Vilém Slavata of Chlum

As viceregent (místodržící) of Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg (from 1617) he became famous as co-victim, along with Jaroslav Borzita of Martinice, of the 1618 Defenestration of Prague.

His father Adam had been an administrator of Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg, who in 1583 had taken up his residence at Prague Castle and had guaranteed freedom of religion to the Protestant Bohemian estates by his Letter of Majesty (Rudolfův Majestát) issued in 1609.

In return Ferdinand vested him with the office of his representative at Prague, where he had to face the violent uprising of the nobles led by Jindřich Matyáš Thurn on 23 May 1618.

A leading figure in restoring Catholicism, he received the title of a Reichsgraf ("Count of the Empire") and in 1628 was appointed High Chancellor of Bohemia.

This monumental (14 large-scale books) reminiscence in which Vilém comprehensively describes the causes and initiation of the Bohemian Revolt and the first phase of the Thirty Years' War, has importance for understanding of that era.