Battle of Lipany

The battle of Lipan was the decisive military encounter that ended the Hussite Wars.

On Sunday, May 30, 1434 in the village Lipany the combined forces of the radical Hussites ( encampments ) were located south under the leadership of Prokop the Great, and the soldiers of the orphans, led by Jan Čapek ze Sán, and on the other hand, the coalition of moderate Utraquists and Catholics against. The moderates were outnumbered, the Radicals could, however, boast experienced and through many struggles matched fighters.

Both armies used the old battle tactics and equipment of the Hussites. Both sides were led by experienced commanders. The tandem Prokop Holy and Jan Čapek ze Sán faced the equally experienced chalice brother Divis Bořek z Miletínka, an old campaigner of Jan Zizka.

The battle began tough. The Radicals, who arrived first, occupied an advantageous ground position. This was located on high ground south-west of Lipan and locked himself in a six-row wagons. With enough food, they waited for the arrival of the enemy. They relied that their nervousness would grow over time, as their empire was unprotected. They expected a collapse of the coalition and weakening of the Catholics or their general attack under unfavorable conditions. The commanders of the moderates was this situation clear, and they tried a ruse to solve the situation.

Divis Bořek z Miletínka hid his rider in a valley near the corral and approached with his own corral the opponents. After 15 clock the shelling began. The coalition soldiers pretended confusion before, the wagons broke apart, and it began a disorderly retreat.

At the time, when the retreat began, underwent the two commanders of the orphans a serious mistake. At the sight of the fleeing soldiers they saw a renewed easy victory, as in the previous battles won easily in front of him. They opened the corral so they could beat the disorganized and demoralized army with their " God-given holden rider shank " into the flight this time. The moderates waited until January Čapek ze Sán had far enough away from the festivities and all were busy with the observation of the approaching massacre to attack with the hidden cavalry.

The group of riders attacked the open wagons in, took it and held it until the arrival of rushing to the aid of infantry. This distributed in the meantime completely, but showed a sudden entirely offensive behavior. The change awoke late the mistrust of the orphans, the now open field saw hard fighting and the approaching enemy army before him. They realized that it would not manage to close the corral in time.

January Čapek ze Sán heard the desperate signals his campaigner Prokop Holy, who had remained with his infantry in the corral. January it became clear that it would not succeed, retake the corral and that one of the principles of battle tactics of the Hussites never failed: When the barricade falls, the battle is lost. The infantry could not be helped. January Čapek ze Sán retired with the cavalry into the receptacle located near impregnable city of Kolin back and thus saved at least a part of his army.

The battle ended with a massacre, with the winner most of the prisoners liquidated ( only about nine hundred were burned in barns ) and the core of the encampments thus extinguished. Some of the prisoners of the original 12,000 men counted army encampments struck himself on the side of the moderates with originally about 20,000 men, some of the survivors came forward as mercenaries in foreign armies, and a small fraction offered for a while resistance, including the example marshal Jan Roháč z Dubé. However, this rather symbolic resistance did not last long. Roháč was fought on September 9, 1437 final in Kutna Hora. After refusing to accept Sigismund as king, he was hanged in Prague. The Hussite Wars in Bohemia were terminated.

1881 a grave mound was built on the hill of Lipan.