There is little we know about the youth of Jan Žižka, a zeman from Trocnov, but these are characteristic findings. He is already entering history as a one-eyed man. The blindfold must have made him unmistakable even as a member of Matěj Vůdek’s retinue, which, either in the service of influential nobles or on its own, did criminal damage in the area of southern Bohemia and western Moravia at the beginning of the 15th century.
It reads:
Jiří Valůšek
Prepared by:
Viktor Bezdíček
He wrote:
Petr Čornej
Dramaturgy:
Alena Blažejovská
Directed by:
Radim Nejlý
Premiere:
8. 10. 2024
The book was published in 2019 by the Paseka publishing house.
Žižka’s early crimes are beyond doubt, as is the regent’s amnesty he received.
In the following years, Žižka witnessed a wave of passions in Prague, which was caused by the rejection of the chalice by the Council of Constance and, above all, the condemnation of Jan Hus at the border in 1415.
Historian Petr Čornej asks himself what made the old warrior join the mob that carried out the defenestration in Nové Město and whose rebellion triggered the Hussite revolution. He finds the answer in Žižek’s past and in the old man’s need – according to the standards of the time – to embark on the path to salvation.
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Čornej accompanies readers and listeners through Žižek’s life from the Lapkov years through the first battles of Kališnica to his most famous years. It shows Žižka’s mind as a strategist and his cruel reckoning with opponents. It tells about the formative experiences of the warlord, such as the loss of sight at Rabí Castle in 1421.
The historian also describes how the Hussite movement split and how Žižka himself executed an unworthy Hussite priest with a mace. And he also quotes Žižka’s last words:
“That they may fear the dear God, and stand and defend faithfully the truth of God for eternal recompense.”
In 2020, Čornej’s book became the winner of the Litera category for educational literature in the Magnesia Litera competition, as well as the winner of the main Magnesia Litera Book of the Year prize.
We broadcast the reading on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the death of Jan Žižka, which falls on October 11, 2024.
