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Below are some images pertinent to the Hussite Wars
Below are some images pertinent to the Hussite Wars
Jan Hus was a peaceful man who one said "Father in Heaven, do not hold against them the sins which my enemies commit against me, and let mine eyes see them blissfully with thee, when their souls fly to thy throne after an easy death." His death so outraged his followers that they started a war that would eventually kill hundreds of thousands, and which would eventually bleed into the Thirty Years War, which killed millions.
Jan Zizka's huge statue in Prague
A modern reconstruction of a war wagon
The two handed flail was a common pre-industrial agricultural implement used for threshing grain. The Hussites, along with many other peasant armies throughout history, used them as weapons. The beater part of the flail was sometimes fitted with spikes and iron bands, which probably served more to prevent the beater from shattering upon impact than to increase the damage done. The basic physics that manifest in the use of a flail are absurd.
This depiction of the Battle of Vitkof Hill shows hasty fortifications being used in conjunction with flail-wielding infantry in the foreground. 300 crusaders were killed in this battle, many killed, like the man on the bottom left, when they were driven over a cliff by the hordes of enraged, flail-wielding Bohemians.
