Thrown from Prague: the Defenestration, Royal Scandal, and Spark That Ignited Thirty Years’ War: 2

Three men were thrown from a Prague Castle window. All three survived. Europe was not so lucky.On May 23, 1618, furious Protestant nobles stormed the Bohemian Chancellery, accused two royal governors of betraying their liberties, and delivered a sentence with spectacular efficiency: out the window. Their victims plunged toward the castle ditch and lived, inspiring rival explanations involving divine intervention, angels, and one remarkably persistent pile of manure.But behind the absurdity stood a crisis with deadly consequences.In Thrown from Prague, Evelyn St. James reconstructs the true story of Count Thurn, Ferdinand II, the condemned governors Martinice and Slavata, the forgotten secretary Philip Fabricius, and the struggle over faith, privilege, and royal power that exploded into the Bohemian Revolt and helped ignite the Thirty Years' War.Witty, vivid, and grounded in historical evidence, this is history at its most irresistible: palace intrigue, propaganda, ambition, attempted murder, disputed crowns, and the extraordinary moment when one open window revealed just how close Europe was to catastrophe.