Lipany, 30 May 1434

The battle, stage by stage

1. 28–29 May 1434

   Two wagon forts

   The radical field armies — the Taborites under Zikmund of Vranov, with Prokop the Great as their leading figure, and the Orphans of eastern Bohemia with their priest Prokop the Lesser — reach the field first and draw up their wagon fort on the north-western slope of Lipská hora, between the villages of Lipany and Hřiby. Against them comes the League of Catholic and moderate Utraquist lords and the Old Town of Prague under Diviš Bořek of Miletínek, from the direction of Český Brod. The usual figures, which go back to contemporary letters and later tradition, are about 12,000 foot and 1,200 horse for the League against 10,000 foot and 700 horse for the radicals. The armies face each other from 28 May; talks fail.

2. 30 May 1434, afternoon (Sunday)

   The League advances

   On Sunday afternoon, around vespers, the League moves its wagon fort toward the radicals' position. By Matěj Húsník's account its wagons stood in eleven lines against the brothers' six. Both sides open fire with guns and hand-guns, but at that range the shooting does little harm; the archaeological survey of the field suggests firearms played a largely symbolic part. The position of the League camp has not been found on the ground and is drawn here from one modern reconstruction.

3. 30 May, afternoon

   The feigned retreat

   The League's front battalions — Húsník names Mikuláš Krchleb — turn as if in flight, and part of the wagon line pulls back. Believing the enemy is breaking, the radicals open their wagon wall and pour down the slope in pursuit, leaving the safety of the wagons. Historians still argue over how the manoeuvre was done: some think whole lines of wagons withdrew, others that only infantry and horse staged the false attack and retreat.

4. 30 May, late afternoon

   The turn

   The 'fleeing' League halts and its wagons fire into the pursuers. According to the Pilsen letters, the rear battalions then fall on the brothers from behind while the front turns and attacks; Bartošek of Drahonice describes a band hidden among the rear wagons turning and charging under the Rožmberk standard. League horsemen get between the radical infantry and their wagon fort and break into it through the opened wall. Who led this cavalry — Krchleb or Diviš Bořek himself — is not clear from the sources, and its route here is schematic.

5. 30 May, evening

   Čapek rides away

   With the wagon fort breached, the radical cavalry under Jan Čapek of Sány, with Ondřej Keřský and some men on foot, rides off to the Orphan town of Kolín (Bartošek). Later tradition, notably the 16th-century chronicler Bohuslav Bílejovský, branded Čapek a traitor who abandoned the field and decided the battle; modern historians such as Petr Čornej reject the charge, holding that he fled only once the battle was already lost. The disputed point is shown, not settled.

6. 30 May, evening

   The end of the field armies

   The radical infantry, caught outside its wagons, is cut down. Prokop the Great dies fighting at the wagons, and Prokop the Lesser is killed or mortally wounded; with them fall several Taborite priests and captains. Bartošek says the pursuit went on as far as Český Brod; a gorge and boggy ground on the battlefield may have trapped fugitives. Jan Roháč of Dubá gets away — he will be taken at his castle of Sion in 1437. The victors take the wagons and guns.

7. 31 May 1434 and after

   Aftermath

   The commonly cited losses are about 1,300 radicals and about 200 of the League killed; letters written within days spoke of far more. Several hundred prisoners — the usual figure is about 700 — are said to have been herded into barns and burned; Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, writing in the 1450s, tells the story, and accounts differ on who ordered it and where. Lipany broke the radical field armies, opened the way to the Basel Compacts (1436) and Sigismund's acceptance as king of Bohemia. The memorial mound on Lipská hora was raised in 1881.