Calgary, June 2020
I always liked to write stories. My first attempt, when I was 10 years old, was a fiction about a real figure from Czech history, Jan Rohac z Dube. He was a general in the Hussite army, which in 1430s defeated the Roman Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Empire several times. Those 15 years, from 1419 - 1434, were the only years of Czech military glory, and history portrays Jan Rohac z Dube as a hero who sacrificed his life for truth and justice. Consequently, my first story was full of heroics and patriotic enthusiasm, and my protagonist was the ultimate good guy. Now, 65 years later, I know there are no good or bad guys, just people with their strengths, weaknesses, and passions. Therefore, I would like to rewrite my first story to reflect sixty-five years of lost illusions.
Jan Rohac z Dube was born in 1374 into a privileged family. His father was a knight who owned several villages around his castle Duba; his relatives also held important positions in the court of the king Vaclav IV. However, young Jan did not fit into this aristocratic upbringing. His best friend, Mikulas Zúl z Ostředku, was a leader of highway robbers, and Jan was happy to participate in their activities. Except, one day the gang crossed the line. They robbed a caravan of German merchants, and king Vaclav IV got mad. He asked the Archbishop of Prague, Zbyněk Zajíc z Hazmburka, to do something about it; this high religious official, who knew a lot about secular dealings, wrote to Jan and made him a proposition:
"Dear Sir, I know all about your crimes. Either you help me to arrest your gang or you are a part of them and when caught, you will hang with them. The choice is yours."
For Jan, the choice was easy. When the gang planned the next robbery, he told the archbishop all the details about it. Mikulas Zúl z Ostředku and his band were captured and in 1403 all fifty of them were hanged in Prague. This treachery served Jan well. He was invited to the court of the king Vaclav IV as a military advisor, which was a good fit considering Jan’s allure for adrenaline producing violence. During that time he met another important Czech, Jan Zizka. They fought together in the Polish war against German knights, and Jan Rohac greatly admired his new friend’s military genius. All this was happening in early 1400’s, but in 1415 the German emperor Sigmund made an error by ordering the execution of a popular Czech priest Jan Hus. It was a big and expensive mistake. Jan Hus, who was preaching against the corruption of the Catholic church, had a wide following among the Czech population, and his death created a strong desire for vengeance. Under the banner of anti-Catholic "God’s fighters," the peasants, armed with various kinds of agricultural equipment, formed an army, and Jan Zizka organized them into an efficient fighting force. His friend Jan Rohac became one of his trusted commanders. What followed was a time of war, victories, destruction, and religious fanaticism, with atrocities committed by both sides. From 1419 till 1434, Zizka’s army defeated various crusades of German mercenaries paid by the pope Martin V, and Jan Rohac’s unit stormed enemy castles. One of them was Lomnice nad Lužnicí, a strategically located castle near the town of Trebon. When the fighting ended and the defenders were killed or fled, Jan interrogated the owner:
"Where is the money?" he asked.
"What money?"
"The money you pay our soldiers, your servants, the upkeep of the castle and so on."
"I have no money, I am poor."
"In that case we will do this differently. Bring me his wife," Jan asked one of the guards.
When they brought the terrified woman, a young girl who should have been owner’s daughter rather than his wife, Jan put the tip of his sword at the woman’s neck and asked again:
"Where is the money?"
"You can kill her if you want, but you will never find my money."
"That means I don’t need you anymore. Correct?"
"You will kill me anyway, so yes, you do not need me."
With that Jan moved his sword from the woman’s neck and pierced the body of the unloving husband. "Remove the corpse and clean the mess!" he yelled at the guard while dragging the girl into the bedroom, where he raped her. Then he called the officer in charge of his regiment and explained:
"I have to rejoin the Zizka’s army, so I leave you in charge of the castle. You will have enough soldiers to repel an enemy attack, but remember, the woman is mine. You will treat her with respect and dignity and if any of your men even as much as touches her, I will personally kill him. Make sure that everybody understands this perfectly." The officer knew his commander well, and was familiar with his violent outbursts, so yes, he understood it perfectly.
Jan Rohac was not away from the castle for long. After a short and easy campaign, the Hussite army conquered more territory and Zizka named Jan a hetman (commandant) of Lomnice castle. When Jan returned to his new home, the officer in charge brought him to the private room of the captured woman.
"Hello beauty, what is your name?" asked Jan cheerfully.
She looked at him with hate and fear in her eyes and said nothing.
"Can you not talk? What is your name?"
"Maria," she whispered.
"Hello Maria, did everyone treat you well? Tell me, because if not, I will punish them."
"Everybody was nice to me," she replied.
"Well, I am glad to hear it. Now listen carefully. I know that you hate me, and I am not surprised, but things are as they are. You lost your unloving husband, who would let me kill you to save his money. Even more, he was old and ugly, so you did not really lose much. I can offer you safety and comfort in this castle; you will have servants and freedom to pursue any activity suitable for a woman. You will have children with me, and you will love them, and maybe with time, you will stop hating me so much. Perhaps I can even earn a bit of your respect. The alternative is for you to say ‘no’ to all of that and leave, but I know exactly what will happen. The moment the soldiers realize that you are not under my protection, they will rape you and kill you. So, will you stay?"
"Yes, I will stay." Her voice was full of bitterness.
Maria got her private quarters with a separate bedroom, but that provided no protection from Jan’s frequent visits. In the beginning, their love making looked more like a rape than love, but later Maria got used to it and sometimes it was almost pleasant. Soon she became pregnant, gave birth to a baby girl, and just as Jan predicted, she loved her. Jan turned out to be an able administrator who maintained order in his estate, which consisted of the castle and the adjacent village. His biggest problem was the religious antagonism, because not all of the villagers were followers of Jan Hus. To preserve the balance of power, Jan carefully selected the village elders so that neither the Catholics nor the Hussites had a majority. That way no group felt oppressed, and even though they did not like each other, they lived in peace. On the domestic front, Maria had another child, a boy, and things looked good.
The skilful management of his property did not go unnoticed. Jan was elected as one of the four top commanders of the Hussite army and was invited to participate in the failed peace negotiations with the representatives of the emperor Sigmund. Jan’s star was shining brightly, even Maria was impressed, but no star shines forever. In 1424, his friend and mentor Jan Zizka died, and Jan Rohac’s position in the Hussite army weakened. Then the first cracks in the unity of the Hussite movement started to appear. Lots of people, mostly from Prague, got tired of the never-ending wars, destruction, and military discipline. They wanted a normal, middle class life in their city, but the rural folks would not go for it. They were the militant, non-compromising anti-Catholics. In 1434 this conflict culminated in the Battle of Lipany, where the militants were soundly defeated; unfortunately, Jan was on the losing side. He was captured, but escaped and attempted to recover what was left of the defeated army. He brought his family, and those determined to continue the fight, to his castle Sion and continued the resistance for two more years. But it was a lost cause.
"I will not be able to defend the castle for long, so I prepared an escape route," he told Maria.
"There is a tunnel underneath the walls, and I will make sure there will be horses on the other side. When the time comes, we all will go."
Jan was right. At the beginning of 1437 the castle was attacked by the king’s soldiers, and the defenders were overwhelmed by the superior force. Although he could have escaped, Jan would not abandon his soldiers, and Maria was too scared to run alone, so both were captured and taken prisoner. What followed was a script which had already played ten years ago, only in reverse.
"Where is the money?" asked the commander of the conquering force.
"What money?"
"You know what money. Where is it?"
"I have no money, I am poor."
"OK, in that case we will do this differently. Bring his wife!" the commander asked the guard, just like Jan did ten years ago.
Maria came, the commander asked the guard to leave, then took his sword, pointed it to Maria’s neck and asked:
"Where is the money?"
"Leave her, I will tell you. You are almost looking at it. There is a secret door in the wall on your left side. All you have to do is to open it."
The commander turned his head to look, and Jan grabbed a dagger hidden under the pillow of the armchair and thrusted it into the belly of the unsuspecting man. Then he turned to Maria:
"Get the children and run, you know the way. Go to Prague and find Jan Rokycana. He is the rector of the university and he will help you. I will delay the invaders enough to give you time to escape. Now go!"
Then he took the sword of the dead man and waited. The guards outside did not want to disturb their superior in what they presumed was the rape of the mistress of the castle, but after a while the silence became suspicious, so they opened the door. Jan killed the first man who entered, but the fight did not last long. The soldiers had an order to bring Jan alive to Prague, so they overpowered him and, under heavy escort, sent him on his way. Then they looted and burned the castle.
In Prague, Jan was incarcerated in the Old Town Hall prison and the mayor asked him the same overused question: "Where is the money?"
Jan said nothing. Maybe he did not want the money to get into enemy hands, or perhaps he indeed did not have any. The fact is that while he was in prison, they interrogated and tortured him; when it became obvious that he would reveal nothing, they dragged him to the gallows constructed in the Old Town Square. A crowd gathered, keen to watch the execution. Jan was standing on the trapdoors of the gallows, a noose around his neck, looking down, and then he saw her. Maria was there, safe and sound, looking at him, and Jan smiled.
So the question is: was Jan Rohac z Dube a hero, the ultimate good guy from my first story sixty-five years ago, or was he a man who started as a robber, who betrayed his best friend, got his woman by killing her husband, and then sacrificed his life to save his family? I leave it up to the reader to decide.