Vítkov Hill, 14 July 1420

The battle, stage by stage

1. Late June - 13 July 1420

   A crusade at the gates

   Pope Martin V proclaimed a crusade against the Hussites on 1 March 1420, and by the end of June King Sigismund had brought a large army of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Moravian and other contingents to Prague. Chroniclers speak of 100,000 or more; modern historians think the real figure was far smaller, though still well beyond the Hussites' 8,000-10,000 in the city. Sigismund's camps formed an arc on the left bank, from Bruska through Ovenec and the royal game park to Bubny and the Holešovice bend, with his headquarters on the Letná plain. Prague Castle and Vyšehrad were held for him. Jan Žižka, who had come in with the Taborites in May, broke off the siege of the Castle and had the hill of Vítkov, east of the walls, fortified, reportedly with the help of women, girls and townspeople: the hill guarded the roads east by which the city was supplied.

2. 14 July 1420, afternoon

   Across the Vltava

   On 14 July a strong force, by one modern reckoning about 25,000 men, chiefly from Meissen, Austria and Hungary, crossed to the right bank at the Maniny ford. Some 7,000-8,000 horsemen, Meissen and Thuringian knights led by Henry of Isenburg with Frederick of Meissen, were to ride via Palmovka and Pražačka to the eastern end of the Vítkov ridge, the only easy way up, while others drew up on the Špitálské pole (today's Karlín) and royal troops threatened the Malá Strana bridgehead. On the narrow neck of the ridge the Hussites held two timber blockhouses behind shallow ditches and a low stone wall, with a vineyard tower on the south slope. Tradition puts the garrison at just 26 men and 3 women; later historians think 60 or more. Whether Žižka himself was on the hill is debated.

3. 14 July, late afternoon

   Up the eastern ridge

   The horsemen came along the ridge from the east, by some accounts about an hour before sunset. The neck was so narrow that only some 20-30 riders could fight abreast, and the column bunched and lost its order. Attackers reportedly got into one of the blockhouses, and Žižka, if he was there, was nearly cut down before his men pulled him clear. The defenders were running short of arrows and powder; women are said to have fought beside the men, and one of them was killed refusing to give ground. A small reinforcement of archers came up from the city.

4. 14 July, about an hour into the fight

   Out of the vineyards

   Help came from Prague. A force of archers and men with flails and other improvised weapons came out by the Poříčí gate and climbed through the vineyards on the gentler south slope to strike the crusaders' flank; in the Hussite tradition a priest carrying the Sacrament (the Body of Christ, later pictured in a monstrance) went at their head, and the whole party sang as it came on. At the same time other Prague troops sallied from the gate toward the crusaders waiting on the Špitálské pole.

5. 14 July, evening

   Over the edge

   Caught between the blockhouses, the flank attack and the steep north face of the hill, the crusader column broke. Men and horses were driven down the wooded north slope; the rest fled across the Špitálské pole toward the ford, and some reportedly drowned in the Vltava. The army watching from the far bank did not intervene. Crusader dead are put at a few hundred: about 144 nobles by one count, 300-500 in all by others, among them Henry of Isenburg. The Hussites are said to have lost very few.

6. 15-30 July 1420

   Žižkov

   The attack was not renewed. Prague celebrated; the priest Čapek composed a song of the victory, and the hill came to be called Žižkov after its defender (the name now belongs to the whole district). Short of money, quarrelling with his allies and with fire in his camp, Sigismund had himself crowned King of Bohemia in St Vitus Cathedral within the Castle on 28 July, then broke up the army and withdrew toward Kutná Hora. Some modern writers stress that Vítkov was a sharp, limited action rather than a decisive battle; Sigismund's real defeat before Prague came at Vyšehrad on 1 November.