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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] John Ziska Biography ZISKA, Boh. ZIZKA, JOHN (c.1378-1424). A famous leader of the Hussites. He was born at Trocnoy, near Budweis, Bohemia. He became a page to King Wenceslas of Bohemia., and spent his youth at Prague. In 1410 he took part as a volunteer on the side of the Teutonic Knights in the great battle of Tannenberg. Later he fought against the Turks and at the battle of Agincourt. Returning to Bohemia, soon after the burning of John Huss, he became prominent among the leaders of the Hussites. In 1419 the Hussites took up arms against the Emperor Sigismund, and Ziska displayed extraordinary activity in organizing their forces, soon becoming leader. He built a mountain stronghold which he named Tabor, whence the extreme party among the Hussites took the name of Taborites (q.v.). In 1420 he took up a strong position near Prague on an eminence since known as the Zizkaberg, and with a few thousand men beat of an army of 30,000 (July 14). On November 1 he won a victory over the Emperor Sigismund and again on Jan. 8, 1422, he was victorious at Deutschbrod. His course was everywhere marked by the destruction of monasteries, the burning of priests' houses, and the introduction of the communion with both elements. (See UTRAQUISTS.) As the leader of the Taborites, Ziska waged a relentless war against the section of the Hussites known as the Calixtines. In 1424 it is said that Sigismund proposed an arrangement with the Hussites, by which full religious liberty was to be allowed and Ziska, who had an interview with the Emperor on the footing of an independent chief, was to be appointed Governor of Bohemia and her dependencies, but if this is true, the war-worn old chief did not live long enough to complete the treaty, for while besieging the castle of Prbyslav he was seized with the plague, and died Oct. 11, 1424. He was buried in a church at Czaslav, and his iron war club was hung up over his tomb. From early boyhood Ziska had been blind in one eye and he lost his other eye in 1421. As he has become a popular hero, it is difficult in many parts of his life to separate fact from fiction. Meissner was the author of an epic poem on Ziska which had more than a dozen editions; and George Sand wrote a prose Life. Consult W. W. Tomek, Johann Ziska (Ger. ed., Prague, 1882). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 863. |