Johann Městecký from Opočno

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Johann Městecký of Opočno , also John the Younger of Opočno , in Czech Jan Městecký z Opočna , also Jan mladší z Opočna , († 1432 ) was a Bohemian nobleman who turned to the war trade . In 1410 he fought in the Battle of Grunwald and from 1420 as a captain in the Hussite Wars . He was considered the leader of the East Bohemian aristocratic party, which turned against the reform efforts of the Hussites and was referred to by his contemporaries as the "Opočno Party". Nevertheless, he submitted to the Hussites twice. He was also known as a robber baron through looting .

Life

Johann came from the East Bohemian noble family of the Lords of Dobruška and Opočno . His parents were Stephan / Štěpán von Opočno and Katharina von Bergow, who was a sister of the Oberstburggrave of Bohemia, Otto von Bergow . After the tragic death of his father in 1397, Johann was initially under the tutelage of his uncle Jaroslaw von Opočno. Probably between 1408 and 1410 he came of age. In any case, on May 15, 1410 he appeared as a witness at the court. At that time he resided at the festival of his uncle Jaroslaw in Heřmanův Městec , from which his nickname "Městecký" is derived. This was already used by his contemporaries, but never by himself.

In contrast to his father and his uncle Jaroslaw, Johann did not seek a royal court office. He turned to the war trade and in July 1410 fought like numerous other Bohemian nobles on the side of the Teutonic Order in the battle of Grunwald, where he took his own troop of mercenaries with him. There he got into Polish captivity, from which he was only released in the spring of 1412. After his return he supported his cousin Otto von Bergow the Elder in Eastern Bohemia. J. in his fight against Nikolaus von Žampach .

After the death of his uncle Jaroslaw Johann Heřmanův Městec and one half of Dobruška inherited . Presumably he also took over his claim to unpaid debts from 1401, for which the Bohemian and Roman-German King Wenzel had transferred the tax revenues of the Benedictine monastery Opatowitz to him but not paid him. Therefore, Johann attacked together with Otto von Bergow the Elder. J. in the night of November 1st to 2nd, 1415, the monastery, which was robbed and devastated and abbot Peter Lazur harassed to death. In 1416 Johann in Dobruška is documented, where he and his uncle Johann the Elder were born. Ä. attended the introduction of the new pastor. It is not known when and how he returned to the Opočno estate, which his father had to sell after 1390. Presumably this happened between 1416 and 1419. After the death of King Wenceslaus in 1419, he politically supported his successor Sigismund . He probably had no sympathy for the Hussite movement. In his small town Dobruška, which was the seat of a large deanery , he maintained good contact with the clergy.

In the spring of 1420 Johann and his mercenaries took part in the first crusade against the Hussites and fought on the side of the Catholic nobility in the battle of Sudoměř . After the conquest of Königgrätz by the Hussites, Johann was appointed captain of Chrudim by King Sigismund , who was also besieged by the Hussites. There he received support from the German urban population and the monks of the Dominican monastery. After he asked the king to pay his troops, on October 17, 1420, he transferred all possessions of the Břevnov monastery to him in pledge , which included 41 farms, 86 whole and 13 sub-villages.

After the East Bohemian town of Chotěboř was conquered by the Taborites at the end of 1420 , it was besieged by John together with the troops of Čenek Hlaváč from Ronow , Puta from Častolowitz , Smil Arnošt from Pardubitz and Jan from Chotěmice . The Hussites had to surrender on January 2, 1421, when Johann promised them free retreat. However, he did not keep this promise. Around 300 prisoners were burned in a barn and the leader Peter Hromádka and two other Taborite priests were executed in Chrudim. When the Hussites wanted to take revenge and besieged Chrudim, Johann decided to negotiate hopelessly. Finally he ran over to them and asked for mercy, which was probably granted to him through the intercession of Captain Hynek Kruschina von Lichtenburg .

Since he was not a convinced Hussite and had not taken a corresponding oath and was also of the opinion that a promise made to "heretics" was not binding, he switched again to the anti-Hussite party in the autumn of 1421. When the Silesians invaded Eastern Bohemia on October 13, 1421 , he joined them together with Puta von Častolowitz. Before the Olomouc bishop Johann von Bucca "the iron" he renounced the chalice party and before the king he pledged himself to be loyalty and participation in the next crusade: In January 1422 he led the imperial army to Kuttenberg and fought in April 1423 in the Battle of Horschitz against Jan Žižka . After the defeat, his troops pillaged and murdered in the Horschitz suburb of Hradec. The battle of Bohemian Skalitz in 1424 wiped out large parts of his people. In 1425 the East Bohemian Orebites , who called themselves Sirotci ("orphans") after Žižka's death , moved to the foothills of the Eagle Mountains . There they conquered the Opočno Castle in August , which was permanently lost to Johann, as well as the Dobřany and Frymburk castles , which at that time were probably John's uncle Johann the Elder. Ä. owned by Opočno. They also captured Puta's Rychmberk Castle . Between 1425 and 1427 Johann managed to compensate for the loss he had suffered: he took over the Lanšperk Castle from Wenceslaus von Dubá or his heirs, and the Žampach Castle he appropriated after the death of Nicholas of Žampach . Around this time he also owned Lichtenburg Castle , which he might have had a few years earlier.

On February 14, 1427 Johann Městecký and Puta von Častolowitz joined a military alliance in Strehlen that was supposed to fight the Hussites in Silesia. In addition to the Bishop of Wroclaw and the Silesian dukes, the cities of Wroclaw and Schweidnitz also belonged to this coalition .

In autumn 1429, after months of siege, the Hussites conquered the Lichtenburg and the castles Lanšperk and Žampach. Presumably because of this, Johann switched to the Hussites a second time. In autumn 1430 he operated on the Hussite side in the Pilsen region. In November he was with a Hussite army in the principality of Neisse , where they plundered villages and took the bishop's castle in Ottmachau . As a result, Johann broke off the Strehlener alliance of 1427 and thus his good contacts with the Wroclaw bishop Konrad von Oels and with the Silesian allies. Presumably already in 1429 there had been a break with Puta von Častolowitz, who had to realize that there would no longer be a Catholic aristocratic coalition in Eastern Bohemia, which meant the end of the so-called Opočno party.

Johann's hope of regaining at least part of his possessions by converting to the Hussites was not fulfilled. From his uncle of the same name Johann d. Ä. from Opočno, who died before 1430, he inherited the castle and manor of Frymburk and half of Dobruška, which now belonged to him entirely. Although he was now assigned to the Hussites, he confirmed on April 21, 1431 a new Catholic priest from Markovice near Žleby ( Schleb ). The castle and the Žleby estate had belonged to Johann's father as a pledge and apparently he still exercised the church patronage there. He died in the second half of 1432. Johann was not married and had no descendants. It is not known why he bequeathed his possessions to Georg / Jiřík von Dubá on Vízmburk , who was an opponent of the Hussites.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the literature, 1430 is sometimes given as the year of death and Arnau as the place of death . The different information is probably due to the fact that Johann often with his uncle Johann the Elder. Ä. was confused by Opočno.
  2. ↑ Hussites in the Chrudim area (Czech) ( Memento from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Městecký from Opočno, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John the Younger of Opočno; Jan Městecký z Opočna; Jan mladší z Opočna (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian nobleman, captain in the Hussite Wars
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Opočno
DATE OF DEATH 1432