Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/255

 As they could find no one worthy to take his place, they remained without any chief, and afterwards went by the name of Orphans.

John Žižka, or rather John of Trotznov, was born at Trotznov, in the circle of Bechyn. He began his public life as a page of the Emperor Charles IV, and afterwards followed a military career, serving in the armies of Poland. There he distinguished himself on many occasions, particularly at the battle of Tannenberg, in 1410, where the German knights were defeated. Returning to his native land, he became chamberlain to King Václav. The insult offered the Bohemian nation by the burning of Hus at Constance made a deep impression upon his mind, and, brooding over how the wrong might be avenged, he embraced the first opportunity to take sides with the people against the hierarchy of Rome, and finally became the great champion of Hussitism. Indeed, without Žižka there would have been no Hussitism; the adherents of the new doctrine would have been crushed out like the Waldenses before them.

Žižka was a fanatic, but he was more than a fanatic; he was an enthusiast for the law of God, for human liberty and equality. The principles advocated by the Taborite branch of the Hussites were such as would have ultimately led to a pure democracy. Žižka hated feudalism, and one of his aims was to destroy all social distinctions based on birth. For this reason he loved not the Germans; for he saw in them the friends of castes and the enemies of democracy. He was an ardent Slavonian, because at this time the Slavonic