The Hussite Wars
The Hussites were a religious sect from the central European region of Bohemia, who predated the Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther but nonetheless opposed the political and societal domination of the Roman Catholic Church. They were opposed by most of the Royal Houses of Europe, which derived their perceived legitimacy from the Pope and thus upheld Papal Authority.
The Hussites were engaged in ongoing warfare from 1420-1434, a period that also led to the rise of Czech nationalism. The wars began upon the death of King Wenceslaus – of Christmas Carol fame – with his brother Sigismund claiming the throne of Bohemia. Sigismund was an ally of Rome and believed it his Holy duty to eliminate the heretics, and soon a conflict in which the Catholics and the neo-Protestants bent upon destroying each other in the name of God inflamed the region.
The Hussite Wars became a series of eventually five Crusades ordered by Rome to destroy the heretic Hussites. In 1422 Hussite forces attacked the Castle of Karlstein, which had prior to the wars been home to King Wenceslaus and the Imperial Regalia – essentially the Crown Jewels of what the Catholic Church in Rome had designated as the legitimate rulers of Bohemia. The Regalia had already been removed to safety, but that did not lessen the intensity of the fighting. The Catholic troops were motivated by their dispensations from Rome, the Hussites by nationalism and their own spiritual convictions.
Like all armies of the time, more casualties occurred from sickness than from fighting, often due to the nearly non-existent levels of hygiene and sanitation. The Hussites fighting outside the walls had many dead from disease. They also had large quantities of raw manure from both animal and human production. Both the dead bodies and the manure were routinely catapulted over the walls of the castle in the hope of inducing illness among the defenders.
The Hussites were successful in severely weakening the fighting strength of the Catholic troops through disease within the walls of the castle. More than 2,000 wagon loads of manure were used as a biological weapon, with fair success in accomplishing their goal of weakening their enemy.