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Jan Žižka

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TheAlaniDragonRising View Drop Down
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Jan Žižka
    Posted: 24-Dec-2014 at 04:08
I must admit that I don't know a whole lot about this man, even though what I have read so far has impressed me. Normally I would add a poll to this, but am far more interested in finding out what people know of this man. So please contribute and extend my knowledge. Thank you in advance. 

Jan Žižka


Jan, Count Žižka,  (born c. 1376—died Oct. 11, 1424, Přibyslav, Bohemia [now in Czech Republic]), military commander and national hero of Bohemia who led the victorious Hussite armies against the German king Sigismund, foreshadowing the revolution of military tactics two centuries later in his introduction of mobile artillery.

Žižka grew up at the court of the German king Wenceslas (King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia). He early lost an eye. After spending most of his life as a mercenary for the Poles and fighting with them at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg; 1410), he returned to Bohemia and became a follower of the religious reformer Jan Hus. When Wenceslas died in 1419, his half-brother Sigismund attempted to ascend the Bohemian throne, but the Bohemians, aware that Sigismund would try to suppress Hussitism, organized a resistance. Žižka became a leader of the Taborites, one of the newly formed peasant military communities that, with their tight discipline and religious and nationalist zeal, were vastly superior to the undisciplined feudal levies that they opposed.

Žižka revolutionized warfare through the introduction of cannon mounted on mobile, armoured farm wagons. He was one of the first commanders to handle infantry, cavalry, and artillery as one tactical body. Reduced to the tactical defensive by his cumbersome wagons, he became a master at forcing his enemies to attack at a disadvantage. Žižka’s system proved practically unbeatable. He crushed Sigismund near Prague in 1420. Losing the sight of his remaining eye shortly thereafter, he continued to lead his forces to victory against both Roman Catholics and rival Hussite elements, finally dying of plague in 1424. Hussite armies continued to defeat foreign invaders, finally succumbing after a decade and a half as a result of internal rivalries.

Despite his obvious success, Europe failed to heed Žižka’s military system for 200 years. Only with the advent of the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf and his reintroduction of mobile artillery in the 17th century did Žižka’s system become incorporated into European tactics.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/657643/Jan-Count-Zizka






Edited by TheAlaniDragonRising - 24-Dec-2014 at 04:10
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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Kevinmeath View Drop Down
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  Quote Kevinmeath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Dec-2014 at 18:15
Read this book about him a very impressive person

http://www.amazon.com/WARRIOR-OF-GOD-Hussite-Revolution/dp/1848325169

with more political support the reformation may have started earlier.
cymru am byth
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Dec-2014 at 07:49
As they come and go...ole Jan was a tuff ole sumbeech of a man.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/zizka.html


'Zizka continued leading his men until 1424, when he finally died, not from running into battle blind, but from the plague. Before his death though, Zizka requested that his skin be flayed from his body and used to make a drum. We’re guessing that when you read the title of this piece you assumed that Zizka’s skin was ripped off by an enemy looking to make an example of him or something like that, right? But no, Zizka’s skin was ripped off at the personally bequest of Zizka himself. Why? So that his men could beat the drum as they marched into battle; so that even in death, he could lead them on!'



http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/jan-zizka-general-skin-turned-drum-2/
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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Sidney View Drop Down
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  Quote Sidney Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Dec-2014 at 08:23
Hope they used the skin from his chest, rather than his arse.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Dec-2014 at 10:23
otoh methinks his arse, from all them years in a saddle or on a log waiting for the next fight, would have been tuffer.

Amen.
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

S. T. Friedman


Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Druzhina Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Feb-2015 at 03:56
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