První pražská defenestrace

The first defenestration of Prague launched the Hussite Revolution, which fundamentally changed the form of the late medieval Bohemian state. The act of throwing several councillors and other officials out of the windows of the New Town Hall was the culmination of the resistance of the Prague Hussite community against the ‘compromise policy’ of Wenceslas IV of Bohemia, who at first sympathised with the reform movement, but later gave in to unscrupulous pressure from the papacy as well as the Roman and Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg. Not only the distinctive personalities of Jan Žižka and Jan Želivský, but also a whole plethora of remarkable although unjustly forgotten people entered the stage of great history with a revolutionary explosion, the causes and background of which the book explains in surprising contexts. In its course and symbolism, the first Prague defenestration inspired the political upheavals of 1483 and 1618, and as a concept it has become deeply rooted in the Czech historical consciousness. The new, revised edition is supplemented with recently discovered findings and updated notes containing references to sources and elementary scientific literature.