[MR] “Defenestration"

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Lady Chagan Khulan reminded me of the term "defenestration". While it isn't
an old word that has changed meaning, it is certainly one worth recalling.

Defenestration comes from the Latin for window, "fenestra", and "de-" for
down from. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "The act of throwing
a thing or (usu.) a person out of a window."

Wikipedia gives us a tantalizing list of defenestrations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration . The most famous are three
that occurred in Prague, suggesting this was something of a habit there.

The first "Defenestration of Prague" happened in 1419 when a mob of
Hussites stormed the town hall and chucked a judge, the mayor, and a number
of town councillors into Charles Square with fatal results. The incident
led to the Hussite wars.

The second was a revolt in 1483 against the officers in several Prague
townships, resulting in the deaths of a mayor and seven councillors at
various locations.

The most famous Defenestration of Prague was out of our time period,
happening in 1618, and was again between a Protestant mob and Catholic
overlords. Three men were thrown 70 feet from the Bohemian Chancellery. All
three survived, possibly because they fell into a dung heap. This incident
was one of the sparks that led to the Thirty Years War.

We Scots were no strangers to this form of punishment (or elimination). In
1452 at Stirling Castle King James II and his cronies daggered William
Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas at a feast, and pitched his by-then badly
perforated body from a window into what is now known as "The Douglas
Garden". [Note to self: beware of any royal summons to dine.]

During the growing Protestant-Catholic tensions in Scotland, Cardinal David
Beaton had the popular preacher George Wishart burned at the stake for
heresy in 1545. In revenge a group of Protestant nobles broke into the
Cardinal's castle at St. Andrews in 1546, there daggering the churchman
repeatedly. Rather than just throwing him out the window, Beaton's corpse
was hung from the window of his bedchamber for all to see, which is bending
the definition of defenestration a bit though the result was the same.
Later the corpse was removed by the assassins and preserved in a barrel of
salt in the castle dungeons. This gave rise to the taunt, "Your cardinal is
sticket, and salted like a sow."

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.