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The Crusades Against the Hussites in Bohemia (1419–1436)

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the history of the crusades against the Hussites, including the religious, political, and social dynamics of the wider region. Between 1420 and 1431, the papacy in collaboration with the lay powers of the Holy Roman Empire undertook five large-scale crusades against the allegedly heretic followers of the Czech reformer Jan Hus. Despite the international scale and remarkable mobilising power of these campaigns, they failed ingloriously, as did the so-called “daily war” on the alleged heretics. Indeed, from the mid-1420s onwards the Hussites themselves went on the offensive and raided the neighbouring kingdoms in a series of penetrating incursions. The military conflict was only settled in 1436 when the Council of Basle and the Emperor officially acknowledged Hussite religious practice. With this agreement, an allegedly heretical movement had for the first time successfully held its ground against the crusading efforts of the Church. In addition to providing an overview of events, this chapter offers a historiographical survey that gives Anglophone readers a synoptic view of the extensive non-English-language literature on the topic. Finally, the chapter also discusses why the crusades against the Hussites were highly significant for contemporaries, regardless of their evident military failure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the issue of denomination, see Michael Van Dussen and Pavel Soukup, “Introduction: Hussite Histories,” in A Companion to the Hussites, eds. Michael Van Dussen and Pavel Soukup (Leiden and Boston, 2020), 1–22, at 1–3.

  2. 2.

    For a basic English-language introduction to Hussitism and its historical context, see John Klassen, “Hus, the Hussites and Bohemia,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 7: c. 1415–c. 1500, ed. Christopher Allmand (Cambridge, 1998), 367–91. An extensive English-language survey is now provided by A Companion to the Hussites, eds. Van Dussen and Soukup.

  3. 3.

    On the structural characteristics of the late medieval Empire, see Duncan Hardy, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346–1521 (Oxford, 2018).

  4. 4.

    On the issue of “nationalism” in Hussite Bohemia, see the classic study by František Šmahel, “The Idea of the ‘Nation’ in Hussite Bohemia,” Historica 16 (1969): 143–247 and Historica 17 (1969): 93–197. More recently on the topic, for instance, Norman Housley, Religious Warfare in Europe 1400–1536 (Oxford, 2002), esp. 39–44; Pavel Soukup, “Religion and Violence in the Hussite Wars,” in The European Wars of Religion: An Interdisciplinary Reassessment of Sources, Interpretations, and Myths, eds. Wolfgang Palaver, Harriet Rudolph, and Dietmar Regensburger (Farnham, 2016), 19–44, at 37–39.

  5. 5.

    Soukup, “Religion and Violence,” 19, followed by a discussion of various other attempts at describing the conflict.

  6. 6.

    For a brief overview of the most important Hussite factions, see Ferdinand Seibt, “Die Zeit der Luxemburger und die hussitische Revolution,” in Handbuch der Geschichte der Böhmischen Länder, Vol. 1: Die Böhmischen Länder von der archaischen Zeit bis zum Ausgang der Hussitischen Revolution, ed. Karl Bosl (Stuttgart, 1967), 351–568, at 518–31.

  7. 7.

    On this aspect of the conflict, see: Housley, Religious Warfare, 33–61; Philippe Buc, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West, ca. 70 C.E. to the Iraq War (Philadelphia, 2015), esp. 195–203; Soukup, “Religion and Violence,” 30–33, 43–44.

  8. 8.

    Due to the amorphous nature of anti-Hussite warfare, there is also some uncertainty as to which campaigns qualify as individual, self-contained crusades. The chronicler Andrew of Regensburg, for instance, counts only four “general expeditions” (expedicio generalis): Andreas von Regensburg, Sämtliche Werke, ed. Georg Leidinger (Munich, 1903), 467, 476. In contrast, the prince-elector of Saxony, who in summer 1426 assembled troops to deliver the town of Ústí nad Labem from a Hussite siege, clearly saw this venture as a crusade: Pavel Soukup, “Kreuzzug und Universitätsmesse: Zwei Leipziger Predigten aus der Zeit der Hussitenkriege,” in Historiker zwischen den Zeiten: Festschrift für Karel Hruza zum 60. Geburtstag, eds. Petr Elbel et al. (Vienna, 2021), 205–20, at 216–19. However, I have decided to follow here the numbering prevalent in Anglophone scholarship, which traces back to Friedrich von Bezold, König Sigmund und die Reichskriege gegen die Husiten, 3 vols. (Munich, 1872–77).

  9. 9.

    A useful list of edited sources can be found in Hartmut Spengler, “Die Stärke der deutschen Aufgebote und Heere in den Hussitenkämpfen (ca. 1420–1438),” Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte 151 (2015): 311–416, at 374–76.

  10. 10.

    The most important series are Archiv český, čili staré písemné památky české i moravské, sebrané z archivů domácích i cizích [The Czech Archive or Old Written Monuments from Bohemia and Moravia, Collected from Domestic and Foreign Archives], eds. František Palacký et al., 40 vols. (Prague, 1840–2004) (mostly Czech); Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte der Hussitenkriege in Böhmen, ed. Franz Palacký, 2 vols. (Prague, 1873) (German and Latin); J. F. Böhmer, Regesta Imperii XI: Die Urkunden Kaiser Sigmunds (1410−1437), ed. Wilhelm Altmann, 2 vols. (Innsbruck, 1896−1900) (German); Deutsche Reichstagsakten, vols. 7–12, eds. Dietrich Kerler, Hermann Herre and Gustav Beckmann (Munich, 1878–1901) (German and Latin). At the same time, various regional source editions were published, for example: Geschichtsquellen der Hussitenkriege, ed. Colmar Grünhagen (Wrocław, 1871) (German and Latin); Codex Diplomaticus Lusatiae Superioris II: Urkunden des Oberlausitzer Hussitenkrieges und der gleichzeitigen die Sechslande angehenden Fehden, ed. Richard Jecht, 2 vols. (Görlitz, 1896–1903) (German and Latin); Listář a listinář Oldřicha z Rožmberka, 1418–1462 [The Charters and Letters of Oldřich of Rožmberk, 1418–1462], ed. Blažena Rynešová, 3 vols. (Prague, 1929–37) (Czech). The Czech Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Medieval Studies provides free online access to a large number of source editions through their project Czech Medieval Sources Online: https://sources.cms.flu.cas.cz/src/index.php (last accessed 5 January 2024).

  11. 11.

    See the ongoing re-edition of Regesta Imperii XI: J. F. Böhmer, Regesta Imperii XI: Regesten Kaiser Sigismunds (1410–1437) nach Archiven und Bibliotheken geordnet, eds. Petr Elbel et al. [hereafter: RI XI NB] Vol. 1: Die Urkunden und Briefe aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken Mährens und Tschechisch-Schlesiens (Vienna, 2012); Vol. 2: Die Urkunden und Briefe aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken West-, Nord- und Ostböhmens (Vienna 2015); Vol. 3: Die Urkunden und Briefe aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken Südböhmens (Vienna, 2016) (German). Three more volumes from Bohemia are forthcoming. We also have a comprehensive survey of papal documents from the Vatican Archives: Acta Martini V. pontificis romani 1417–1431, ed. Jarolav Eršil, 3 vols. (Prague, 1996–2001) (Latin). The pontificate of Pope Eugenius IV is currently under preparation.

  12. 12.

    See, for instance, Robert N. Swanson, “Preaching Crusade in Fifteenth-Century England: Instructions for the Administration of the Anti-Hussite Crusade of 1429 in the Diocese of Canterbury,” Crusades 12 (2013): 175–96; Duncan Hardy, “An Alsatian Nobleman’s Account of the Second Crusade Against the Hussites in 1421. New Edition, Translation, and Interpretation,” Crusades 15 (2017): 199–221; Mark Whelan, “Taxes, Wagenburgs and a Nightingale: The Imperial Abbey of Ellwangen and the Hussite Wars, 1427–1435,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2021): 751–77.

  13. 13.

    For a first overview, Anglophone readers may consult Thomas A. Fudge’s anthology of translated sources: The Crusade Against Heretics in Bohemia (1418–1437), trans. Thomas A. Fudge (Aldershot, 2002).

  14. 14.

    Jaroslav Goll, ed., “Kronika Bartoška z Drahonic” [Bartošek of Drahonice’s Chronicle] in Fontes Rerum Bohemicarum (Prague, 1893) [hereafter: FRB], 5:589–628 (Latin).

  15. 15.

    Wilhelm Altmann, ed., Eberhard Windeckes Denkwürdigkeiten zur Geschichte des Zeitalters Kaiser Sigmunds (Berlin, 1893) (German).

  16. 16.

    Andreas von Regensburg, Sämtliche Werke, ed. Leidinger (Latin).

  17. 17.

    Alena M. Černá, Petr Čornej, and Markéta Klosová, eds., Staré letopisy české: Texty nejstarší vrstvy [The Old Czech Annals: The Texts of the Oldest Layer], FRB Series nova 2 (Prague, 2003); eisdem, eds., Staré letopisy české: Východočeská větev a některé související texty [The Old Czech Annals: The East-Bohemian Tradition and Other Related Texts], FRB Series nova 3 (Prague, 2018) (mostly Czech).

  18. 18.

    Jaroslav Goll, ed., “Vavřince z Březové Kronika Husitská” [Lawrence of Březová’s Hussite Chronicle] in FRB, 5:327–541 (Czech and Latin). Cf. the recent English translation: Origins of the Hussite Uprising: The Chronicle of Laurence of Březová (1414–1421), trans. Thomas A. Fudge (Abingdon, 2020).

  19. 19.

    Lawrence ends his chronicle at the turn of the year 1421/1422, even though he continued defending the Hussite cause in other literary works.

  20. 20.

    Petr Čornej, Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české [A Comprehensive History of the Lands of the Czech Crown], Vol. 5: 1402–1437 (Prague, 2000); idem, Jan Žižka: Život a doba hu-sits-ké-ho válečníka [Jan Žižka: The Life of a Hussite Warrior and His Time] (Prague, 2019).

  21. 21.

    František Šmahel, Die Hussitische Revolution, 3 vols. (Hannover, 2002).

  22. 22.

    A Companion to the Hussites, ed. Van Dussen and Soukup.

  23. 23.

    See the bibliographic surveys in Šmahel, Hussitische Revolution 1: 1–84, and Van Dussen and Soukup, “Introduction,” 10–14.

  24. 24.

    Seibt, “Zeit,” 512–36.

  25. 25.

    Frederick G. Heymann, “The Crusades Against the Hussites,” in A History of the Crusades. Vol. 3: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, eds. Kenneth M. Setton and Harry W. Hazard (Madison, 1975), 586–647.

  26. 26.

    Useful summaries can be found, for instance, in the classic works of Frederick G. Heymann, John Žižka and the Hussite Revolution (Princeton, NJ, 1955), 105–47, 273–306, 459–71, and John Martin Klassen, The Nobility and the Making of the Hussite Revolution (New York, 1978), 128–37. More recently: Thomas A. Fudge, The Magnificent Ride: The First Reformation in Hussite Bohemia (Aldershot, 1998), 98–109; and Housley, Religious Warfare, 33–61.

  27. 27.

    Bezold, König Sigmund.

  28. 28.

    See above at note 7.

  29. 29.

    Jörg K Hoensch, Kaiser Sigismund: Herrscher an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit 1368–1437 (Munich, 1996); Birgit Studt, Papst Martin V. (1417–1431) und die Kirchenreform in Deutschland (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna, 2004); Antonín Kalous, Late Medieval Papal Legation: Between the Councils and the Reformation (Rome, 2017).

  30. 30.

    Petr Elbel et al., Zikmundova strana v husitských Čechách [Sigismund’s Party in Hussite Bohemia] (forthcoming). See also Pavel Soukup and Robert Novotný, “La défense de la foi a l’époque hussite: L’engagement des noblesses tchèque et allemande,” in Le Salut par les armes: Noblesse et défense de l’orthodoxie (XIIIe–XVIIe siècle), eds. Arianne Boltanski and Franck Mercier (Rennes, 2011), 93–108.

  31. 31.

    Mark Whelan, “Between Papacy and Empire: Cardinal Henry Beaufort, the House of Lancaster, and the Hussite Crusades,” English Historical Review 133 (2018): 1–31.

  32. 32.

    Norman Housley, “Crusade and Reform, 1414–1449: Allies or Rivals?,” in Reconfiguring the Fifteenth-Century Crusade, ed. idem (London, 2017), 45–83, esp. 54–63.

  33. 33.

    Pavel Soukup, “Preaching the Cross against the Hussites, 1420–1431,” in Partir en Croisade a la Fin du Moyen Âge: Financement et Logistique, eds. Daniel Baloup and Manuel Sánchez Martínez (Toulouse, 2015), 195–212; idem, “Crusading against Christians in the Fifteenth Century: Doubts and Debates,” in Reconfiguring the Fifteenth-Century Crusade, ed. Housley, 85–122; idem, “Kreuzzug und Universitätsmesse”; Christina Traxler, “Firmiter velitis resistere”: Die Auseinandersetzung der Wiener Universität mit dem Hussitismus vom Konstanzer Konzil (1414–1418) bis zum Beginn des Basler Konzils (1431–1449) (Vienna, 2019), 310–27.

  34. 34.

    Werner Paravicini, “Von der Preußenfahrt zum Hussitenkreuzzug,” in Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte des Preußenlandes von der Ordenszeit bis zum Zeitalter der Weltkriege, ed. Bernhart Jähnig (Marburg, 2010), 121–59; Spengler, “Stärke.”

  35. 35.

    Alexandra Kaar, Wirtschaft, Krieg und Seelenheil: Papst Martin V., Kaiser Sigismund und das Handelsverbot gegen die Hussiten in Böhmen (Vienna, 2020); eadem, “Embargoing ‘Heretics’ in Fifteenth-Century Central Europe. The Case of Hussite Bohemia,” Journal of Medieval History 46/4 (2020): 1–20.

  36. 36.

    Attempts to close this gap in research are currently being undertaken by Pavel Soukup: http://cms.flu.cas.cz/conflicts/research-areas/#jedna (last accessed 5 January 2024); and Thomas Fudge: https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/hass/tfudge (last accessed 5 January 2024).

  37. 37.

    On the Council of Constance’s anti-Hussite policy, see the survey by Pavel Soukup, “Die Maßnahmen des Konzils gegen die Hussiten,” in Das Konstanzer Konzil 1414–1418, Weltereignis des Mittelalters: Essays, eds. Karl-Heinz Braun et al. (Stuttgart, 2013), 92–96. An extensive English-language survey of Hus’ life and teachings is provided by František Šmahel and Ota Pavlíček, eds., A Companion to Jan Hus (Leiden and Boston, 2015).

  38. 38.

    On Hussite theological thought, see: Dušan Coufal, “Key Issues in Hussite Theology,” in A Companion to the Hussites, eds. Van Dussen and Soukup, 261–96.

  39. 39.

    See, for instance, as early as March 21, 1416, František Palacký, ed., Documenta mag. Joannis Hus, vitam, doctrinam, causam in Constantiensi consilio actam et controversias de religione in Bohemia annis 1403–1408 motas illustrantia […] (Prague, 1869), 609–13, no. 95; a German summary in RI XI NB, 3:60–62, no. 7. However, the emperor-elect had no real interest in launching a crusade against his future inheritance as yet. This did not stop him, though, from using the threat of a crusade to put pressure on Wenceslas: see, for instance, Palacký, ed., Documenta, 682–86, no. 119; RI XI NB, 3:76–78, no. 14 (4 December 1418).

  40. 40.

    Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte der Hussitenkriege, ed. Palacký, 1:17–20, no. 12; English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 49–52, no. 19 (1 March 1420).

  41. 41.

    Lawrence of Březová provides a vivid picture of the multi-ethnic crusader army: FRB, 5:383–84; English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 74–75, no. 35. Cf., however, also the critical remarks of Spengler, “Stärke,” 349–51.

  42. 42.

    Lawrence, for instance, accused the king of pitting his Moravian followers against their compatriots from the kingdom of Bohemia and thus purposefully shedding Czech blood: FRB, 5:440–41; English translation Fudge, The Crusade against Heretics, 88–93, no. 42, at 91–93. See, for instance, the analysis in Housley, Religious Warfare, 44.

  43. 43.

    On the broader context see: Zenon Hubert Nowak, “Kaiser Siegmund und die polnische Monarchie,” Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 15 (1988): 423–36; Paweł Kras, “Church Reform and the Hussite Revolution in the Diplomacy of Wladislaw II Jagiello,” in Hofkultur der Jagiellonendynastie und verwandter Fürstenhäuser, eds. Urszula Borkowska and Markus Hörsch (Ostfildern, 2010), 227–36; Přemysl Bar, “A Tortuous Path to Reconciliation and Justice: Sigismund of Luxembourg as Arbiter in the Dispute Between the Teutonic Knights and Poland (1412–1420),” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 66 (2017): 3–40.

  44. 44.

    On Branda’s 1421 legation and its documentary output, see especially Studt, Martin V., 479–519.

  45. 45.

    Deutsche Reichstagsakten, eds. Kerler et al., 8:28–29, no. 28. English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 105–106, no. 54 (23 April 1421)—the heading of the document is misleading, though, as it is not the German bishops but the prince-electors who formed an alliance.

  46. 46.

    On the gloomy atmosphere in the crusaders’ camp, see, for instance, the letter edited and translated in Hardy, “An Alsatian Nobleman’s Account,” 212–21 (22 September 1421).

  47. 47.

    On the structural reasons for the declining commitment, see: Hartmut Spengler, “Der Nürnberger Tag von 1431 und der Beschluss des letzten Hussitenfeldzuges,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 101 (2014): 39–78, at 48; idem, “Stärke,” esp. 326–37.

  48. 48.

    On such interconfessional truce agreements, see Petr Elbel, ‘Pravé, věrné a křesťanské příměřie …’ Dohody o příměří mezi husity a stranou markraběte Albrechta na jižní Moravě [“A True, Faithful, and Christian Truce …” The Truce Agreements Between the Hussites and Margrave Albert’s Party in South Moravia] (Brno, 2016).

  49. 49.

    There were serious efforts to organise a theological debate between Catholics and Hussites in Brno, though it failed due to the intransigency of both the curia and the Hussite radicals. See now Dušan Coufal, Polemika o kalich mezi teologií a politikou 1414–1431: Předpoklady basilejské disputace o prvním z pražských artikulů [The Controversy About the Lay Chalice Between Theology and Politics, 1414–1431: On the Preconditions of the Basel Disputation About the First of the Prague Articles] (Prague, 2012), 177–84; Traxler, “Firmiter velitis resistere,” 453–58.

  50. 50.

    On Moravia, see, for instance, Petr Elbel, “Morava” [Moravia], in Husitské století [The Hussite Century], eds. Pavlína Cermanová, Robert Novotný and Pavel Soukup (Prague, 2014), 189–223. A short survey on the situation in Austria is Silvia Petrin, Der österreichische Hussitenkrieg 1420–1434 (Vienna, 1982). For an example of crusade preaching on the regional level, see Pavel Soukup, “Augustinian Prior Oswald Reinlein: A Biography of an Anti-Hussite Preacher,” The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice 9 (2014): 98–110.

  51. 51.

    On Hussite warfare, see most recently Jan Biederman, “Vojenství husitského století,” [Warfare in the Hussite Century] in Husitské století, eds. Cermanová et al., 333–51.

  52. 52.

    Deutsche Reichstagsakten, eds. Kerler et al., 9:11–14, no. 9. English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 210–13, no. 117 (15 January 1427).

  53. 53.

    Deutsche Reichstagsakten, eds. Kerler et al., 9:34–40, no. 31. English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 219–23, no. 120 (before 4 May 1427).

  54. 54.

    On Beaufort’s efforts to organise the crusade in England, see Swanson, “Preaching Crusade in Fifteenth-Century England.”

  55. 55.

    The mandatory tax for the laity contradicted the traditional principle of voluntary contributions to the crusade as an expression of penance. This was a stark contrast to the previously deliberately cautious approach on crusade indulgences and played directly into the hands of Hussite Church criticism: Studt, Martin V., 650–52; Housley, “Crusade and Reform,” 55–56; Soukup, “Preaching,” 210–11.

  56. 56.

    Whelan, “Beaufort,” 23–29.

  57. 57.

    Thomas Krzenck, “Die grosse Heerfahrt der Hussiten 1429–1430 und der Bamberger Aufstand im Februar 1430,” Mediaevalia historica Bohemica 2 (1992): 119–41.

  58. 58.

    Here I follow the interpretation proposed by Spengler, “Nürnberger Tag,” 69–73, who puts the papal legate Cesarini’s allegedly decisive influence on the Nuremberg negotiations into perspective.

  59. 59.

    On the situation at the eve of the fifth crusade, see Dušan Coufal, “‘Ludus calamorum’: Husité, Cesarini a Zikmund před bitvou u Domažlic v novém světle zapadlého pražského manifestu,” [A Game of Quills: The Hussites, Cesarini, and Sigismund Before the Battle of Domažlice in the Light of a Newly Found Prague Manifesto] Studia Mediaevalia Bohemica 5 (2013): 39–73, and Mark Whelan, “Walter of Schwarzenberg and the Fifth Hussite Crusade Reconsidered (1431),” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 122 (2014): 322–35.

  60. 60.

    Cesarini had preached the cross throughout Germany and Flanders. He managed to convince—among others—the Rhenish princes and Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy to provide troops. However, they failed to make good on this promise.

  61. 61.

    See the Council’s official invitation to the Hussites in František Palacký et al., eds., Monumenta conciliorum generalium seculi decimi quinti: Concilium Basilieense. Scriptorum, 4 vols. (Vienna, 1857–1935), 1:136–38. English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 341–44, no. 179 (15 October 1431).

  62. 62.

    František Šmahel, ed., Die Basler Kompaktaten mit den Hussiten (1436): Untersuchung und Edition (Wiesbaden, 2019).

  63. 63.

    Studt, Martin V.; Housley, “Crusade and Reform.”

  64. 64.

    See above at note 59, along with Soukup, “Crusading.” Critique of the preaching of Pope John XXIII’s crusade indulgences against Ladislaus of Naples in the spring of 1412 had originally been one of the accelerating factors in the conflict between the Prague reformers and the ecclesiastical authorities.

  65. 65.

    On propaganda in the Hussite Wars, see, for instance: Fudge, Magnificent Ride, 178–274; Karel Hruza, “‘Audite et cum speciali diligencia attendite verba litere huius.’ Hussitische Manifeste: Objekt, Methode, Definition,” in Text, Schrift, Codex: Quellenkundliche Arbeiten aus dem Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, eds. Christoph Egger and Herwig Weigl (Vienna, 1999), 345–84; Přemysl Bar, “Protihusitská propaganda v písemnostech Zikmunda Lucemburského: Definice, dochování, texty” [Anti-Hussite Propaganda in the Letters of Sigismund of Luxembourg: Definition, Transmission, Texts], Český Časopis Historický 114 (2016): 614–51.

  66. 66.

    Norman Housley, “Explaining Defeat: Andrew of Regensburg and the Hussite Crusades,” in “Dei gesta per Francos.” Études sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, eds. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar, and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot, 2001), 87–95.

  67. 67.

    See the seminal work by Peter Moraw, Von offener Verfassung zu gestalteter Verdichtung: Das Reich im späten Mittelalter 1250 bis 1490 (Berlin, 1995).

  68. 68.

    Spengler, “Stärke,” esp. 371–72.

  69. 69.

    Paravicini, “Preußenfahrt.”

  70. 70.

    A letter attributed to Joan chastising the Bohemian “heretics” has survived in the imperial registers: Olivier Marin, La patience ou le zèle: Les Français devant la Révolution hussite (années 1400–années 1510) (Turnhout, 2019), 114–15 (March 23, 1430). English translation Fudge, The Crusade Against Heretics, 284–85, no. 149; French translation Marin, La patience, 115. The authenticity of this peculiar document and its interpretation have long been the subject of debate: Marin, La patience, 113–22.

  71. 71.

    Extensively on this topic, see Spengler, “Stärke.” The author resolutely refutes the traditional narrative of massive crusader armies being continuously defeated by vastly inferior Hussite forces. Nevertheless, he confirms the Catholic invasion armies’ exceptional size as compared to other armies of the day.

  72. 72.

    See the material assembled by Paravicini, “Preußenreisen,” and Whelan, “Beaufort,” 11.

  73. 73.

    Historiography on this “Second Hussite War” is considerably scanter. For a brief outline of the history of events, see Seibt, “Zeit,” 545–61; in more detail: Frederick G. Heymann, George of Bohemia: King of Heretics (Princeton, NJ, 1965), 437–611; Petr Čornej and Milena Bartlová, Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české [A Comprehensive History of the Lands of the Czech Crown], Vol. 6: 1437–1526 (Prague, 2007), 241–72.

  74. 74.

    Soukup, “Violence,” 33 and 42–43.

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Kaar, A. (2024). The Crusades Against the Hussites in Bohemia (1419–1436). In: Carr, M., Chrissis, N.G., Raccagni, G. (eds) Crusading Against Christians in the Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47339-5_14

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