Editing Defenestrations of Prague (section)

===Defenestration===
{{More citations needed|section|date=November 2024}}
On 23 May 1618, four Catholic lords regent, Count [[Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice]], Count [[Vilem Slavata of Chlum]], Adam II von Sternberg (who was the supreme [[burgrave]]), and Matthew Leopold Popel Lobkowitz (who was the grand prior), arrived at the Bohemian Chancellery at 8:30 am. After preparing the meeting hall, members of the dissolved assembly of the three main Protestant estates gathered at 9:00 am, led by [[Jindřich Matyáš Thurn|Count Thurn]], who had been deprived of his post as [[castellan]] ([[burgrave]]) of [[Karlštejn Castle]] by the Emperor. The Protestant lords' agenda was to clarify whether the four regents present were responsible for persuading the Emperor to order the cessation of Protestant church construction on royal lands.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} According to the Count of Martinice himself:

{{quote|Lord Paul Rziczan read aloud{{nbsp}}... 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 honour 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, honour and property, we would stand firm, with all for one and one for all{{nbsp}}... 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Helfferich |first=Tryntje |title=The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History |year=2009|publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |location=Indianapolis |page=16}}</ref>}}

[[File:Slawata001.jpg|thumb|240px|''[[Vilem Slavata of Chlum]]'', 1618 enamel on copper, by a follower of [[Dominicus Custos]]]]
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 were to receive an official answer to their grievance by the next Friday (the encounter took place on the eve of [[Feast of the Ascension|Ascension Day]], and they all had to observe the holy day). The Protestant lords, however, demanded an immediate answer. Two regents, Adam II von Sternberg and Matthew Leopold Popel Lobkowitz, were declared innocent by the Protestant Estate holders, deemed to be too pious to have any responsibility in the preparation of the Emperor's letter. They were removed from the room; before leaving, Adam II von Sternberg made it clear that they "did not advise anything that was contrary to the Letter of Majesty". This left Count Vilem Slavata of Chlum and Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice (who had replaced Thurn as castellan), both known Catholic hard-liners, and [[Filip Fabricius|Philip Fabricius]], the secretary to the regents. They eventually acknowledged responsibility for the letter and, presuming they would only be arrested, welcomed any punishment the Protestants had planned.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Count von Thurn turned to both Martinice 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{{nbsp}}... 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{{nbsp}}... for there can be no justice to be gained from or by them". Shortly thereafter, the two regents and their secretary were defenestrated, but they survived the {{convert|70|ft|abbr=off|adj=on}} fall from the third floor.<ref name="beaulac2000">{{cite journal |pages=148–177 |doi=10.1163/15718050020956812 |title=The Westphalian Legal Orthodoxy – Myth or Reality? |year=2000 |last1=Beaulac |first1=S. |journal=Journal of the History of International Law |volume=2 |issue=2|url=https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/bitstream/1866/1373/1/The%20Westphalian%20Legal%20Orthodoxy%20-%20Myth%20or%20Reality.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815132659/https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/bitstream/1866/1373/1/The%20Westphalian%20Legal%20Orthodoxy%20-%20Myth%20or%20Reality.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-15 |url-status=live |hdl=1866/1373 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name = "mackay">{{cite book |last1=MacKay |first1=John P. |last2=Hill |first2=Bennett D. |last3=Buckler |first3=John |title=A history of Western society: from the Renaissance to 1815 |year=1995 |volume=2 |edition=5 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=9780395708453 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern0000mcka_vb/page/498/mode/2up |page=498 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Catholics maintained the men were saved by angels or by the intercession of the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]], who caught them; later Protestant [[pamphlet]]eers asserted that they survived due to falling onto a dung heap, a story unknown to contemporaries and probably coined in response to divine intervention claims. Philip Fabricius was later ennobled by the Emperor and granted the title ''Baron von Hohenfall'' (literally 'Baron of Highfall').<ref name="vehse">Vehse, Eduard, translated by Franz KF Demmier (1896). ''Memoirs of the court and aristocracy of Austria, Volume 1'', p. 243. HS Nichols</ref><gallery mode="nolines" widths="500" heights="200" perrow="3">
File:Karel Svoboda Defenestrace.jpg|1844 illustration by Czech-Austrian painter [[Karel Svoboda (artist)|Karel Svoboda]]
File:VáclavBROŽÍK-Defenestrace.jpg|''Pražská defenestrace roku 1618'' by Czech painter [[Václav Brožík]], 1890
File:Brozik Vaclav 017.jpg|''[[Polyxena of Lobkowicz|Polyxena of Lobkowitz]]'' ''safeguarding royal officials [[Vilem Slavata of Chlum|Slavata]] and [[Jaroslav Borzita of Martinice|Martinic]], thrown out of windows of the royal castle in Prague in 1618'', by Brožík, {{Circa|1880–1891}} 
</gallery>