1609 Rudolfův majestát

This memorial in Dačice commemorates the Letter of Majesty issued by Emperor Rudolf II on 9 July 1609, one of the most significant documents of early-modern religious history in Central Europe. The charter granted Protestant estates of the Bohemian Crown the right to freely practice their faith — a remarkable concession co-signed by Supreme Burgrave Adam von Sternberg for the estates and imperial secretary Paul Michna. The document's impact proved short-lived: the Habsburgs revoked it in 1618, an act widely regarded as a direct trigger of the Thirty Years' War. The memorial preserves the memory of this proto-constitutional guarantee of religious liberty, placing it among the early milestones of the freedom of conscience in European history.