23 May 1618
The defenestration of Prague
Protestant nobles threw two of the emperor's governors and their secretary out of a castle window. All three lived, and the war that followed lasted thirty years.
Place: Prague CastleEra: The Thirty Years' War
In the spring of 1618 the Protestant estates of Bohemia believed the promises of the Letter of Majesty were being broken: churches had been closed, meetings forbidden. On 23 May a crowd of armed nobles climbed to the chancellery in Prague Castle and confronted the emperor’s governors there.
Out of the window
After a stormy argument they seized two governors, Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and Vilém Slavata, and threw them out of the window. Their secretary, Philipp Fabricius, went after them. All three survived the fall into the moat and escaped.
What followed
The estates set up a government of thirty directors and raised an army. A year later they deposed Ferdinand and chose a king of their own. The revolt became the first chapter of the Thirty Years’ War, and it ended for its leaders on the Old Town Square in 1621.
