ZISKA OF TROCNOW, JOHN, a Hussite leader; born of noble parents, in Trocnow, Bohemia, about 1360. He spent his youth as a page at the court of King Wenceslaus; in 1410 joined the troops that marched from Bohemia and Hungary to help the Teutonic knights against the Poles and Lithuanians; and took part in the battle of Tannenberg, July 15. After this he fought in the campaigns of the Hungarians against the Turks, and on the side of the English against the French, especially distin guishing himself at Agincourt (1415). On his return to Bohemia, he attached himself to the extreme party of the Hus sites, who under his leadership quickly became trained soldiers, and learned to fortify their camps by "Wagenburgen," i. e., wagons so placed as to form defen sive squares. In 1421 he founded a for tress on Mount Tabor, on July 14 of that year he defeated the German crusading army on the mountain ever since called Ziskaberg, and in January, 1422, he de cisively defeated Siegmuna in the battle of Bohmisch-Brod. At the head of the Taborites Ziska then advanced against the moderate Calixtines, whose posses sions he ravaged in the most wanton manner. Though at the siege of the
Castle of Raby in 1421 he lost his second eye, he still continued not only to order the march, following his officers' descrip tions of the ground, but to direct in battle his "invincible legion of brothers." The emperor had already begun to de spair of success in the contest, and had opened negotiations with Ziska, promis ing full liberty of conscience, when the latter died, during the siege of Przibis law, Oct. 11, 1424. He was buried in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul at Czaslau, with his battle axe suspended above his grave. In 1623 the tomb was opened by imperial command, and his bones re moved to Vienna. Ziska was an able commander, quick in thought and action, of great presence of mind, and of iron firmness, a merciless and relentless op ponent of the enemies of his country and his faith.