[1] According to Piccolomini's Historia Bohemica, he maintained connections within the royal court during his youth and later held the office of Chamberlain to Queen Sofia of Bavaria.

In addition to training and equipping his army according to their abilities, he used armored wagons fitted with small cannons and muskets, anticipating the tank of five hundred years later.

[3] However, beginning in 1406, Žižka starts appearing in the black book (acta negra maleficorum) of the Rosenberg estate as an accused bandit.

[8] Unfortunately the reasons of this charge are not known, but the fact that he declared open hostility to Henry of Rosenberg and also to the city of Budějovice and their allies[9] suggests that he was trying to fight some injustice against his house and to enforce some of his rights in this way.

In any case, violence broke out and Žižka tried to harm his enemies on any possible occasion using as his allies, also local bandits, led by Matěj Vůdce (Matthew the Leader) who were seeking only financial profit.

The group camped in various places, including a farm in the village of Sedlo (nowadays part of Číměř), a mill not far from Lomnice nad Lužnicí, at a house of an unknown woman in Hlavatce or simply in the woods.

[13] Žižka's situation changed on 25 of April 1409 when king Wenceslas agreed that his conflict with the city of Budějovice should be finished and on 27 June he pardoned him (calling him "faithful and beloved") by a special letter.

According to a later report by Lukáš Pražský (from 1527), Žižka entered the service of Sophia of Bavaria, the wife of Wenceslas IV, as her chamberlain, and he accompanied her when she was attending the preachings of Jan Hus.

The ecclesiastical organization of Tabor had a somewhat puritanical character with a very strict military discipline being instituted though the government was established on a thoroughly democratic basis.

Žižka helped develop tactics of using wagon forts, called vozová hradba in Czech or Wagenburg by the Germans, as mobile fortifications.

When the Hussite army faced a numerically superior opponent they prepared carts for the battle by forming them into squares or circles.

[21] The Czechs called the handgun a píšťala, and anti-infantry field guns houfnice, from which the English words "pistol" and "howitzer" have been derived.

A handgunner on an open field armed with only a single-shot weapon and without a bayonette was no match for a charging knight on a horse; however, from behind a castle wall, or from within the enclosure of the wagenburg, massed and disciplined gunmen could use the handgun to its greatest potential.

From his experiences at the Battle of Grunwald, Žižka knew exactly how his enemies would attack, and he found new ways to defeat forces numerically superior to his own.

A firm adherent of the Church of Rome, Sigismund was successful in obtaining aid from Pope Martin V, who issued a bull on 17 March 1420 which proclaimed a crusade "for the destruction of the John Wycliffe, Hussites and all other heretics in Bohemia".

Sigismund and many German princes arrived before the walls of Prague on 30 June at the head of a vast army of crusaders from all parts of Europe, largely consisting of adventurers attracted by the possibility of pillage.

A strong German Crusader-led force assaulted the position on the Vítkov, the stronghold that secured the Hussite communications with the open country.

However, the estates of Bohemia and Moravia met at Čáslav on 1 June 1421 and decided to appoint a provisional government, consisting of twenty members chosen from all the political and religious parties of the country.

He then continued his campaigns against the Romanists and the adherents of Sigismund, and having captured and rebuilt a small castle near Litoměřice (Leitmeritz), he retained possession of it, the only reward for his great services that he ever received or claimed.

Žižka was at the head of the united armies of Tábor and Prague and though trapped managed to execute what some historians call the first mobile artillery manoeuver in history.

Sigismund's forces made a last stand at Battle of Německý Brod on 10 January, but the city was stormed by the Czechs, and contrary to Žižka's orders, its defenders were put to the sword.

During his temporary rule over Bohemia, Prince Sigismund Korybut of Lithuania had appointed Bořek, the lord of Miletínek, governor of the city of Hradec Králové.

After the departure of Sigismund Korybut, the city of Hradec Králové refused to recognize Bořek as its ruler, due to the democratic party gaining the upper hand.

He acceded to the demand and defeated the Utraquists under Bořek at the farm of Strachov (in the area of today's Kukleny within Hradec Králové) on 4 August 1423.

It was agreed that the now reunited Hussites should attack Moravia, part of which was still held by Sigismund's partisans, and that Žižka should be the leader in this campaign.

He was interred in the church of Saints Peter & Paul in Caslau, but in 1623 his remains were removed and his grave destroyed by order of the Emperor Ferdinand II.

Field of Glory II: Medieval features Hussite campaign during which player takes role of Jan Žižka.

[31] Žižka is the main protagonist of the upcoming independent 3D real-time strategy game Songs of the Chalice, which is set in the years 1419–1420.

A Yugoslav partisan brigade of the same name was formed in western Slavonia on 26 October 1943 and operated in areas inhabited by a large Czech and Slovak minority.

Japanese manga Otome Sensou also portray the story of 1420 Bohemia and feature Jan Žižka and one of the main character [36]