22.12.1421 Battle of Kutná Hora

The Crusader army was defeated at Kutná Hora, where the battle broke out on 22 December 1421. Žižek was helped by reinforcements from the Jičín and Turnov regions. Unexpectedly, after the New Year, they all attacked the royal army together, which was caught by surprise.

The Battle of Vitkov brought Žižka to the forefront of all other events in the country gripped by the Hussite revolt. Without his participation, virtually nothing of substance happened in the Hussite camp, and everyone had to count on him as the most capable Hussite governor. Once more Sigismund attempted a military breakthrough at Prague in November 1420, but at Vyšehrad his troops wereagain, and a number of Bohemian Catholic lords fighting in Sigismund's service perished there.

However, Žižka did not fight at Vyšehrad. Already on 22 August 1420 he returned with his warriors to Tabor to begin a large-scale elimination of all domestic Hussite enemies in Bohemia. But Sigismund was still threatening Prague from Kutná Hora, and so Žižka turned his army from Tabor to Nebovidy at the end of November 1421, where he encountered a strong Crusader force in late December.

"Although he was threatened with encirclement, he managed to break through, and when hundreds of enemy horsemen pursued him, believing that he was already defeated, he resisted them with a solid fortress of battle wagons. A bloody battle ensued, and the bodies of the slain crusaders were piled in front of the Hussite chariot wall. As the battle reached its climax, Žižka had the chariots disengaged in several places, and through the resulting gap the rest of the Hussite cavalry followed by Hussite infantry," writes Vladimír Liška in his book The Greatest Conquerors and Voivodes.

The Crusader army eventually suffered defeat at Kutná Hora, where the battle broke out on 22 December 1421. Žižek was helped by reinforcements from the Jičín and Turnov regions. Unexpectedly, after the New Year, they all attacked the royal army together, which was caught by surprise. Sigismund eventually ordered a retreat, as he felt it was pointless to gather the scattered troops together.

"In January 1422, Žižka seized Kutná Hora almost without a fight, from which the crusaders fled by the thousands, while Sigismund was left with nothing elsebut to retreat to Moravia with his entourage and the remnants of his defeated intervention army at the last moment. It was Žižek's greatest victory yet, and it put a definitive end to Sigismund's first crusade in Bohemia," writes Liška.

By capturing Kutná Hora, Žižka gained a vital economic base for further battles. It was here that silver was mined, which could now finally serve the Hussites, who united into three town associations: the Prague, Tabor and Hradec. But the battle was not over...

Sources.