Jan Mydlář

Jan Mydlář (German Johann Seifenmacher ), (* 1572 ; † March 15, 1664 in Prague ) was an executioner in Prague in the 17th century. He became famous after the class uprising for his execution against Bohemian nobles in 1621.

The execution of the Bohemian rebels on a contemporary leaflet.

The executed men were all Protestants except for one Catholic . They had united in an uprising against the Habsburg Matthias . On June 21, 1621, 27 men were executed in the Old Town Square between 5 and 9 a.m. 24 of them were beheaded and 3 were hanged . Jan Mydlář, who was a Utraquist himself , took four hours and four swords to execute . He calculated a sum of 584 shock Meissner groschen for himself and his helpers . The royal governor Karl von Lichtenstein even paid him 634 shock, roughly the equivalent of a town house.

The heads of twelve executed persons and the right hand of Count Joachim Andreas von Schlick , one of the most important leaders of the uprising, were nailed to the Old Town Tower of the Charles Bridge , where they remained for ten years as a deterrent. The executions were unprecedented, not only because of the large number, but because the convicts were of high social standing from Bohemian society. Among those executed were Christoph Harant von Polschitz and Weseritz and Kaspar Cappleri de Sulewicz . The executions were followed by reprisals against Protestants in Bohemia .

Mydlář is a main character in a novel by Josef Svátek . In this story, the young Mydlář became an executioner because of an unfortunate love affair, shortly before graduating from medical school.

literature

• Josef Petráň: Staroměstská exekuce . 4th edition, Rodiče, Praha 2004, ISBN 80-86695-44-1 , pp. 10-15.

Web links

• Literature and other media by and about Jan Mydlář in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic