The Taborites were a 15th-century militant faction which split away from the Czech reformists known as Hussites (named for their original leader Jan Hus). The Taborites, influenced by the
medieval apocalypticist Joachim of Fiore and convinced of the imminent return of
Jesus, believed it righteous to kill those who opposed their
theology. They also believed the entire
world would be immolated in 1420, leaving five mountain redoubts spared in all of the earth. One of these would be their own fortification in Bohemia, which they had named "Tabor" (as they had also named themselves) after the
location of Jesus' transfiguration.
The year 1420, however, turned out not to be the date of a world conflagration, but just the beginning of the "Hussite wars" in
Czechoslovakia.
On May 30, 1434, the Taborite
army was broken (13,000 of 18,000 men killed) by a Catholic league led
by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund at the Battle of Lipany outside
Prague. Within three years, the Taborites signed a treaty with Sigismund
and ceased hostilities (although the fortified town of Tabor was captured 20 years following). Separately but around the same time, the Catholic wars with the broader Hussite movement were also brought to an end with the defeat of the Hussites.
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One opponent of the Hussites and
Taborites happened to be Joan of Arc, who wrote them a threatening
letter in 1430 claiming she would lead a Crusade into Czechoslovakia
unless they rejoined the Church. But this would not come to pass, as
Joan was first burned at the stake by the English on this date in 1431.
Her victories for Charles VII of France in the Hundred Years' War with
England were intended to lay the mere groundwork for a great Crusade
into the east - in which not only the Hussites would be defeated, but
also the Turks. Her ultimate hope was to recapture Jerusalem for the
West and install Charles as the "King of Last Times" in preparation for
the return of Jesus.
