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Old Town Square execution

The Old Town Square execution (Staroměstská exekuce) was the execution of 27 participants in the Bohemian Estates' uprising on Old Town Square in Prague on 21 June 1621.[1] Three lords, seven knights and seventeen burghers were executed.[2] It is commonly called the execution of the 27 Czech lords, a name that is not entirely accurate.[3]*

Background

The Estates' uprising began with the Third Defenestration of Prague on 23 May 1618 and ended with the defeat of the Estates at the Battle of the White Mountain.[1] After the defeat 61 people were detained. An extraordinary tribunal headed by Karl of Liechtenstein was set up to try them.[1] The tribunal sent the sentences to Emperor Ferdinand II for confirmation; he reduced some of the penalties and signed the death sentences.[1]

Course

The scaffold stood by the wall of the Old Town Hall. At five in the morning the town gates were closed and soldiers occupied the square. The condemned were brought from makeshift prisons in the town halls.[1] The executions were carried out by the executioner Jan Mydlář and lasted four hours.[1][2] Twenty-four of the condemned were beheaded, and three burghers, members of the Unity of the Brethren, were hanged.[2] The first to be executed were the directors from the lords' estate, Joachim Andreas Schlick, Václav Budovec of Budov and Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice, followed by the knights and the burghers.[1] Among the executed was the physician and former rector of the Prague university Jan Jesenius.[1][2] The sentences of Jan Theodor Sixt of Ottersdorf and Pavel Kavka of Říčany were changed to imprisonment at the last moment.[1]

Heads on the bridge tower

Twelve heads of the executed were displayed in wire baskets on the Old Town Bridge Tower, where they remained for about ten years. The head of Joachim Andreas Schlick was taken down after a year and buried.[2] The remaining skulls were later taken down and probably placed in the Týn Church.[2]

Commemoration

The execution is commemorated by 27 crosses in the pavement by the Old Town Hall. They were set in during repairs of the square after the Second World War.[1] On the 400th anniversary, 21 June 2021, a symbolic re-enactment organised by the Knights of the Czech Crown under the patronage of Prague 1 took place on Old Town Square.[3]

Sources

  1. ČT24 — 2021-06-21
  2. Český rozhlas Praha — 2018-06-28
  3. Městská část Praha 1

* The sources are collected and the preliminary text of this entry is drafted with artificial intelligence, on the instruction of the editorial staff; the entry has not yet been verified by an editor — report a mistake.