The dissensions in Sigismund's camp became intensified by the failure of the negotiations. Open warfare between the so-called allies seemed more than probable. Sigismund therefore decided to abandon the siege of Prague, and to dismiss his German allies, whose arrival—in consequence of the old hatred between the two races—had had as principal result the diminution of the already scanty number of the king's adherents in Bohemia. Before leaving Prague, Sigismund caused himself to be crowned King of Bohemia in the cathedral of St. Vitus.[1] The ceremony of the coronation of their kings has, with the Bohemians, as with the Hungarians, always been surrounded by a peculiar sanctity; by submitting to it, Sigismund hoped to strengthen his claim to the Bohemian throne. It was, however, noticed that neither representatives of the towns of Prague nor the holders of many of the great offices of state were present.
On August 2, 1420, the king left the neighbourhood of Prague and retired to Kuttenberg. The crusaders dispersed to their various countries.
CHAPTER VI
from the coronation of king sigismund to the death of king louis at moháč (1420–1526)
The skirmish at Sudoměř and the battle at Žižka's Hill mark the beginning of the Hussite wars.
The period from the battle on Žižka's Hill (1420) to that at Lipany (1434), which decided the fate of the Taborite
party, is the most eventful one in Bohemian history. The renewed crusades against Bohemia; incessant local warfare between the utraquist nobles and townsfolk, and those who were on the side of Rome; occasional warfare among the utraquists themselves, when the Taborites and Praguers fell out with each other; the rise and fall of Tabor; the temporary hegemony of the city of Prague over a large part of Bohemia; the attempt to re-establish monarchy under a Polish dynasty, are only some of the events and movements crowded into these few years. The intellectual activity of the people (manifested where, under the given conditions, it could alone manifest itself, namely in the field of theolo-
- ↑ The cathedral is situated close to the castle on the Hradčin, which was held by the royal forces.
