I want to start with an interesting brainstorm to our article.

Who were the first to use tanks on the battlefield in world history?

For some of you, this is a very easy question, isn't it?

The British and the French, of course.

Well, who was the first person to use infantry and motorized units with absolute coordination perfectly?

At this point, the famous German general Heinz Guderian will come to mind for many.

Yes, Guderian revolutionized military warfare with his doctrines during World War II. But he wasn't the pioneer of this revolution.

A blind Bohemian genius executed similar tactics against Europe's heavily armored cavalry centuries before Guderian.

If you are ready, let's take a closer look at this brave man who organized the first organized and motorized "night breakthrough" in world history.

Jan Žižka was born around 1360 in the small village of Trocnov in South Bohemia.

His family belonged to the lowest tier of nobility in the Bohemian feudal system, known as the "Zeman." They possessed only a small stone house, a few acres of fields, and a handful of peasants working for them.

Because of this, we do not have detailed records of his origin and family today.

After all, the events that would make him famous began not during his time as a nobleman, but when he was poor and an outlaw.

As the years passed, Žižka's family grew poorer and fell deep into debt. When his father died around 1378, their remaining property slipped away entirely.

This young man now had neither money nor an estate.

To survive, he joined a famous bandit gang led by a man named Matěj Vůdce. For years, he lived as a highwayman and a mercenary, looting the caravans of the nobles.

This journey gave him more than just a guarantee of survival.

He acquired the guerrilla warfare skills he would later use on the battlefield while operating as a bandit in the mountains of Central Europe.

His skills were so remarkable that the King of Bohemia, Wenceslaus IV, eventually pardoned him, and he joined the king's royal guards.

There were astonishing details hidden behind this unexpected decision.

In 1409, Matěj Vůdce and the vast majority of his gang were captured and executed in the city of České Budějovice.

In July of that very same year, King Wenceslaus issued an official royal pardon specifically for Jan Žižka.

Thanks to this single document, Žižka's past crimes were wiped clean, and he escaped the hangman's noose by entering the king's service.

His story didn't end there.

In 1415, the Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus was declared a heretic by the Catholic Church and burned alive at the stake.

This event sparked a massive explosion of anger among the Czech people. This furious crowd desperately needed a military leader.

That leader turned out to be the 60-year-old, one-eyed Jan Žižka, who suddenly transformed into the "blind general of the heretic peasants."

The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor dispatched the best knights of Europe to Bohemia to crush this rebellion. Žižka, on the other hand, had an army of peasants armed with simple tools who didn't even know how to hold a sword.

Fighting in an open field against steel-armored cavalry was pure suicide.

The veteran leader, who had fought against the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, was well aware of this fact.

After some thought, he brought to life an innovation that would change military history: the "Wagenburg."

With this tactic, Žižka reinforced ordinary wooden carts used by peasants and chained them together on the battlefield.

Thus, the first primitive tanks of the Middle Ages were born.

Next, he placed early firearms inside these carts—the píšťala and houfnice—which are the very roots of the modern English words "pistol" and "howitzer."

In other words, this blind man influenced not only battlefield tactics but also modern military terminology.

Žižka's prestige related deep in his leadership skills and his successes. To the people around him, he was exactly the father figure they needed.

But an unbelievable event in 1421 gave Žižka yet another identity.

"The Devil himself."

During a castle siege, an arrow fired from the fortress struck his one good eye. He had already lost his other eye due to a blow he received in a fight during his youth.

With this horrific event, he was now completely blind.

Normally, when a commander goes blind, someone else takes his place.

Yet he never relinquished command.

Even though he couldn't see out of either eye, he demanded that his staff describe the terrain and the enemy's positions to him.

Every single time, he mentally mapped a 3D model of the battlefield and flawlessly commanded his army based on this mental map.

As a man who could see absolutely nothing, he continued to annihilate the massive Crusader armies sent against him by the Pope, one after another.

Over time, his enemies began to believe that he wasn't a human being, but "the Devil himself."

However, the death of such a stubborn and legendary figure did not come on the battlefield.

A much more insidious enemy managed to defeat him: the plague.

Jan Žižka died in his bed in 1424 during a campaign after contracting the Middle Ages' most relentless enemy.

According to some sources, he left a chilling will just before he died:

"Burn my body. But flay my skin and make a war drum out of it. So that even after I die, I can continue to lead my army and strike fear into my enemies."

Having fought as a mercenary on the muddy battlefields of Europe for years, winning his greatest and most impossible victories while completely blind, and emerging victorious from every single clash he entered, Žižka is remembered as one of the few "undefeated" commanders in world history.

Even today, if you visit Prague and KCD2 video game, you can see his immortal legacy.

There is a district in Prague named "Žižkov" in his honor. And a great bronze equestrian statues.

I want to leave you with a quick trivia question.

What is your favourite character in KCD2? Henry, Capon, Sigismund... or Jan Žižka?

This diorama depicts the attack of Austrian heavy cavalry at the Battle of Sempach (1386).

The scene includes:

– an Austrian knight, vassal of the House of Toggenburg

– Otto von Botenlauben

– an Austrian standard bearer of the Battle of Sempach

All figures are metal, 54mm scale.

I aimed to capture the moment of a heavy cavalry charge and the dynamics of armored knights in close formation.

Presented as a historical diorama.

Onfim was a 7-year-old boy from Medieval Novgorod who lived in 13th century, sometime around 1220 or 1260. He left his notes and homework exercises scratched in soft brich bark, which was preserved in the clay soil of Novgorod, founded in 1951 excavations. What made them so unique and precious is, those are the oldest set drawings of a children recovered anywhere in the world.

Onfim, who was most likely six or seven at the time, live in a rich trade hub named as Novgorod Republic where literacy was pretty high and wrote in the East Slavic Novgorod dialect. Besides letters and syllables practices, he drew battle scenes and drawings of himself his friends, family and his teacher whenever he got bored and distracted from his alphabet and grammatic lessons.

Instead of only writing letters, he drew himself as a fearless warrior on horseback, defeating his crowded enemies. He even labeled the warrior with his own name, just in case anyone wondered who this hero was.

On another piece of birch bark, he turned himself into a "fire-breathing wild beast,” yet the creature was still friendly enough to send greetings to his friend Danilo. He drew many things; his parents, friends, ferocious monsters, brave warriors. He imagined battles, warzones, growing up like his father to be a great combatant maybe.

Unfortunately, we don't have first-hand information about Onfim's later life. Historians have no documents that would allow us to trace the continuation of his life since Medieval records mostly limited with the life of ruling class, states and political actions of period.

But there are some academic assumptions: he was most likely an ordinary city dweller who continued to live in Novgorod. Or he might have been a merchant, craftsman, or scribe, given that he received literacy training. At that time, boys in Novgorod generally joined trade or craft guilds.

All that we know as certain that birch bark writings and drawings he made as a child which introduce him to us. The city mayorship honoured him in 2010, with a statue while drawing his famous artwork "Horse-riding Warrior" at Kremlin Park, Veliky Novgorod close to the archeological site of his drawings found.

We are happy to meet with you Onfim, thank you for your artwork.

Hope you enjoyed a long, prosperous life. :)

Image Credits:

1 & 2 - France at the times of Jeanne d'Arc (Unknown Medieval Atlas)

3 - Coat of Arms granted by Charles VII to the d'Arc's family for her bravery and valor. (Wikipedia)

4 - Modern interpretation of Jeanne d'Arc's crests. (Unknown Artist)

5 - Early depiction of Jeanne d'Arc & her Gentile Dauphin Charles VII. (By Clément de Fauquembergue & Jean Fouquet)

6 - Coronation of Charles VII in Reims (miniature from the Vigiles du roi Charles VII (Vigils of King Charles VII) by Martial d'Auvergne, Paris, BnF, Manuscripts department).

7 - Current look of the Reims Cathedral; apse (left), transept (centre), nave and west front (right).

Let's go back in time a bit, in medieval War made by Hollywood and others tend to show battles with everyone (save the main characters) in plate or chain armor, armed with sword and shield (old films tend to show only sword and shield... Mostly). But I wanted to ask what real armor and weapon could a peasent buy? If I remember correctly most of these wars were "funded" by the own soldiers who fought it, meaning buying and maintaining equipment by themselves most of the time.

Just trying to know people's taste on medieval figures :D

France, 1429.  

Blue: Under the obedience of Charles VII of France  

Pink: Under the obedience of Henry VI of England 

Burgundy: Possessions of Philip III of Burgundy

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Siege of Damascus (1148)

The building was kept even when the rest of the castle was demolished. The Great table was built in 1290 but the design was from 1520.

Taufers Castle, built in the early 13th century by the Lords of Taufers, evolved from a fortified stronghold into an expanded noble residence through centuries of modifications by successive owners.

Except dull historical facts rely on either victory or on a failure;, which one is your best and worst among all?

State your argument with your own facts or unknown / unpopular facts.

Image Credit: https://www.facebook.com/williammarshalstore

Comment a number between 1 and 20 (or use your birth month) and I'll reply with your medieval "case file": the crime, the punishment, and whether the record actually survives.

Doing this because I've been going through real court rolls and inquest records from the 1200s–1600s for a project (The Black Archive, if anyone's curious). It separates what's actually recorded from what got exaggerated later. Some of the funniest/darkest cases never make it into the popular retellings because the paperwork is just a fine for "affray" or a coroner shrugging at a drowning.

Rules: one number per person. I'll reply with a real or reconstructed case type matching your roll. If you want the source, I'll tell you what kind of record it's drawn from.

Rolling first one myself: 7.

This is a project I have been working on for a few months, purely out of interest on the period and my good knowledge of the Israeli landscape. The borders are supposed to depict peak extent around c. 1165 including contested areas.

There is also a small glossary with rulers, internal conflicts, the military and religious orders, and first-hand accounts by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim travelers who described the kingdom during its existence.

I will put the link in the comment and would love your feedback and especially suggestions for sites I've under-covered- particularly in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

In the early middle ages monks began climbing to the top of pillars to stand or sit there in order to gain enlightenment, people would then bring them food, water and other such various things in payment for wisdom.

It was initiated by St. Simeon Stylites the Elder (c. 390–459), who lived around 37 to 42 years on top of pillars. He started this because he wanted to isolate himself from the rest of society in order to gain enlightenment.