Three imperial officials were defenestrated in Prague in 1618. On 23 May, Protestant nobles threw two royal governors and their secretary from a window of Prague Castle, in an act that became the famous Third Defenestration of Prague.
The incident followed a dispute over Protestant religious rights and the authority of the Catholic Habsburg government in Bohemia. The nobles targeted Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and Count Vilém Slavata of Chlum, along with their secretary, Philip Fabricius. Remarkably, all three survived the fall, reportedly landing on a pile of refuse or in a ditch.
The defenestration helped trigger the Bohemian Revolt, the opening phase of the Thirty Years' War. A common source of confusion is the wording: several officials were present at the meeting, but only three were thrown from the window. Prague had also experienced major defenestrations in 1419 and 1483, making the 1618 event the third in the historical series.