diets. The King was obliged to send a messenger to Nürnberg, where the German princes were to meet, informing them that he was detained in Hungary by the attack of the Orphans. It was necessary to meet the enemies in the open field; but Sigismund, never a keen soldier, entrusted the command of the Hungarian army to Stibor, Duke of Transylvania, and John Matik of Telovec, a Hungarian magnate. The first attack of Stibor was so spirited that his horsemen penetrated into the wagon-entrenchment of the Hussites. Velek Koudelnik fell while endeavouring to defend his camp. The arrival of Bohemian reinforcements, however, obliged the Hungarians to retreat, particularly as their second army, under Matik, wrongly believing that their comrades had been defeated, had already begun to retire. The battle was, considering the small number of soldiers who were engaged, very bloody. The Bohemians lost 2,000 men, and the losses of the Hungarians amounted to 6,000 dead and wounded. The Hussites, as was their custom when waging offensive warfare, did not attempt to retain permanent possessions in foreign lands. Shortly after their victory at Tyrnau they returned to Moravia. These raids of smaller or larger Hussite bands into the neighbouring country continued during the summer and autumn of the year 1430. On December 21 the Orphans started on another foreign expedition, invading Lusatia, which had hitherto suffered less than the other neighbouring countries.
Immediately after the departure of the Bohemian envoys King Ladislas, on April 7, 1431, addressed a letter to King Sigismund informing him of the results of the disputation at Cracow and of his intention to be represented at the diet of Prague. He also begged him to consult the German princes as to the best way in which he could obtain letters of safe conduct for the Hussite leaders who wished to attend the Council. Before this letter reached Sigismund, who had now arrived at Nürnberg, he had already received secret com-
