1618: BOHEMIA AND THE EMPIRE

Abstract

On the morning of 23 May 1618 the assembly of the Bohemian Protestants — comprising lords, knights and a number of delegates from the royal boroughs — met near the royal castle, the Hradshin, in Prague. Following a brief discussion, the members of the assembly went to the castle where they insisted on seeing the regents governing Bohemia in the absence of Matthias, the King and Emperor. After a heated exchange of words between the leaders of the assembly (Count Thurn, Colonna von Fels and Wenzel Ruppa) and the regents, Thurn and his friends declared two of the regents, Martinitz and Slawata, traitors because they had undermined the rights and privileges of the Protestant Estates of the kingdom. They asked the noblemen and other people present to punish them for their crimes there and then and let them die a traitor’s death. To the applause of the angry crowd Martinitz and Slawata were thrown out of the windows of the council chamber of the Hradshin, and one of the clerks of the council, a certain Frabricius, shared their fate for full measure.