Žirovnice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈʒɪrovɲɪtsɛ]; German: Serownitz) is a town in the Vysočina Region, Czech Republic.
Through the town flows
a small river Žirovnička. There are many historical buildings in the town
- Castle of Žirovnice, St.Filip's and St. Jakub's church and other. Žirovnice
has around 2,700 inhabitants. There is various curtural life in the town. Every
year inhabitants celebrate carnival of Žirovnice's unicorn (unicorn is the
symbol of the town).
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Zirovnice town is set at the edge
of Ceskomoravska vrchovina at the elevation of 567 m
meters above sea level. It is the
centre of the region and a much-sought-for place. Its history is close-knit
with the history of local castle. The castle was built at the place of ancient
fortress. The lords from Hradec and lately the lords from Usti can be ranked
among the first owners; it was the beginning of 14th century. Since 1485 the castle had been a possession of
the Vencelik family from Vrchovist. They made a great reconstruction of the
Zirovnice castle, the castle was fully changed and decorated with frescos.
Thanks to them, the Zirovnice castle is one of the most precious cultural
monuments now. In 1964 the castle cut up by a fire. The next reconstruction was
finished in 1992. Nowadays it is a base of exposition introducing this region,
the history of button and pearl-shell production, an exposition of sewing
machines and a gallery of paintings.
German to English translation
To throw the Imperial
governor out of the Prgue Castle window, is one of the unrefined manners
of politics. 1618 directs the
Defenestration of Prague and gives a 30-year war, the first European civil war.
The 30-year-old war-ravaged Germany. Large areas were depopulated by war,
famine and epidemics, and general economic decline. Succeeding generations must have been
traumatized like the Europeans after the Second World War meant 30 years of war
but an existential uncertainty, a life in constant fear and hopelessness.
This war, in the up embroiled in Russia all the European powers, took its start
in Bohemia, more precisely, in Prague, and he emerged from a decades-long
conflict between the local Protestant nobility - the stands - and the Catholic
central power of the Habsburgs. In
it blended politics with religion, yearning for freedom with brutal
exploitation, small government desire for independence with the idea of a
universal monarchy. And this
mixture was penetrated again and again by sheer power politics and personal
greed.
Bohemian princes against the Habsburg
Emperor
During the 16th Century was
the Habsburg dynasty in the largely Protestant Bohemia - the Emperor was also
King of Bohemia - a policy of Catholic Renewal, also called the
Counter-Reformation, initiated the operation, especially the Jesuit Order in
1556 summoned to Prague. The
Bohemian nobles thereupon the Emperor and King with a choice: allocation of
taxes for the Turkish war only if the Protestant religious freedom would be
officially confirmed. That
finally happened in 1575 in the Confessio Bohemica.
In practice, however, that agreement was undermined by the Habsburgs
continuously, perhaps by Emperor Rudolf called targeted Catholics in the
country's main offices. Nevertheless,
the position of the Habsburgs in Bohemia was always precarious, because the
Bohemian princes the Emperor to recognize the clear signs of accessible mental
illness were, in turn, put pressure.
Rudolf's incapacity was registered by his family with care, but was feared that
he would go to the house of Habsburg, and lost the power over Europe. One indication of this was the royal
charter of 1609, which saw the emperor forced to secure the freedom of belief
and privileges of the estates of the Bohemian nobility. Finally, we negotiated: Rudolf was
deposed in 1611, a year later, his brother Matthias as emperor and king of
Bohemia elected.
The new emperor and king was then also out to curtail the power of the nobility
in Bohemia again. Behind these
conflicts were political and economic interests: The estates targeted for
political independence and were not willing to pay taxes to the emperor, would
have to be able to use this to set up an army against Bohemia.
At that time there were no standing armies, and warfare was a kind of business,
dedicated to the many. Who paid,
the mercenaries obeyed, and it was not unusual that the troops switched sides
because they suddenly got their pay from the former enemy. The Habsburgs wanted to turn and could
not do without the revenue from the UK, and also feared that the independence
aspirations of the nobility of Bohemia in Austria - could bring a taste - the
headquarters of the house.
This "big politics" was played on the backs of the people. One should not forget that the
nobility demanded Although freedom but not freedom for the peasants, who
represented the majority of the population. Large
parts were mainly of medium and small aristocracy discovered the benefits of
free enterprise and replaced the Habsburgs as a feudal exploiters layer. For the mass of the population, it was
ultimately irrelevant to whom they had to pay levies to the needle or to the
emperor.
Union Protestants against Catholic
League
How much was the Bohemian conflict integral part of the pan-European stress
field, show the connection that contains the two opponents: Habsburg with the
then world power Spain - or the local branch of the House of Habsburg - with
the Pope, Bavaria, and several smaller German principalities, the stands with - the Catholic - France, England,
not the Spanish Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the Protestant princes-Union.
As early as 1608/09, the two warring factions had united into loose alliances:
the Protestant Union and Catholic League.
The famous Defenestration of Prague, it finally came, as on 23 May 1618 a large crowd of irritation
with the constant violation of their rights guaranteed in the royal charter to
the Prague Castle and moved the storm: Bohemian nobles threw two of the ten
Habsburg governors from the window of Prague Castle, defenestrieren it was
called then. It was a brutal
version of the "gauntlet-throw" a kind of declaration of war against
the emperor. The governor
survived the fall from a height.
There are different versions, so the Imperialists got away with his life:
Heavenly Powers had intervened, the Virgin Mary even their most protective hands
held through the falling - or under it. Rather,
this versatile statements designated a manure pile, which should have been held
just below these windows, a large pile of paper or very thick clothing of the
governor in connection with a favorable impact angle plus a good dose of luck
as the cause of the physical integrity of the messengers of Habsburg.
Nobles rebel against imperial
governor
In any event, the Defenestration of Prague from the first leg of the 30
years war, the uprising of the predominantly Protestant Bohemian nobles against
the autocratic rule of the Habsburg-Catholic country. In 1619, translated from the stands
Ferdinand of Styria, which they had elected the first King of Bohemia 1617, and
determined the Elector Frederick of the Palatinate to their ruler.
Now Ferdinand was elected on the same day the Emperor and his project was
Catholic Renewal of the Habsburg dominions. Had
the new emperor, the choice of the Protestant Frederick accepted, it would at
the next election, the late Emperor of the Habsburg dynasty was near. A Protestant King of Bohemia would
have tilted the majority of money in electoral college: the Catholic electors
could have been outvoted four to three. His
dismissal as Bohemian King Ferdinand gave the decisive reason to military
action against the Bohemian estates.
Then, in 1620, it came to the Battle of White Mountain, which ended with a
complete defeat of the Protestant states. The
leaders of the Bohemian uprising were executed in 1621, confiscated their
goods. Bohemia was
zwangskatholisiert, all sized freedoms - today we would say autonomy - have
been collected up to the right to approve taxes and the right to a diet. The subsequent aggressive policy of
the Emperor and the Catholic League was out of the Bohemian rebellion but then
quickly covered the whole of Europe Santander war.
(For this background to have fled at this time of our ancestors from Bohemia to
Bavaria.)
Baron Heinrich Micheal Wenzelik of Sarabitz
In his research into
family connections during his visit to Europe in 1893, Dr William Wenzlick came
across the following references;
In a letter to his
cousin Albert Wenzlick of St Louis, USA, he wrote:
"I have
been looking up archives and books at the new museum and the Clementinium KK
University Library in Prague. At the archives I had copies made from
manuscripts and books realting to two branches of a noble family by the name of
Wenzelik of Sarabitz.
There are two
coats of arms very similar but one family has additional marks granted by Emperor
Frederick in 1492 and repeated by Ferdinand II in 1636 etc.The documents
are in German, some Bohemian, and some in Latin as Baronius Henricus Michael
Wentzelik de Sarabic, etc.
One report has
them all die out in about 1600 or 1700.
Their many
possessions and burg or castles were mostly all confiscated in 1620 something
because of the part they took with the Hussites in the Battle of the White
Mountain. I have a picture of one of the burgs - these two families were
originally one and I believe I am the only Wenzlick now that knows of it.
"
The book Dr Wenzlick
read was as translated below;
The Bohemian Crownland
A list of Coats of Arms
and diplomas of Nobility
as mentioned in the
Bohemian Hall book archives of the Bohemian Dukes
In the
K.K. Social Ministry of the Interior in
Excerpt of
August von Doerr
Published by FR. Rivnac
1900
The Kingdom of Bohemia
with 6,774,309 inhabitants (1910) is by far the most important of the Habsburg
crown land state. In this summary of the hall's books much more than 2ooo
emblem letters and professional credentials and increases since 1530 are
listed.
The hall books
served as the basis for this complex work. The oldest Bohemian noble acts
dating from 1580, some information has come from the early Kopialbüchern the
governor's office in Prague.
The countries of
the Bohemian crown included Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia (all three now Czech
Republic) and Austrai, and until 1635 two then ceded to Saxony Mark counties
and other minor countries. The Bohemian lands were formally linked in a
personal union, the King of Bohemia was also Duke of Silesia and Margrave of
Moravia. The other countries were incorporated in Bohemia and
Titularansprüche
On Page 111 of this book is listed;
Page 385.
Confirmation of Baron Heinrich Michael Wenzelik of Sarabitz, and his sons
Johann Conrad and Sigmund Carl, Regensburg 30. August 1630.
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