The Defenestration of Prague
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was touched off by an incident
called "The Defenestration of Prague". The Bohemian nobility was in
more or less open revolt against the Emperor, and, at a meeting of
the Bohemian Estates at the Hradcany Castle in Prague on 23 May 1618,
the assembled Bohemian nobles took the two Imperial governors
present at the meeting, namely Wilhelm
Graf Slavata and Jaroslav Borzita Graf von Martinicz, and threw
them out of a window of the castle and into a ditch.
Neither man was seriously injured as a result of being defenestrated
(an English translation of part of Slavata's report of the incident
is printed in Henry Frederick Schwarz, *The Imperial Privy Council
in the Seventeenth Century* (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1943, issued as volume LIII of *Harvard Historical Studies*),
pp. 344-347), and lines of descent from both men to several members
of European Royalty can be shown. For example:
- Wilhelm Gf Slavata (1572-1652) m. 1602 Lucia Ottilia
v Neuhaus (1567-1633)
- Joachim Ulrich Gf Slavata (1604-1645) m. 1622 Franziska v
Meggau (1609-1676)
- Johann Joachim Gf Slavata (1628-1689) m. 1663 Margareta v
Trautson (1643-1698)
- Maria Josefine Slavata (1667-1708) m. 1686 Hermann Jakob
Gf Czernin v Chudenitz (1659-1710)
- Maria Margareta Czernin v Chudenitz (1689-1725) m. 1704 Franz Gf
v Waldstein (1680-1722)
- Josef Georg Gf v Waldstein (1709-1771) m. 1729 Josefa v
Trauttmansdorff (1704-1757, see below)
- Jaroslav Borzita Gf v Martinicz (1582-1649) m. 1601 Maria
Eusebia v Sternberg (1584-1634)
- Ursula Polyxena v Martinicz m. 1637 Wenzel Georg Gf
Holiczky v Sternberg (c1600-1681)
- Eleonora Holiczky v Sternberg (1654-1703) m. 1676 Johann
Friedrich Gf v Trauttmansdorff (1619-1695)
- Franz Wenzel Gf v Trauttmansdorff (1677-1753) m. 1699
Maria Eleonora v Kaunitz (1681-1723)
- Josefa v Trauttmansdorff (1704-1757) m. 1729 Josef Georg
Gf v Waldstein (1709-1771, see above and below)
- Josef Georg Gf v Waldstein (1709-1771) m. 1729 Josefa v
Trauttmansdorff (1704-1757, both lines combined)
- Georg Christian Gf v Waldstein (1743-1791) m. 1765 Elisabeth
v Ulfeldt (1747-1791)
- Maria Antonia v Waldstein (1771-1854) m. 1792 Franz Joseph
Fst v Kohary (1767-1826)
- Maria Antonia v Kohary (1797-1862) m. 1815 Ferdinand Pz v
Sachsen-Coburg u Gotha (1785-1851)
- Ferdinand II King of Portugal (1816-1885)
Other descents from one or both men
to Sofie Chotek (1868-1914),
to Marita Draskovich (1904-1969),
to Isabel Dobrzensky (1875-1951),
and to Johann I Fst v u zu Liechtenstein (1760-1836),
are left as exercises for the interested reader.