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The Welcome to a history of Europe, Key Battles, The Hussite Wars, Part two of two.

Last week I described the history of Bohemia, the Czech Republic, up to the murder of the priest Jan Hus on 6 July 1415. After a show trial of the Council of Constance, Hus was condemned

as a heretic and burned at the stake. The main priority of most of the clergy was church unity, and they felt quite justified in using violence and intimidation to achieve this.

After all, such tactics had been successfully deployed beforehand, for example in the crushing of the Cathars in southern France in the twelve hundreds.

Little did they know that the martyrdom of Jenshus would ignite decades of warfare

in Central Europe, the so-called Hussite wars. There was no immediate reaction after his death

on either side. Church leaders were occupied with the Council of Constance, dealing with the papal schism

which had afflicted the church for several decades. In November 1417, after three previous

claimants to the papal throne were forced to give way, a new pope was elected, Pope Martin

V. Martin V was determined to stamp out heresy in all its forms.

He encouraged the rulers of Christendom to take a hard line on any suspected heretics, including Hussite sympathizers.

King Vensislav, the fourth of Bohemia, however, was by nature tolerant of religious descent, but he was also a weak-willed and ineffectual ruler.

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