Heresy
Bohemian Independence
Left to themselves, the Bohemians now had to figure out how to rule themselves. Tensions between the moderates and radicals mounted steadily whenever external pressure retreated, only to be repressed when danger threatened. Those tensions were not trivial: in 1424 Jan Zizka actually led an army against Prague itself, but before he could take the city, he died of the plague.
Besides the differences in theology and ritual, the Bohemians were divided in their attitude toward Sigismund. Through the 1420s, the majority approach was to try to find a new king (the possibility of being an independent republic was never seriously considered). Some turned to Poland, some to Lithuania. Hungary would have been another option, but it was undergoing its own succession crisis. A Bohemian candidate was more or less out of the question because of factionalism. It needed to be someone from the outside and it needed to be a Slav.
In 1424, Sigismund Korybut put in a claim to the Bohemian throne. He was the nephew of Witold, Grand Duke of Lithuania, to whom moderate Hussites had previously offered the crown. Not only had Witold turned them down as heretics and rebels, when Korybut put forward his claim, Witold disowned him.
The Hussite problem was gradually becoming viewed as a European problem, and the papacy took the lead in the 1430s to try to suppress them by preaching crusades. A crusading army in 1431 was turned back at the Battle of Domazlice.