Alex > Recent Status Updates

"How Simpson found his way alone by the lake and forest might well make a story in itself, for to hear him tell it is to know the passionate loneliness of soul that a man can feel when the Wilderness holds him in the hollow of its illimitable hand—and laughs. It is also to admire his indomitable pluck."

"In einem gutem Land brauchts keine Tugenden, alle können ganz gewöhnlich sein, mittelgescheit und meinetwegen Feiglinge."

The counter-attack on Chomutov is also an interesting episode. All the men were killed, even those that promised to accept the heretic creed. The Jews were offered to convert too, but they refused and were burned at the stake. The women were to be spared by Zizkas orders, but the Taborites fell on them, stripped them off their clothes and murdered them.

Jan Mestecky was an asshole, and this doctrine that pledges to heretics didn't have to be observed was stupid.

I don't agree with Verney that Zizka taking up Plzens surrender in 1421 demonstrates his hope that they may be redeemed. Maybe he just played it safe, that would seem to fit his style of warfare.

When the gates of Rokycany were opened to the Taborites, effectively granting them safe conduct, they still insisted on vandalizing a monastery and murdered a clergyman that complained. Regrettably, Verney does not give the name of this martyr.

Also, I am amazed how boring Žižkas tactics were, outside of the famous wagon fortresses. He simply made no mistakes.

"On 4 December, Diviš surrenderd Řičany. The terms permitted him, his family, and his followers to keep their loves and any possessions they could carry. This agreememt, however, was not honoured and, as Řičany womenfolk left their hlmes, Taborite women fell upon them and took their possessions, clothes, and jewelry. They got off more lightly than seven priests from the town whom Žižka had burned to death."

The behavior of the Taborites in Prague was multifaceted: They banned all pubs, then got drunk, disinterred Wenceslaus IV, mocked him for his alcoholism, and then burned a monastery to the ground.

The Hussite Wars were lost because Sigismund did not order an attack on Prague, probably because it was a sign of royal prestige.

This book sure makes it sound like everyone and his mom was a bad person. Not perfect, I'd like more details on a lot of points, but still a very good book. I'm glad that the first book in half a century that anglophones get on Zizka is like this, not like the one on Timur I have read a month or so ago.

On 30 July, the Taborites committed their first murder by hanging a priest. Then they celebrated mass in the very same church.

From the foreword:
"After his troops defied his orders not to kill defeated combatants, Zizka prdered his army to pray for forgiveness for their sins. Afterwards, he wrote a code of military conduct that established rules of engagement and proscribed disciplinary measures in their breach."

"Abu al-Fazl, who became Akbar’s confidant, political theorist, and biographer but was not associated with him at this time, reports several early decrees consistent with his later program, including a ban on the enslavement of the families of enemy soldiers in 1562 and the abolition of the jizya in 1564."

"In the east, Shah Jahan had a grievance against the colony of Portuguese renegades at Hooghly in Bengal (across the Hooghly River from modern Kolkata) because they had not supported him during his rebellion and because they enslaved Muslims and forced them to convert to Christianity. The Mughals eliminated the colony in 1632 after a long siege."

"Shah Jahan was enthroned in Agra on January 28, 1628, and ordered the execution of all his male relatives except his own sons."

"Jahangir pursued his son with overwhelming force[...] The victims included Guru Arjun Singh, the fifth leader of the Sikh faith, who had not actually supported Khusraw but had offered the desperate young man his blessing. Jahangir’s purely political vengeance for an act of kindness to a renegade began the poisoning of relations between Sikhs and Muslims that led to centuries of violence."

"That which is said that the king was sorry, is not repentance on the part of the king, but a confession of guilt, which is, according to the wont of the divine rule, that they who have done evil condemn themselves by their own confession. "

"We ought, also, specially to repeat the Creed, as a seal upon our hearts, daily, before light, and to recur to it in thought whenever we are in fear of anything. For when is the soldier in his tent or the warrior in battle without his military oath?"

"There is a common saying, What you wish to perform abundantly, sometimes do not do at all. There ought to be something to add to the days of Lent, but so that nothing be done for the sake of ostentation, but of religion."

"Rather than upholding Sunni Islam, Akbar espoused sulh-i kull (peace with all, universal toleration) as the sovereign cult of the empire. He removed himself from the category of Muslim—though he never formally abandoned Islam—by claiming independent spiritual insight."

"The Mughals governed indirectly because they ruled an armed population. The image of India as a peaceful society inhabited by seekers after spiritual enlightenment, now epitomized by the figure of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, has never fit the reality of the subcontinent."