Protestant Union - Bohemian Revolt

Bohemian Revolt

The Protestant Union became very active during the early 1600's following the election of Ferdinand II to the crown. The letter of Majesty had guaranteed the rights of Protestants, among them religious freedom. However, it was ambiguous on one point: whether lands of the Catholic Church were held from the King. If they were, then Protestants could build churches and worship freely on these crown lands; if not, then the Catholic landholder could prohibit Protestantism on his ecclesiastical property. But in 1617 the ecclesiastical rulers of Broumov and Hroby took over or destroyed Protestant churches and forbid further heretical worship. This angered the Protestant Union and so they defiantly assembled in Prague on May 23, 1618 and went into the chamber of four Catholic Lord Regents in what is known as The Second Defenestration of Prague. This was a key point in the Protestant Union because it was a time when they were defiant of the Emperor in order to preserve the Protestant rights they had received in the Peace of Augsburg and in the Letter to Majesty.