The Battle of the White Mountain, 1620

In 1618 Protestant nobles in Bohemia began a revolt against Habsburg rule; it marked the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. Two years later the Battle of the White Mountain, a hill to the west of Prague, lasted just two hours but ended with the crushing defeat of the troops of the Bohemian Estates by Emperor Ferdinand II and his allies. This led to the execution of twenty-seven of the leaders of the revolt and the Bohemian Estates being deprived of power.