A CZECH HERO

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4800, 21 June 1939, Page 7

A CZECH HERO

ZISKA AND HIS DRUM. If there is anything at all in romantic legend, while the fate of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia hung in the balance there was one note which might have been expected to be heard in the winds, sounding over Prague and Mount Tabor, says the Manchester Guardian. It would be the roll of Ziska’s drum. For the great Bohemian soldier left his skin to be made into a drum to call his compatriots to arms in any stress of emergency.

Johann Ziska was born at Trocznow, according to tradition, under an oak in the open air. He first distinguished himself in the Polish war with the Teutonic knights, especially in the great battle of Tannenberg. He fought also for the English at Agincourt in 1415. On his return he became chamberlain to King Wenceslaus, and joined the Hussites, being roused to indignation by the execution of Huss and Jerome. Ziska headed an insurrection in 1419, when thirteen councillors were hurled from the window of the Town Hall at Prague (the incident known to historians as “the defenestration of Prague”). Wenceslaus fled, and was succeeded by his brother, the Emperor Segismund, a bitter enemy of the Hussites. Ziska then seized and fortified Mount Tabor, his entrenchments being accounted impregnable. The extreme Hussites were thus termed “Taborites,” as distinct form the moderate “Calixtines.”

Ziska’s Exploits.

Pope Martin V having proclaimed a crusade against the Hussites, Sigismund invaded Bohemia. A national rising, however, took place under Ziska, who defeated the Imperialists at Prague and defended Mount Witkow with 4000 men against 30,000. Zinka next captured the castle of Wyschebrad, near Prague, arming his men with firearms, at that time a novelty. He was already blind of one eye and in 1421 he lost his other. Totally blind, he yet defeated the Imperialist at Deutschbrod in 1422 and the Saxins at Aussig, on the Elbe. In 1424 the Emperor, despairing of success, began to negotiate with Ziska, but the Hussite leader was carried off by plague at Czaslau that year. Ziska fought in all thirteen pitched battles, and won twelve of them. From his blindness and his military genius he has been compared to Hannibal; and Byron worte, “His name shall beat the alarm, like Ziska’s drum.”