Battle of Vítkov Hill
1420 battle in Prague

The Battle of Vítkov Hill was a part of the Hussite Wars. The battle pitted the forces of King Sigismund, against Hussite forces under command of Jan Žižka (English: John Zizka). Vítkov Hill was located on the edge of the city of Prague and the battle occurred in a vineyard established by Sigismund's father, Charles IV. It ended with a decisive Hussite victory.
Background
On 1 March 1420 Pope Martin V published a papal bull in which he ordered that Sigismund and all Eastern princes had to organize a crusade against the Hussite followers of Jan Hus, John Wycliffe and other heretics. On 15 March in Breslau, Emperor Sigismund ordered the execution of Jan Krása, a Hussite and leader of the Wrocław Uprising in 1418. On 17 March, the papal legate Ferdinand de Palacios published the bull in Wrocław. The Utraquist faction of Hussites then understood that they would not reach an agreement with him and decided to unite with Taborite Hussites to defend against the emperor.
The crusaders assembled their army in Schweidnitz. On 4 April, Taborite forces destroyed Catholic forces in Mladá Vožice. On 7 April, Taborites, commanded by Nicholas of Hus, captured Sedlice, and they later captured Písek, Rábí Castle, Strakonice and Prachatice.
“Battle of Vítkov Hill” enters the record as 1420 battle in Prague. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Battle, Vítkov and Hill can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Battle of Vítkov Hill” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Battle, Vítkov and Hill provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q181480. Authority coordinates are 50.089, 14.451. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1420 and 1418.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Battle of Vítkov Hill”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Battle of Vítkov Hill primary sources, Battle of Vítkov Hill archive and Battle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Battle of Vítkov Hill”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Vítkov Hill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.