Jan Jiskra vs. Janos Hunyadi

[Hans Hellinger]

“Janos Hunyadi and Jan Giskra are again at loggerheads. Hunyadi
is suspected of having tried to kill Giskra while he was attending
the wedding of the latter’s widowed sister. After this, Giskra
occupies the monastery at Luzeniec and pronounces Hunyadi his
enemy. Hunyadi then invests Luzeniec town which is protected
neither by Nature nor by artificial defenses; but the fort there is defended by 500 brave and resolute men, who repulse all
assaults. Hunyadi surrounds the fort with a double ditch, fenced
and reinforced with baskets of earth, and expects it to surrender.

The defenders, many of whom are Poles and Czechs, though
short of water and provisions, are afraid that if they surrender
they will lose eye, nose, face or hands, and so they fight on.
In the meantime, Giskra has assembled a scratch force of some
4,000 foot and horse obtained from outside, and advances
against Hunyadi’s army, reputed to number some 17,000.
Hunyadi is ready to do battle and issues from behind his rampart,
leaving only a handful to guard the camp and the waggons, and
small force to see that the besieged do not make a sortie. But this is just what the desperate besieged do and attack their besiegers.

Hunyadi sends the latter reinforcements, but when the besiegers
see them, they think they are fleeing, not coming to their
assistance, and so themselves take to their heels; whereupon the
rest of Hunyadi’s troops follow their example. Giskra’s men
become exhausted with killing and taking prisoners, one of whom
is the Bishop of Eger. Hunyadi’s camp is given to the troops to
loot, Hunyadi himself escapes.”

[Author]

Posts