The Defenestration of Prague

Today, the 23rd of May, is the 388th anniversary of the

second defenestration of Prague, one of my favourite
historical events. The day that Calvinist Bohemians revolted,
seized the ministers of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor and
flung them out a 15 metre high window in Prague Castle. The
event triggered the terrible Thirty Years War, left parts of
Germany devastated and depopulated for several generations
and ultimately culminated in the Peace of Westphalia the first
international agreement to acknowledge countries
sovereignty over their internal affairs.

C. V. Wedgewood in her classic The Thirty Years

War described the incident like this:

A hundred hands dragged them towards the high window,

flung back the casement and hoisted them upwards. Martinitz
went first. Jesu Maria! Help! he screamed and crashed over
the sill. Slavata fought longer, calling on the Blessed Virgin
and clawing at the window frame under a rain of blows until
someone knocked him senseless and the bleeding hands
relaxed. Their shivering secretary clung to Schlick for
protection; out of sheer intoxication the crowd hoisted him up
and sent him to join his masters.
One of the rebels lent over the ledge leering; We will see if
your Mary can help you! A second later between
exasperation and amazement, By God, his Mary has
helped, he exclaimed, for Martinitz was already stirring.
Suddenly a ladder protruded from a neighbouring window;
Martinitz and the secretary made off under a hail of
misdirected missiles. Some of Slavatas servants, braving the
mob, went down to his help and carried him after the others,
unconscious but alive.

A pile of manure, piled by chance at the bottom of the wall

by gardeners, broke their fall. Many Catholics later claimed
they were born down gently by angels. As you can see in the
following photo its quite a way down.

From memory they were thrown from the first window on the
left in the side wall, in the second row from the top.

With the ministers defenestrated and Prague in rebel hands

the new leaders began looking for allies. After the death of
the Holy Roman Emperor Mattias on the 20th of March
1619, Fredrick V, Elector of Palatinebecame King of Bohemia
in defiance of the wishes of the old Emperor and the new who
otherwise would have inherited the title. The Bohemian
rebellion spread, and throughout 1619 they successfully
waged war into Austria, gaining support of the Austrian
Lutherans.

Its glory was short lived. By 1620, supported by the Spanish

Hapsburgs and the Catholic League, (comprising Bavaria and
other Catholic Germanic states), the Bohemians and their
allies were put on the defensive. At the battle of White
Mountain the Bohemians armies where defeated, Frederick
fled the country and he and his wife Elizabeth(Charles I of
Englands sister) became known to history as the winter King
and Queen, due to the brevity of their rule. Despite the
desperate failure of this mission, the pair went on to have
many children, most notably Electress Sophia of Hanover,
patron of Leibniz and from whom, as a result of the 1701 Act
of Settlement, all Kings and Queens of England must
descend. In the aftermath of the defeat in Bohemia, Elizabeth
wrote this letter to her father James I:

Sire:

I do not wish to importune your Majesty with a very long

letter. The Baron de Dona will not fail to inform your Majesty
of the misfortune that has befallen us and which has
compelled us to leave Prague, and to come to this place,
where God knows how long we shall remain. I therefore most
humbly entreat your Majesty to protect the king and myself
by sending us succor; otherwise we shall be brought to utter
ruin. It is your Majesty alone, next to Almighty God, from
whom we expect assistance. I most humbly thank your
Majesty for the favorable declaration you have been pleased
to make respecting the preservation of the Palatinate. I most
humbly entreat you to do the same for us here and to send
us sufficient succor to defend ourselves against our enemies;
otherwise I do not know what shall become of us. I therefore
again entreat your Majesty to have compassion on us, and
not to abandon the king at this hour, when he is in such
great need. As to myself, I am resolved not to leave him; for
if he should perish, I will perish also with him. But whatever
may happen, never, never shall I be other than, sire,
Your Majestys most humble and obedient daughter and
servant, ELIZABETH.

BRESLAU, November 23/13, 1620.

There was little help forthcoming and the pair found eventual
refuge in The Hague.

The tensions and quarrels that caused the Thirty Years War
are of course much deeper than this one farcical incident in
Prague. The reformation, the revolt of the Netherlands, and
the Bourbon-Hapsburg power struggle were all ready to be
triggered. The struggle involved at various stages most of the
surrounding countries. Eventually both the Danes and then
the Swedes intervened in succession to defend the cause of
Protestantism in Germany. The Swedes then at the height of
their power under one of the greatest generals in
history Gustavus Adolphus saw great success until Gustavuss
death during the battle of Lutzen. Finally the French
intervened, and in the process broke the Hapsburg
supremacy in Europe.

The destruction in Germany was immense. Estimates indicate

that around 20 percent of the population may have been
killed, and certainly many more in parts where the fighting
was most intense. It was a vast catastrophe and had the sort
of lasting impact that the two World Wars of the twentieth
century had in recent times.