ZISKA, zisica (properly FICA, thlzh'ke). John. Bohemian Hussite leader: b. Trocznov, near Budweis, about 1360 (by some authori ties as late as 1380): d. Ptbyslav 11 Oct. 1424. He was educated at the court of King Wenceslas at Prague, entered the profession of arms, joined the contingent that went from Bohemia and Hungary in 1410 to the assistance of the Teutonic Kinghts against the Poles and Lithuanians, and fought with great prowess In the fiercely contested battle of Tannenberg, 15 July 1410. Then he served in Hungary against the Turks, and with the English at Agincourt, 25 Oct. 1415. Soon after the execution of Huss (q.v.). he returned to Bohemia and be came a leader of the Hussites. In 1419, when the Hussites broke into rebellion against the Emperor Siginnund, Ziska organized their military forces into a well-disciplined army of infantry, supplying the want of casalry by means of the Waggenburgen, or 'car-forts,' constructed of the luggage-wagons. He took up his headquarters at a stronghold on the heights of Austie, in southern Tlohemia, the fortress being known as Tabor (with ref erence, perhaps, both to tabor, Bohemian for (encampment,' and to Mount Tabor in Pal estine), and the extreme Ilussites as 'Tabor i tes.* Sigismund sent an army of 30,000 into the country, but Ziska, with a hasty levy of about 4,(X10, took up his position on Mount Vitkov, near Prague, and on 14 July 1420 de feated the enemy with great slaughter. The
eminence has since been known as the Hill of Ziska. On I Nov. 1420, at Patikratz, he was again victorious over Sigiuntind, and on 2 November captured the fortress of Vyfehrad, near Prague. He won a second great battle against Sigismund 8 Ian. 1422 at Deutschbrod, and penetrated into Moravia and Austria. He had long had hut one eve, and lost the other by an arrow-wound at the siege of Rab• castle in 1421 Notwithstanding his blindness he continued to direct his troops with great effi ciency and almost unvarying success. Prague refused to recognire his authority, and he thoroughly stibdi-d It in 1424 In that year, it is said, Sietsm realizing the impossibility of column-ring :ohernia, began negotiations toward a treaty. by the terms of which the Hussite. were to 'tave full religious liberty and Ziska was to be ,:oyernor of Bohemia Such negotiations, if were interrupted by Ziska's dead at the siege v.
Ziska became the hero of the Bohemian revolu tionary party, and for this character he was well fitted by his zeal and military ability. He was frequently cruel in his method of war fare and conquest. Much fiction has been mingled with the facts of his career. Alfred Meissner's epic (Ziska,) based on the leader's history, reached a 12th edition in 1884. Con sult the German translation (1882) of Tomek's