140 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
about. Moreover he wrote at some unknown length of time afterwards,
and like most eyewitnesses he probably shaped his account to make a
neater and more coherent story, and to make it fit in with his own over-
all perception of the occasion, of which he was anything but a neutral
observer.^11 Nevertheless, unlike most of those present, there is no obvi-
ous reason why Martinitz should lie or deliberately conceal the truth,
although he has certainly completed his account by adding informa-
tion learned afterwards from others, most notably what happened to
Slavata and the secretary Fabricius after he himself had been the first
hurled from the window.
Martinitz begins by reporting that the Protestant estates arrived at
about nine in the morning, accompanied by their retainers. There was a
very large crowd, so large that the council chamber was filled by mem-
bers of the nobility, while the representatives of the towns had to remain
outside the open doors. Another source states that they had first assem-
bled briefly in an anteroom, where the document to be presented to
the regents was read out by PaulRíˇˇcan.^12 In the event only four of the
ten regents were there to receive them, another was known to be ill,
and the remaining five were reportedly away from Prague, the three
Protestants among them. The most senior of those present was Adam
Sternberg, a long-serving royal office-holder, and he was accompanied
by yet another Lobkowitz, the elderly Diepold, and by Martinitz and
Slavata. The regents were expecting their visitors to deliver a reply to the
most recent royal letter, but insteadRíˇˇcan again read out his document,
which contained a protest at the emperor’s first ‘extremely shocking’
letter and went on to demand to know whether any of the regents had
known of, advised upon, or approved it.
Sternberg attempted to avoid the issue by claiming that they needed
to consult their sick colleague, following which they would give a reply
two days later, as the next day was the Ascension holiday. This was
immediately rejected by several speakers, among them Thurn, Fels and
Wilhelm Lobkowitz, and after a short conference among themselves the
regents tried another tack, this time arguing that their oath and duty as
royal councillors prevented them from revealing who had given what
advice or anything else about confidential business. Thurn responded
that this was an unsatisfactory answer, and that they did not intend
to leave until they received a better one, at which point Hans Litwin
Ríˇˇcan grabbed a pistol from his belt and made threatening gestures
before firing it off demonstratively. Sternberg once more consulted his
colleagues privately, before announcing that as they were being placed
under duress they had no choice but to answer despite their oath. He