30 May 1434 Battle of Lipan

The last great Hussite battle took place on 30 May 1434. Nearly two thousand people died at Lipany, including Prokop Holý. The result of the clash opened the way for Sigismund to the Czech throne.

The decisive clash between the field soldiers of the campers and orphans led by Prokop Holý and the troops of the lords led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek took place on 30. May 1434 near the village of Lipany near Český Brod. The Lipany battle was preceded by a series of long-lasting contradictions between the various Hussite blocs. Against the radical wing of Hussitism, a strong opposition was formed consisting of moderate Hussites, Calixtinite nobility and Catholic nobility.

"Against each other on that windy and rainy Sunday 30. May 1434 stood people who knew each other well, who had fought side by side against domestic and foreign enemiesThey were trained in the same methods of fighting," writes Jan Kvirenc in his book Czech History - 100 Memorable Places.

At Lipany, the armies faced each other, having chosen identical tactics in battle. However, the numerical superiority was on the side of the Panzer unit, which attacked first. With a feigned retreat, it lured the camp-orphan troops from the wagon wall and broke their resistance with a surprise counter-strike. Current estimates put the number of casualties on the Radical side at around 1,300, compared to coalition losses which were probably less than 500. Prokop Holý, the leader of the orphans, the priest Prokůpek, and most of the governors and preachers of the field troops were killed in the battle.

The orphan governor Jan Čapek of San, who commanded the Tabor cavalry, realistically assessed the hopeless situation after the broken wagon wall, so he preferred not to intervene in the battle. In older historical literature his escape from the battlefield is wrongly assessed as treason. The camp-orphan troops themselves practically ceased to exist after the battle.

"The Battle of Lipany and the defeat of the field troops was perceived from the time of the national revival, and perhaps even earlier, as a great tragedy of the Czech nation and ranked among similar, supposedly dark moments of our history as the battles on the Moravian Field or on the White Mountain. This is still illustrated by the huge panorama by Luděk Marold at the Prague Exhibition Centre, created by in 1898 as an image of fratricidal struggle and the defeat of democracy," writes Jan Bauer in his book Who After Žižek?: The Life Story of Prokop Holý the Great.

The defeat of the radical Hussite wing at Lipany opened the way for the moderate Hussites to negotiate the Basel Compacts and for Sigismund of Luxembourg to ascend the Czech throne. "The outcome of the Battle of Lipany was and still is partly a matter of debate among historians. One group saw in the defeat of the radicals the defeat of the ideas of democracy and freedom, and in the Communist propaganda the failure of the struggle of the Czech proletariat. The other group, on the other hand, saw it as a necessary way out of the situation in which the Czech lands found themselves after fifteen years of wars, and as an inevitable path to "the kingdom ofThe historian Jan Biederman from the Military Historical Institute thinks that the coexistence of the Utraquist and Catholic religions was the inevitable consequence of the "double people".

Sources:
Jan Kvirenc: Czech History - 100 Memorable Places
Jan Bauer: Who After Žižek?:TheLife Story of Prokop Holý the Great
Petr Kovář: General Overview
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