Hůlka the Butcher, Who Might Not Return

In 1515 the butcher Zikmund Hůlka, a respected former councillor and in 1489 chief magistrate, was buried by the church of Saint Lazarus. The butchers of the New Town were then fierce opponents of uniting the New Town with the Old, and it was Hůlka who declared that for the suit against the Old Town men they were each willing to give half their property; in 1509 he also joined other neighbours in complaining to the king that the New Town councillors were negotiating a union of the towns against the royal will. By this he made enemies of the rest of the community, which was largely in favour of union; he had to flee to the castle under the protection of the lords, and in 1513 he was declared banished. He went to Hungary, where he did obtain a safe conduct from the king allowing him to return to Prague, but it did not help him: when he came back he was beheaded on what is now Charles Square.