Battle of Lipany - The Battle

The Battle

The radicals set up a Wagenburg on a strategically advantageous hill, and both armies stood against each other for some time. An attempt by the Utraquists to negotiate and resolve the conflict peacefully failed due to irreconcilable position of the radicals. Three days after the unsuccessful negotiations, the Leaguers advanced to the radicals' encampment; although the following mutual cannonade was harmless due to distance between the two armies, to the surprise of the radicals the Leaguers began to retreat with all their wagons.

Thinking that the enemy was fleeing, the radicals' commanders opened the Wagenburg to attack the Leaguers' formation, not knowing that the retreat was a trick to draw them out of the Wagenburg. As the radicals approached the Leaguers' army, the Leaguers stopped and began to fire from their wagons. At the same time, the Leaguers' heavy cavalry, which had been hidden near the radicals' camp, undertook a surprise attack from the side and penetrated into the open Wagenburg. The radicals' army quickly collapsed and the commander of the Orphans' cavalry, Čapek of Sány, fled with all his men to the nearby town of Kolín.

The battle now changed into a massacre of the lightly equipped radical forces. Both Prokop the Great and Prokůpek (Prokop the Little) were killed, holding "the last stand" at the wagons. Some prominent leaders of the radicals, including Jan Roháč of Dubá, were captured, but about 700 ordinary soldiers who surrendered after promises of renewed military service, were burned to death in nearby barns.