of the Hussite Church. . . . It appeared clearly that he had not preserved that implacable hatred of Sigismund which we find in Žižka, and which the Orphans preserved as his inheritance.” Cěchy a Prusy (Bohemia and Prussia), p. 179.
