The Twenty-Seven Executions

JAN 01 1621 · 12:00

Contemporary 1621 broadsheet engraving of the executions of the twenty-seven leaders of the Bohemian Revolt on Old Town Square, the scaffold, the rows of waiting condemned, and Mydlář the executioner at work. Place: Old Town Square, before the Town Hall Figures: Jan Mydlář, executioner · Jan Jessenius, rector of Charles University · Václav Budovec of Budov, Protestant elder · Kryštof Harant of Polžice, composer, courtier, and traveler The verdicts of the Extraordinary Tribunal are read in late April 1621. Twenty-seven directors of the Bohemian Revolt are condemned: twenty-four nobles (Lutheran, Utraquist, Brethren) and three burghers of the Old Town. They are held in the White Tower of the castle through May while their estates are inventoried. On the morning of 21 June, the scaffold is built on the Old Town Square in front of the Town Hall, draped in black. The first prisoner is brought out at five a.m. Cannon are positioned at every street into the square. Jesuit fathers offer last rites; some are accepted. The crowd is silent. The executioner Jan Mydlář, who keeps a careful diary, will use four different swords across the four hours; he replaces each as it dulls.