ABSTRACT
The Hussite Reformation has received renewed scholarly attention in Western circles outside of Czechia since the fall of the Soviet Union. However, while the Hussite Wars (1419–1434) that were largely coeval with the Hussite Reformation have received attention as interesting novelties in military-historiographical surveys, they are oftentimes treated as outliers with little bearing upon analyses of broader European conflicts. This chapter contributes to a correction of that oversight by addressing the role of religious considerations in Hussite battlefield decisions. The case studies here are the Battle of Vítkov Hill, the penitential congress at Německý Brod, and the military ordinance of Jan Žižka. All of these case studies provide insight into what Pavel Soukup calls a highly developed “war ideology” among the Hussites. The upshot of this analysis is to show that battlefield operational commanders in European Late Medieval armed forces could and did see supernatural objectives as proper considerations in the pursuit of victory. Acknowledging this in operational military histories does not detract from more traditional objects of study but instead enriches and broadens the scope and significance of those studies.
