Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/84

 sequence of these family dissensions Slavata—who in early youth had already travelled extensively in Italy—now undertook another long journey through England, Scotland, Denmark, and other countries. On his return to Bohemia he soon found favour at court, and obtained high offices of state. He was one of the very few Bohemian nobles who opposed the granting of the ‘Letter of Majesty’ in 1609, and in 1619 he was one of the Austrian officials who were thrown from the windows of the Hradčany palace. I shall presently quote part of Skála’s account of this memorable event.

It is not my purpose to refer to Slavata’s political career. He was one of the principal agents in the re-establishment of the Church of Rome in Bohemia, and contributed largely to the downfall of Wallenstein, whose personal enemy he was, and whom he—probably rightly—suspected of wishing to re-establish liberty of religion in Bohemia.

The literary activity of Slavata is a slight but curious incident in the career of Slavata. Dr. Jireček, who some years ago edited the most valuable part of Slavata’s works, tells us that he in 1636 accompanied the Emperor Ferdinand to the Diet held at Regensburg. A pamphlet written by his old adversary, Count Thurn, here fell into his hands. The pamphlet dealt mainly with the then recent assassination of Wallenstein, but Slavata also found in it an allusion to the defenestration, all mention of which—as Dr. Jireček writes—greatly irritated Slavata. Thurn stated that the throwing of the officials from the Hradčany windows was a just deed, and that they had deserved such punishment.

After consulting some of his friends, Slavata resolved to write his memoirs of the period of 1608 to 1619,