A Scandal in Bohemia 23town of Braunau (Broumov), where the citizens had built a Protestant
church, claiming that the Letter of Majesty entitled them to do so. The
Catholics and the government denied this, the dispute became pro-
tracted, and eventually the regents had a number of the leading citizens
arrested and imprisoned.
In a climate of increasing confrontation the defensors, the appointed
guardians of the freedoms won in 1609, met in Prague in March 1618 to
formulate a petition of protest to the emperor. They received an uncom-
promising reply from Matthias’s government, together with an order to
disperse, with which on this first occasion they complied. Matters con-
tinued to escalate, and with anger mounting the defensors met again
in May. The council of regents again ordered them, in the emperor’s
name, to disperse, but instead the leading lights held a private meet-
ing at which they agreed on a decisive, albeit theatrical, response. On
the following day, 23 May 1618, they marched to the Hradschin palace
in Prague, followed by a crowd, and in the council chamber they con-
fronted four of the regents. There, after angry exchanges, they staged
an imitation of an event which had occurred at the outbreak of the
Hussite revolution two hundred years earlier, hurling two of the prin-
cipal regents, Jaroslaw Martinitz and Wilhelm Slavata, to their deaths
from the high windows on to the paving below. At least such was their
intention, and it is a noteworthy comment on the divisions in Bohemia
that one of the perpetrators was Slavata’s own brother, but this attempt
at high theatre ended on a note of farce. Martinitz and Slavata had a
soft landing, allegedly on a dung heap, and escaped with little more
than bruises.
The meaning of the gesture was nevertheless clear, even if Matthias
and his advisers initially preferred masterly inactivity to a military
response, despite the more belligerent urgings of Ferdinand’s group at
court. The Bohemians were less reticent, and once having committed
themselves they proceeded to form a governing directorate, to raise
troops, and to appoint Thurn, one of the leading figures of the revolt,
as their commander. Numerous letters passed between Prague and
Vienna, and from each to the rulers of neighbouring territories or
prospective allies further afield. In these the Bohemians sought to char-
acterise their revolt as essentially religious, whereas the Imperial side
emphasised the secular, political and national aspirations which they
saw as underlying this rebellion against law and established authority.
There was some truth in both views, but the exchanges were mainly
for propaganda purposes and a play for time while the respective sides
gathered men and money.