The Battle of Bila Hora

If I were a time traveler, I’d be the kind that’s always screwing up and landing in the wrong century. No doubt about it.
We (Helena, Isabel and I – Sam was working) decided to go out today to see a re-enactment of the Battle of Bila Hora, which took place in 1620, near the beginning of the 30 years war, and it was a Protestant v. Catholic thing.
Basically, the Protestants, who’d controlled the territory for a while, not a real long while, had been pressing their luck a bit, and after they threw some Papal Ambassadors out of a window, which is kind of a traditional Czech method of getting rid of the political opposition, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Catholic League and the Spanish sent up their armies to Prague. The battle itself was pretty short. The local boys were outnumbered, outflanked, and besides it was kind of cold and rainy and they’d have much preferred to have been in the pub. In the first half hour of battle, a couple of thousand Protestant troops had been killed and only about 700 Catholics, and so the Protestants abandoned the field. In rather a hurry, it could be said.
Anyway, I’d seen on the internet that it started at 5, but as we got there we noticed that there were more people leaving then arriving. The re-enactment had been at 3 or, as they write it here 15. Which I saw as 5, because I’m a dumbass and even after 20 years I’m not used to the way they tell time here.
Still, we wandered around among the tents, looked at all the people in costumes, had a trdelnik, and listened to some Medieval music. It was a good day. Next year will be the 400th anniversary, and we’ll try to make it on time.
After we got home, I looked up the battle on Wikipedia. It actually took place in November. I guess they just decided to hold the re-enactment now because the weather is still nice. That seems perfectly reasonable to me.