30 YEARS OF DEATH?
Religion strikes again!
Na Na Na Na Na Na Na, We're Gonna Start a Fight!
In Germany, the Peace of Augsburg (1555) had allowed for a truce between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. However, this truce didn't include other Protestant branches, namely Calvinism. They wanted their beliefs to be respected and recognized by the Holy Roman Empire, so they got a little ticked off. And to top it off, Roman Catholic officials began to take down citizen-built Protestant chapels in Bohemia (which completely neglected the religious freedom set down in the Letter of Majesty of Emperor Rudolf II). So they got a group of Protestants at Prague, where they try and find guilty the imperial regents, William Slavata and Jaroslav Martinic. They threw them (along with their secretary) from a window of the council room of Hradčany. This event was called the Defenestration of Prague (1618). The men weren't seriously hurt, but this marked the start of the 30 Years War.