The Defenestrations of Prague were two incidents in the history of Bohemia. The first occurred in 1419 and the second in 1618, although the term "Defenestration of Prague" more commonly refers to the latter incident. Both helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window (from the Latin: de: out of, with a downward motion implied; fenestra: window).
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The First Defenestration of Prague involved the killing of seven members of the city council by a crowd of radical Czech Hussites on 30 July 1419.
Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall (Novoměstská radnice) on Charles Square. The town council members had refused to exchange their Hussite prisoners. While they were marching, a stone was thrown at Želivský from the window of the town hall.[1] The mob became enraged at this event and, led by Jan Žižka, stormed the town hall. Once inside the hall, the group threw the judge, the burgomaster, and some thirteen members of the town council out of the window and into the street, where they were killed by the fall or dispatched by the mob.[1]
King Václav IV (Wenceslas in English, Wenzel in German), upon hearing this news, was so stunned that he died a little time after, supposedly due to the shock.[1]
The procession was a result of the growing discontent at the contemporary direction of the Church and the inequality between the peasants and the Church's prelates, and the nobility. This discontentment combined with rising feelings of nationalism and increased the influence of radical preachers such as Jan Želivský, influenced by Wycliff, who saw the current state of the Catholic Church as corrupt. These preachers urged their congregations to action, including taking up arms, to combat these perceived transgressions.
The First Defenestration was thus the turning point between talk and action leading to the prolonged Hussite Wars. The wars broke out shortly afterward and lasted until 1436.
The Defenestration of Prague precipitated the Thirty Years' War.
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 1576–1612) granted Bohemia the religious freedoms in the Letter of Majesty in 1609 that they claimed to be defending in the Bohemian Rebellion. However, "Bohemia's religious freedoms originated with the Hussites and depended on the autonomy of its estates, dominated by the towns and rural nobility".[2] Rudolf was not very concerned with disrupting this system during his reign. The Bohemian estates governed themselves for the most part and so had no official religion. A significant number of Protestants lived there, however. Rudolf's heir apparent was his brother Matthias, who was impatient and attempted to sway Hungary, Moravia, and Austria so that he might attain power before Rudolf's death. He extended his offer of more legal and religious concessions to Bohemia, and they made him King in 1612 before Rudolf had died.
Matthias reigned 1612–1619. His heir was Ferdinand, Duke of Styria, who was a Catholic and another impatient usurper. Ferdinand was Matthias' cousin and also attempted to claim power before the aging Matthias had died. By 1617 he was acting as King in almost every aspect of the role except in title. Ferdinand began placing Catholics in roles of power in Prague almost immediately. In 1617, these Catholic officials ordered the cessation of construction of some Protestant chapels on land of which the Catholic clergy claimed ownership. Protestants contended the land in question was royal, rather than property of the Catholic Church, and was thus available for their own use. Protestants interpreted the cessation order as a violation of the right to freedom of religious expression granted in the Letter of Majesty issued by Rudolf II. They also feared that the fiercely Catholic Emperor Ferdinand would revoke the Protestant rights altogether once he came to the throne.
On 23 May 1618, four Catholic Lord Regents, namely Count Jarolslaw Martinitz, Count Vilem Slavata of Chlum, Adam II von Sternberg (who was the supreme burgrave), and Matthew Leopold Popel Lobcowitz (who was the grand prior) arrived at the Bohemian Chancellory at 8:30am. After preparing the meeting hall, an assembly of the three main Protestant estates gathered at 9:00am, led by Count Thurn, who had been deprived of his post as Castellan of Karlstadt by the Emperor. The Protestant Lords' agenda was to clarify whether or not the four regents present were responsible for persuading King Matthias to write a letter which ultimately removed the religious freedoms that had been granted with the Letter of Majesty. According to Martiniz himself:
Lord Paul Rziczan read aloud... a letter with the following approximate content: His Imperial Majesty had sent to their graces the lord regents a sharp letter that was, by our request, issued to us as a copy after the original had been read aloud, and in which His Majesty declared all of our lives and honor already forfeit, thereby greatly frightening all three Protestant estates. As they also absolutely intended to proceed with the execution against us, we came to a unanimous agreement among ourselves that, regardless of any loss of life and limb, honor and property, we would stand firm, with all for one and one for all... nor would we be subservient, but rather we would loyally help and protect each other to the utmost, against all difficulties. Because, however, it is clear that such a letter came about through the advice of some of our religious enemies, we wish to know, and hereby ask the lord regents present, if all or some of them knew of the letter, recommended it, and approved of it.[3]
Before the regents gave any answer, they requested that the Protestants give them the opportunity to confer with their superior, Adam von Waldstein, who was not present. If they were given the opportunity, the Protestants would get an official answer to their grievance by the next Friday (seeing as this was all taking place on the eve of Ascension Day and they all must observe the holy day). The Protestants would not accept this run around and demanded an immediate answer. The first two, Adam von Sternberg and Matthew Leopold Popel Lobcowitz, were decided innocent by the Protestant Estate holders and too pious to have any responsibility in the letter's creation. They in turn were removed from the room, however before leaving, the supreme burgrave (Adam II von Sternberg) made it clear that they "did not advise anything that was contrary to the Letter of Majesty". This left only Count Vilem Slavata, Count Jaroslaw Martinitz (who had replaced Thurn as Castellan), known Catholic hard-liners, and the secretary to the Regents. They eventually claimed responsibility for the letter and, assuming they were only going to be arrested, welcomed any punishment the Protestants had planned.
The Lord Count von Thurn turned to both Martiniz and Slavata and said "you are enemies of us and of our religion, have desired to deprive us of our Letter of Majesty, have horribly plagued your Protestant subjects... and have tried to force them to adopt your religion against their wills or have had them expelled for this reason". Then to the crowd of Protestants, he continued "were we to keep these men alive, then we would lose the Letter of Majesty and our religion... for there can be no justice to be gained from or by them". Soon after, the Regents were thrown out the third floor window along with the Regents' secretary, Philipus Fabricius. Some texts say they fell 70 feet (21 metres)[4][5] and landed on a large pile of manure in a dry moat and survived.[6][7] Philip Fabricius was later ennobled by the emperor and granted the title Baron von Hohenfall (literally "Baron of Highfall").[8]
Roman Catholic Imperial officials claimed that the three men survived due to the mercy of angels assisting the righteousness of the Catholic cause. Protestant pamphleteers asserted that their survival had more to do with the horse manure in which they landed than the benevolent acts of the angels.
Soon after he was officially crowned upon Matthias' death in 1619, Ferdinand II was deposed by the Bohemian rebels. They replaced him with Frederick V, Elector Palatine, a Calvinist, who reigned for only 15 months. Ferdinand annulled this election on January 29, 1620. Ferdinand followed this on November 8, 1620 by outlawing Protestantism, executing the Bohemian rebel leaders and confiscating their estates. The Defenestration of Prague was unsuccessful in its immediate motives, but served to precipitate the Bohemian Revolt and the Thirty Years' War.
More events of defenestration have occurred in Prague during its history, but they are not usually called defenestrations of Prague.
A defenestration (chronologically the second defenestration of Prague, sometimes called one-and-halfth defenestration) happened on 24 September 1483, when a violent overthrow of the municipal governments of the Old and New Towns ended with throwing the Old-Town portreeve and the bodies of seven killed aldermen out of the windows of the respective town halls.
Sometimes, the name the third defenestration of Prague is used, although it has no standard meaning. For example, it has been used[9] to describe the death of Jan Masaryk, who was found below the bathroom window of the building of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 10 March 1948. The official report listed the death as a suicide,[10] but there have been persistent rumours that he was murdered, either by the nascent Communist government in which he served as Foreign Minister, or by the Soviet secret services.[11]
An English translation of part of Slavata's report of the incident is printed in Henry Frederick Schwarz, The Imperial Privy Council in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1943, issued as volume LIII of Harvard Historical Studies), pp. 344–347.