Battle of Kutná Hora
| Battle of Kutná Hora | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second anti-Hussite crusade, Hussite Wars | |||||||
 Josef Mathauser - Jan Žižka in front of Kutná Hora | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
Crusade along with Catholic loyalists
|
Hussite coalition | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
King Sigismund Pippo Spano | Jan Žižka | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
50,000–92,000[1]
| 12,000–18,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2,000–12,000 men | Unknown, less than Catholics | ||||||
The Battle of Kutná Hora (Hussites, an early ecclesiastical reformist group that was founded in what is now the Czech Republic.
In 1419,
war wagons.[2] Their adoption of the latter gave them the ability to fight a flexible and mobile style of warfare.[2][3]
Originally employed as a measure of last resort, its effectiveness against the royal cavalry turned field artillery into firm part of Hussite armies.
Battle
At
King Sigismund. Even though Sigismund's elite heavy cavalry was kept at bay by Žižka's artillery, the Taborites apparently faced imminent destruction. However, on 21 December, Žižka grouped his war wagons into a column and charged the enemy lines. The battle wagons advanced rapidly, with all of their guns blazing. The column smashed a hole through Sigismund's line, allowing the Taborites to escape the encirclement. Sigismund decided against mounting a pursuit of the Hussites, for he incorrectly believed that they had been utterly defeated.[2]
Aftermath
Žižka, throughout the rest of December, launched numerous counter-offensives and raids on the Germans' lines. He also introduced the use of small firearms for large bodies of infantry, eventually equipping a third of his infantry.pikemen to ravage the enemy forces.[2]
His manoeuvres were quite successful, and, as a result, by the end of the month, Sigismund's demoralized army, constantly harried by Žižka's seemingly invincible soldiers, fled Bohemia.[2]
References
- ^ WINDECKE, Eberhard (1893). Denkwürdigkeiten zur Geschichte des Zeitalters Kaiser Sigmunds (in German). Berlin: Wilhelm Altmann.
- ^ a b c d e "Hussite Battles and significant events". Archived from the original on 4 March 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2007.
- ^
Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1975). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 604. ISBN 9780299066703.
- ISBN 0-295-97290-4
49°57′N 15°16′E / 49.950°N 15.267°E