It's almost to a day 400 years ago that the
Second Defenestration of Prague occured, an act which started the
Bohemian Revolt that IOTL spiraled into the
Thirty Years' War. On May 23rd, 1618, an assembly of Protestant estates leaders lead by
Count Thurn seized two Lord Regents, appointed by king-elect
Ferdinand of Styria,
Vilém Slavata of Chlum and
Jaroslav Borzita of Martinice, known Catholic hard-liners, to represent him in Bohemia in his absence (out of four present at the time) and threw them and also their secretary
Philip Fabricius out of a window of the Bohemian Chancellory at Prague Castle, which was some 17 metres (56 ft) off the ground. Remarkably, although suffering some bruises, all three of them survived the fall, an unbloody beginning to the worst war Europe had experienced until then.
But peace still may have prevailed. A little known fact is that there were plans to settle the conflict diplomatically, with negotiations already agreed on and both sides on the verge of a settlement. But the untimely death of
Emperor Matthias, who was willing to extended his offer of more legal and religious concessions to Bohemia, relying mostly on the advice of his chancellor, Bishop
Melchior Klesl, and the succession of his nephew Ferdinand of Styria, a fierce proponent of the Catholic
Counter-Reformation and not at all well-disposed to tolerate any kind of Protestantism or Bohemian freedoms, would have none of that and literally tore Rudolf's Letter of Majesty apart which led to him being deposed as King of Bohemia and replaced with
Frederick V, Elector Palatine, which made any peaceful settlement impossible.
But what if Emperor Matthias had lived long enough for a settlement to be reached. Could the Thirty Years' War have thus been avoided altogether or would its' outbreak merely have been delayed until sparked by another crisis like the expiration of the
Twelve Years' Truce in the
Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic in 1621.