Petr Aksamit

Petr Aksamit z Lidéřovic a Kosova (* around 1400; † May 21, 1458 in Sárospatak , Hungary ) was a Czech country gentleman and military leader. He belonged to the Hungarian army and had been the leader of the Bohemian brothers since 1451. He fell in the battle against Matthias Corvinus .

Life

Petr Aksamit came from a noble family in South Bohemia. He was one of the radical Hussites who survived the Battle of Lipan , and some of them - including Aksamit - were hired by foreign armies. From 1440 he was in Hungary as captain of the army of Johann Giskra z Brandýsa in pay. This should regulate the succession of her son in Hungary for Elisabeth of Luxemburg . At the beginning of the 1950s he was appointed captain of Plaveč Castle.

He and his mercenaries still carried the ideas of the Hussites and the idea of ​​equality of the Taborites within them and formed themselves into brothers . In the following years, they attacked merchants on their way to Poland and robbed surrounding villages. The movement experienced its greatest boom in 1453 under the reign of Luxembourg's Ladislaus Postumus in Hungary, who confiscated some of the property from the nobles. The brothers built festivals and camps, and won followers, including from abroad.

The movement soon spread to the whole of Slovakia and took on forms of resistance against the nobility. She fought its fortresses, looted monasteries and robbed wealthy commoners. Petr Aksamit was elected commander, and he continued to expand his power, especially in southern Slovakia. The Hungarian king, realizing the danger, tried first militarily and then through negotiations to reach an agreement, but was unsuccessful. Only after his death did the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus defeat the rebels on May 21, 1458 in the battle of Sárospatak. Petr Aksamit was one of the dead.

literature

• Ladislav Hoffmann: Bratříci - slavní protifeudální bojovníci 15. století . Prague: Naše vojsko, 1959.
• M. Moravcová: Aksamit and Chaz'deja in the sources of the Slavic countries from the 13th to 15th centuries , In: Ethnologia slavica, 1976/1977, pages 179-192.