Jan Žižka

Jan Zizka was the leader of the Hussite Rebels during their revolt against the Catholic Church. The Hussites were a religious group founded by Jan Hus, who opposed many practices of the Catholic church, including indulgences. When Hus was burned at the stake for heresy, the Hussites rose in rebellion against the Catholics, who mustered armies in a Crusade in response.

Before the revolt, Zizka was the son of a gentry family in a small village in Bohemia. Zizka was attached to the Bohemian royal court since his youth, and later became the chamberlain to Queen Sophia. Zizka also fought at the Battle of Grunwald during the war between the Polish and Lithuanians and the Teutonic Knights.

After Jan Hus was executed in 1415, his followers rose in revolt. Zizka quickly rose to prominence as a masterful tactician, using knowledge of European cavalry warfare to devise tactics to defeat armored knights. Zizka's revolutionary tactic used crossbowmen, hand cannoneers, and small cannon or houfnice mounted within the armored wagons to defeat charging cavalry. Zizka would place these wagons into a circular "wagon fort", and fire guns and crossbows out of gun ports in the wagons at the charging cavalry. The swarm of fire would kill or wound both the attacking knights and their horses. The Hussite infantry and cavalry would then charge out from behind the wagons and attack the disorganized, often unhorsed and wounded survivors. Zizka himself would often lead the charge out from behind the wagons, proving to be a skilled personal combatant with his favored weapon, a flanged mace.

During the revolt, Zizka's mastery of tactics and use of gunpowder weapons allowed him to defeat armies of better-armed knights at such battles of Vitkov Hill. During the Battle of Kutna Hora in 1421, Zizka used his wagon fort tactics, as well as the first recorded use of field artillery, to defeat an army of Crusaders from Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire.

During the later parts of the Hussite Wars, the Hussites became divided between the more radical Taborites and less radical Utraquist factions. Zizka led the Taborites and defeated the Utraquists, reunifying the Hussites. In 1424, Zizka led an invasion of Hungary. While Zizka himself never lost a battle where he was personally in command, in the end, the Hungarian's numerical superiority forced the Hussites to retreat. Shortly afterwards, Zizka died of the bubonic plague in 1424, however, the Hussite Wars continued with until 1435, when the Catholics and the more moderate Hussite leaders reached a compromise which allowed the Hussites to retain some of their doctrine, as well as control of Bohemia.

Zizka remains a national hero of the Czech Republic, and is one of only a handful of commanders in all of history who never lost a battle in their entire military career, alongside such figures as Alexander the Great. A statue of Zizka was erected on Vitkov Hill in Prague, the site of one of his victories.