where he had been recruiting, on August 6, 1623.

and defeated him at the battle of Stadtlohn

The 23rd of May, a Wednesday, the eve of Ascension Day,39 four lord regents40 came from St. Virus Cathedral, where the procession had been performed and they had heard the holy Mass, and went to the Bohemian chancellery at 8:30 in the morning. They then quickly and assiduously had all the stools and benches, except for a single chair, carried out of the chancellery so that there would be sufficient room for all the arriving Protestant<ll

(Furious over what they saw to be aflagrant disregardfor both their guaranteed religious rights (for example, the right to build churches and oversee their own internal religious communities) and political rights (for example, the right to hold assemblies and see to some degree of self-rule), Protestant members of the Bohemian estates36gathered in May 1618 in Praguefor an extraordinary assembly. Such a meeting had been specificallyforbidden by the emperor, whose regents thus called the leaders of the estates to Hradcany Castle to discuss the matter. Instead, the men stormed the palace and~hrew two of the emperor's regents and their settetary out the window, 4n act that b~came known as the Deftnestration of Prague (from the Latin for "Mila witlticw'j.J7 Luckily, these men, who fell more than fifty feet to the courtyard: below, escaped with their lives, if not their dignity. Protestant writers later argued that the men had survived only by landing on a dung heap. Catholics put forth a slightly different explanation, which appears at the end of the following description of the incident written (in the third person) by one of the three men deftnestrated, jarOSlaVMartinitz.38)

lords. At around nine o'clock, lords from all three Protestant eStates, with a great crowd of their aides and servants, entered the castle of His Imperial Majesty42 at Prague and then the Bohemian chancellery. Unannounced, quite cheekily, and causing a great deal of importunity, they barged even into the council chamber, where there should have been the greatest security and respect.43 Thus the chancellery was entirely filled with lords and knights alone, while most of the burghers stood outside in front of the door, which therefore had to remain wide open. The four lord regents who were present stood together in a windowed corner near the furnace, where there was more room, expecting that the Protest tants present would now craft a response to the letter from His Imperial Majesty, a copy of which had been communicated to them that Monday. In this letter they had once again been mildly admonished not to conduct another meeting until His Imperial Majesty's arrival, or until they received further decrees. Instead of [writing a response], [the members of the estates] at once had Lord Paul Rziczan read aloud, in a clear voice, a letter with the following approximate content:

35. Jaroslav Martinitz, "Beschreibung det BohrnischenRebelliort in an no 1618," Knihovna Narodnlho muzea, Praha, Sign. VI G. 2, ft, in Miroslav Toegel,

ed., D()cumenta B()hemica Bellum tricennale illu;trantia; T. 2, Der Beginn des

DreissigjiihrigenKrieges:der Kampf um BiJhmen: Quelten zur Geschichteda bOmischen Krieges (1618-1621) (Prague: Academia, 1972),42-9. A different version of this event also appears in Henry Frederick &hwartz; The Imperial Privy Council in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1943),
344-7.
36. Most European states traditionally recognized three major social groupings or estates: the nobility, the clergy, and the burghers (or city-dwellers). In Bohemia, however, the three estates were the nobles, the knights, and tbe burghers. 37. Historians sometimes refer to this acr as rhe Second Defenestration of Prague, since it was done in conscious imitation of a simiW aCt performed during the 1419 Hussite revolt, whereby seven dty council members were killed. 38. Count Jaroslav Borita (Smeczensky) z Martinic (1582-1649), burgrave of Karlstein and regent of Bohemia. As Bohemia was under the control of the Germanspeaking Habsburg monarchy, most of the men mentioned in this document are usually referred to by the Getman, rather than the Czech, versions of their names.

lb avoid confusion, I have retained the traditional German versions in the main text, bur have included the Czech names of some of the key ligures in the foomotes. 39. Ascension Day is the Christian holiday celebrating the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. The four regents present were Martinirz, president of the chamber Count Vilem Slawata z Chlumu a KoSumberka (1572-1651/2; also known as Wtlhelm Slawata von Chlurn und Kosumberg), Adam II von Sternberg (the supreme burgrave), and Matthew Leopold Popel Lobcowirz (grand prior of the Order of the Knights of St. John in Bohemia).

40.

41. Here the author uses the phrase sub utraque, which means nor only Protestants,
but also Utraquists and Brethren (see the section inrroduction, page 1, for more information on this topic). For ease of reading, however, I have here represented this and all subsequenr uses of the phrase as "Protestant."

42. Matthias von Habsburg (1557-1619), Holy Roman Emperor and king of 80hernia.

43. Tradition dictated that no one enter the castle fully armed.

in the council, nor to reveal what had advised done .... The Protestant lords, however, refused to be satisfi Count von Thurn, who stated: "Yet this is a and especially the lord supreme burgrave an it. Until you do, we will not leave the Boh to know a eceive a clear uncover pistols, which d hold of and fired in a very threatening manner. H to Lord Martinitz, defiantly kicked him a brief discussion, the supreme burgrav less and have practically fo us, we protest ttenuously you pressly, all of you lords present as forced to give this answer, and this we can say did not advise anything that was contr At which they-especially Popel the elder, Bohuslav Ber dreas Schlkk,49 Hans Litwin v Lord Ulrich Kinsky-discussed cally cried out: "It is clear to us that ter of M ! Furthermore," they said, grand p , we know well that both of such a g, nor wish to harm us, but must astray by Lords Slawata and Marciniu. "51) After this they d to these two lords, M .u, and sai ou of US to e us of our Letter ajesry,have subjects ... and have tried to force them to wills or have had chern expelled for this 47. Matthew\Lobkowitz. 48. The! Utter of Majesty was issued byl;.mperor Rud Bohemia ~f1>m1575 to 1611. It gtanre9,freedomof W Bohemian estates to build churches onqown lamI: 49. Jachym OndIej hrab~ Slik,(l569-162.1). Schlick."a LatberalJ; ndblernd.W:ts one of the D~fenders. 50. Slawata and von Martinitz, along with tile Bohen)ia~chanel\qr Zdenek berrPopel von Lobcowitz (who was in Vienna: at this rilrieand SO esCapedthe estration), were the three mosranti-Protestant regents in the Bohemian govetntnent and had openly oppOsed the Letter of Majesty.

Adam von Sternberg was the 44. As the supreme burgrave of the castle of P est member of the Bohemian representative of the his absence and th government. Waldsrein. also known as Wallenstein, was tbe brother of Albrecht 45. , who was to be the emperor's supreme general. %eThurn-Valsassioll (1567-1640). CoUnt yon Thurn, a Calvinad so never fully mastered the Czech lanof the Bohemian en by the estates to

[The two regents attempt to defend themselves from these and fUrther accusations brought by the Protestants.] Then the above-mentioned nine people were thrown into confusion, and also all others who were present; hut Lord Count von Thurn and Lord Wilhelm Popel, in particular, strongly challenged the two lords Slawata and Martinitz with rhese words: "See, all dear lords, these men are great enemies of us and of our religion .... Know for certain, all you lords, that so long as they remain in the country, our Letter of Majesty will never be safe, nor will, indeed, the lives of any of us and of our dear wives and children. And were we to keep these men alive, then we would lose the Letter of Majesty and our religion, and all of us would then be stripped and deprived of our lives, honor, and property, for there can be no justice to be gained from or by them ... ." Then Lord Wilhelm Popel and several others turned to the other two regents and said: "Lord supreme burgrave and lord grand prior, please leave now; nothing bad will happen to the both of you by our hands, but with these other two we shall have justice ... ." Then several of them dragged the supreme burgrave and the lord grand prior by their hands out the door of the Bohemian chancellery and led them away. Immediately after this, the lords furiously and violently laid hands on the two oft-mentioned regents. I think that Count von Thurn and Joachim Andreas, Count von Schlick, along with several others, forcefully seized Lord Slawata, while Lord Wilhelm Popel, Hans Litwin von Rziczan, Lord Ulrich Kinsky, Lord Albrecht Smirzicky, and Lord Paulus Kepler seized Lord van Martinitz. They strongly pulled them here and there through the entire Bohemian chancellery, starting from the fireplace and ending at the window on the opposite side, crying: "Now we will show justice to those who are enemies of our religion!" At this, Lord van Martinitz said loudly: "Since this concerns the will of God, the Catholic religion, and the will of the emperor, we shall suffer everything gladly and patiently." They both seriously thought that they would he led to the door and then held in arrest for some time, but once they had passed by the door and had seen the window opened immediately before them, they both ceaselessly began to ask for the benefit of a confessor, to whom they wished to confess at once, and to ask most fervently for the final righteousness of God. At this, however, the Protestant members of the estates, without considering this ardent request, answered: "Yes, we will soon usher in the mischievous Jesuits51 as well." 51. Membersof the Societyof Jesus,a religiousorder founded in 1540. The Jesuits werethe main arm of the papacyin its efforrsto combat the spread ofPcorestantism, and wereactivelyattempting to re-CatholicizeBohemiaat this time.

And with this, the aforementioned people grasped onto Lord von Martinitz, who faithfully commended himself to God the Almighty with these words: "Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me; mother of God, remember me," and who wore .only ~ black canvas coat along with rapier and dagger, but ~ot a hat (for thiS, whi~h had a beautiful braid decorated with gold and precIOUS stones, had been npped from his hand). Then, bare headed, he was miserably shoved and thrown head fitst out of the window and into the castle moat, which was perhaps thirty cubits down and rocky. As he, however, strongly and continuously cried out in turn the holy names "Jesus" and "Mary," this terrifYing tOSS and fall not only did not deprive him of life, it also .saw him only ~lightly injured, due to the mysterious grace and compasSIon of God, achieved through the intercession of our dear and most distinguished Lady. It was then commonly said and staunchly avowed as certain by many pious, God-fearing people-who claimed to have clearly seen this for themselves-that in the air above Lord von Martinirz. who was the first to fall, appeared the most holy and praiseworthy Virgin Mary, the mother of God, as his sublime parron, and, so to speak, slowed him in his fall with her outstretched coat placed beneath him, such that he might fall to the earth much more softly. Thus she mercifully helped to maintain him in life and health and keep him from certain death. Although Lord von Martinitz had not seen this so clearly, nonetheless it had happened. He could clearly remember that while he called out both holy names during his fall (because he had, without despairing, held out strong hopes of finally and at any moment gaining his long-hoped-for holy martyr's crown), it truly appeared to him as though the highest heaven opened itself up to him, and that he should soon enter there into eternal glory. ~ext came Lord Slawata, who also devoutly called out to God the Lord, saymg: "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." They first badly smashed the fingers of his right hand, with which he had tried to hold on, until they were bloody, and then threw him through the same window, without his hat and in a black velvet coat with his rapier, and he quickly fell to the earth. He rolled eight cubits farther and deeper into the moat than had Lord Martinitz and badly entangled his head in his heavy coat. Finally came the third, Lord M. Philipus Fabricius, imperial councilo.r and secretary of the kingdom of Bohemia. [He was chosen] mostly because of the demands of Lord Albrecht Hansen Smirzicky, by whom he had also previously been plagued in his writings in all kinds of ways. He was also brought by them, in his coat and without his hat, to this window, where he also assiduously called our to God-"God have mercy on my soul!"-and was thrown into the moat ....