Jindrich Matyas Thurn

Count Jindrich Matyas Thurn-Valsassina, English: "Henry Matthew Thurn-Valsassina", German: "Heinrich Matthias Graf von Thurn und Valsassina", Italian: "Enrico Matteo Conte della Torre di Valsassina", Finnish: "Henrikki Matias Thurn-Valsassina" (24 February 1567 - 26 January 1640), was a leading Bohemian nobleman, one of leaders against Ferdinand II of Bohemia and in events that lead to the Thirty Years War, and in the end a military and diplomat in Swedish service, residing in Swedish Estonia.

He was the son of count Frantisek Thurn-Valsassina (1508-86) and his second wife countess Barbora Slikova (di Bassano & ze Cheb) (d 1581). Both parents were protestants. Count Jindrich Matyas was born on in Lipnice castle in Bohemia. After the death of his father, he was fostered to his catholic uncle John Ambrose.

Young count Thurn served in the Austrian embassy, and visited Istanbul, Syria, Egypt and Jerusalem. Since 1592 he served in the imperial army against Turks. He rose to the ranks of colonel and War Councillor. By marriage, he came into remarkable landholdings, in Krajina of Croatia among other places. The Emperor granted him the burggraviate of Karlstejn as reward for his accomplishments in the battles against the Turks in Hungary. In northeast Bohemia he purchased 1605 the lordship of Velisz, which brought him to the membership of the Bohemian estate of nobles. He joined politically the protestants of Bohemia. He served as marshal of the nobility.

In 1617, the fanatically catholic archduke Ferdinand was put forward as Habsburg successor to the aged, childless emperor Matthew, and also to be elected to the Bohemian throne. Bohemian nobles required him to commit to honor their freedom of religion, enshrined in the Decree of the late emperor Rudolph (Letter of Majesty). Thurn was one of signatories of Bohemians' critical reply to Ferdinand.

Ferdinand was not willing to do that. However, his election was pushed forward. In 1618, in a stormy event at the Hradcany castle of Prague, count Thurn lead the Bohemian nobles who defenestrated two of Ferdinand's representatives, Martinice and Slavata.

Thurn was elected as one of the thirty Defenders of the Protestant Faith elected by the States of Bohemia. The revolt of the Protestant population of Bohemia began on 23 May 1618 and Thurn took command of the national army which deployed before Vienna on 6 June 1619 and again on 26 November. He participated in deposing Ferdinand of Bohemian throne and in the election of Frederick_V,_Elector_Palatine as new king. Count Thurn was commander of a regiment at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. After the Bohemians' defeat there, Ferdinand exiled him, like all the other leaders of the uprising. Thurn so lost his estates in Bohemia.

Afterwards Thurn continued to take part in the fighting and political negotiations of the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs, as diplomat and as soldier. In 1626 he took command of some troops in Silesia. Then he served as lieutenant general in the army of king Gustav Adolf of Sweden and took part in the battle of Lützen 1632.His only son, count Frantisek Bernard, also in Swedish service, fell in the war in 1629.

On 11 October 1633 Thurn and his force of 8000 soldiers were confronted by Wallenstein's army near Steinau an der Oder in Saxony, where he was captured. He was ransomed soon from the captivity, and retired to the family's new holdings in Pärnu, Estonia. Count Thurn died there, and was buried in the St Mary's Cathedral of Tallinn.

His heir was his underage grandson, count Heinrich von Thurn-Valsassina of Pärnu (1628–1656), son of Frantisek Bernard (1592–1628) and Magdalena von Thurn-Valsassina (born von Hardeck).

Count Thurn wrote a booklet, titled "Defensionsschrift", in German, there justifying his role in the events of 1618 as a deliberate, conscious defence of his religious beliefs. The booklet was published in Sweden.

External links

* [http://www.rozhlas.cz/brno/upozornujeme/_zprava/306487 in Czech]