Jan Žižka in the context of "Hussite movement"

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⭐ Core Definition: Jan Žižka

Jan Žižka z Trocnova a Kalicha (English: John Zizka of Trocnov and the Chalice; c. 1360 – 11 October 1424) was a Czech military leader and knight who was a contemporary and follower of Jan Hus, and a prominent Radical Hussite who led the Taborite faction during the Hussite Wars. Renowned for his exceptional military skill, Žižka is celebrated as a Czech national hero. Žižka led the Hussite forces in battles against three crusades and remained undefeated throughout his military career.

Žižka was born in the village of Trocnov, located in the Kingdom of Bohemia, into a family of lower Czech nobility. According to Piccolomini's Historia Bohemica, he maintained connections within the royal court during his youth and later held the office of Chamberlain to Queen Sofia of Bavaria. He fought in the Battle of Grunwald (15 July 1410), where he defended Radzyń against the Teutonic Order. Later, he played a prominent role in the civil wars in Bohemia. He led the Hussites during the first important clashes of the conflict in the Battle of Sudoměř (1420) and in the Battle of Vítkov Hill (1420). In the Battle of Kutná Hora (1421) he defeated the army of the Holy Roman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom. The effectiveness of his field artillery against the royal cavalry in this battle made it a successful element of Hussite armies.

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👉 Jan Žižka in the context of Hussite movement

The Hussites (Czech: Husité or Kališníci, "Chalice People"; Latin: Hussitae) were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement influenced by both the Byzantine Rite and John Wycliffe that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus (fl. 1401–1415), a part of the Bohemian Reformation.

The Czech lands had originally been Christianized by Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius, who introduced the Byzantine Rite in the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language and the Byzantine tradition of Communion in both kinds administered by the holy spoon. Over the centuries that followed, however, the Roman Rite in Ecclesiastical Latin, which is less easily understood than Slavonic by native speakers of Old Czech, was imposed upon the Czech people despite considerable public resistance, by German-speaking bishops, beginning with Wiching, from the Holy Roman Empire. (See also Sázava Monastery). As a cultural memory of both communion in both kinds and the Divine Liturgy in a language closer to the vernacular is believed to have survived well into the Renaissance, the ideas of Jan Hus and others like him swiftly gained a wide public following. After the trial and execution of Hus at the Council of Constance, a series of crusades, civil wars, victories and compromises between various factions with different theological agendas broke out. At the end of the Hussite Wars (1420–1434), the now Catholic-supported Utraquist side came out victorious from protracted conflict against Jan Žižka and the Taborites, who embraced the more radical theological teachings of John Wycliffe and the Lollards, and became the dominant Hussite group in Bohemia.

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Jan Žižka in the context of Taborite

The Taborites (Czech: Táborité, Czech: singular Táborita), were a faction within the Hussite movement in the medieval Lands of the Bohemian Crown. The Taborites were sometimes referred to as the Picards, a term used for groups which were seen as extreme in their rejection of traditional Catholic practices and societal norms, for example advocation for communal living.

Although most of the Taborites were of rural origin, they played a major role in the town of Tábor. Taborite politics were also encroached upon by their priests. The most important Taborites included the governors Jan Žižka of Trocnov, Mikuláš of Hus, Bohuslav of Švamberk, Chval Řepický of Machovice, and Jan Roháč of Dubá, and the priest Prokop Holý. The main centre of their association was Tábor.

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Jan Žižka in the context of Orebites

The Orebites (Czech: Orebité), also called Lesser Taborites and later known as Sirotci ("Orphans"; German: Waisen), officially Orphans' Union (Czech: Sirotčí svaz), were followers of a radical wing of the Hussites in Bohemia. The founders took part in the procession on Mount Oreb, near Třebechovice pod Orebem and Hradec. Founded in 1423 originally under the name Lesser Tábor, it consisted mostly of poorer burghers and some members of the Czech nobility who joined with the commander Jan Žižka.

The ideological founder of the Orebites was the priest Ambrož Hradecký. Leaders included Hynek Krušina of Lichtenburg and Diviš Bořek of Miletínek, the captain of the Hussites in Eastern and Central Bohemia. The Orebites were instrumental in the burning of the Benedictine monastery in Mnichovo Hradiště in the early summer of 1420, and in autumn, they supported the rest of the Hussites at the Battle of Vyšehrad.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Hussite movement ← Hussite ← Hussites ← Taborite ← Orebites ← Taborites ← Four articles of prague
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Czechs → Knight → Jan Hus → Radical Hussite → Taborites → Hussite Wars → Folk hero → Borovany → Kingdom of Bohemia → Czech nobility → Chamberlain (office) → Sofia of Bavaria → Battle of Grunwald → Radzyń Chełmiński → Teutonic Knights → Hussites → Battle of Sudoměř → Battle of Vítkov Hill → Battle of Kutná Hora → Holy Roman Empire → Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526) → Field artillery →