The Letter of Majesty

JAN 01 1609 · 12:00

Rudolf II's Letter of Majesty, 9 July 1609. The single document by which the Habsburg crown conceded religious liberty to the Bohemian Estates. Torn up by Ferdinand II after White Mountain. Place: Prague Castle Figures: Rudolf II, signing under duress · Matthias, his brother, the rival · Václav Budovec of Budov, Protestant Estates leader By 1609 Rudolf II is a paranoid recluse at the castle, increasingly displaced by his ambitious younger brother Matthias, who has already seized Hungary, Austria, and Moravia. Rudolf has only Bohemia left, and Bohemia is restive: the Protestant Estates (Utraquists, Lutherans, the Bohemian Brethren) want their religious freedoms in writing. The Estates assemble in Prague in May. They draw up a document. They mass armed retainers in the streets. Rudolf, who has stalled for eight months, signs on 9 July. The Majestätsbrief, the Letter of Majesty, guarantees Protestants the right to build churches on royal and noble lands, run their own consistory, and operate the lower university. A defensor of twenty-four men is to enforce it.