This study examines the role of the aristocratic Liechtenstein family during the Hussite Revolution, when it was one of the most ardent supporters of King Sigismund and the Austrian duke, and then from 1423 of the Moravian margrave Albrecht V, while also trying to recognize the importance of this period in the family's history. In Bohemia and Moravia, the Hussite Revolution led to the increase in the political and economic importance of the nobility on both sides. In the case of the Hussites, they profited from the forced confiscation of church property and from their participation in military campaigns across the whole of Central Europe. In the case of the Catholics, they benefited from the military service under King Sigismund and Duke Albrecht, and from the pledges of church and royal estates. The author shows that despite the Liechtensteins' loyal service to Sigismund and Albrecht during the Hussite Wars, they received substantially less property than other families, and any significant gains were only made in Austria where they were given part of the estate which Albrecht V had confiscated from the feudal lord Otto von Maissau. Of greater significance for the family history was its involvement in Sigismund of Luxemburg's sovereign rule over Moravia, where Hartneid V of Liechtenstein held the rank of governor of Znojmo and burgrave of Špilberk Castle in Brno. Although the Hussite Wars did not result in any significant increase in the wealth of the Liechtenstein family, and the family in fact probably suffered some economic losses, its firm commitment to the side of King Sigismund and Duke Albrecht undoubtedly contributed towards the strengthening of the family's position amongst the high nobility in the half century after the fall of the Austrian steward, Jan I of Liechtenstein (1394).
This study focuses on the memorial function of charters in the Late Middle Ages based on narrationes in Sigismund of Luxemburg's charters for Czech recipients from 1433 to 1437. This dramatic period saw the culmination of the Hussite Wars (the siege of Plzeň, the Battle of Lipany), while at the same time there were negotiations between the Hussites and the Council of Basel which resulted in the issuing of the Basle Compacts and the acceptance of Emperor Sigismund as King of Bohemia in July 1436. The author gradually describes narrationes in Sigismund's charters for Bohemian Catholics from 1433 to 1435 and 1436 to 1437, and finally also for the Utraquists from 1436 to 1437. He demonstrates that while from 1433 to 1435 the charters were a means of fixing the Catholic towns' and noble families' memory of their continued and gallant struggle against "Hussite heresy" in writing, from 1436 to 1437 Sigismund's chancery retrospectively modified the memory of the previous wars in an effort to harmonise the image created in these charters with the religious reconciliation of July 1436.
The present paper uses two case studies to scrutinize the many different documents emanating from the administrative needs of late medieval mercenaries and their employers. The analyzed documents come from the Moravian towns of Jihlava and Znojmo, both of which Duke Albert of Austria held in pledge during the Hussite War. The corpus consists mostly of receipts issued by the mercenaries confirming received pay, and documents, which pertain to transactions concerning compensations for damages. The sources are first classified and analyzed from the point of view of medieval diplomatics. Secondly, the study tries to reconstruct the overall expenditure for the Austrian garrisons in Jihlava and Znojmo. Thirdly, the paper discusses fruitful areas for further research based on the presented sources.