Born into a none-too-wealthy noble family at the castle Klanovy in the south of Bohemia, Kryštof Harant received a thorough and broadly inspiring upbringing and education at the Innsbruck court of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. There, he acquired a wide range of knowledge, learned several languages, absorbed the essentials of Humanism and Renaissance, and last but not least, was instructed in the art of musical composition. He stay at Innsbruck gave the young nobleman an orientation which determined his subsequent lifepath. Apart from that influence, though, Harant was doubtless endowed with natural talent for a good many areas of activity, his creative and restless spirit driving him ever to the forefront of his contemporaries. Active as a man of letters, artist and musician, he was an equally accomplished explorer, sportsman, hunter and soldier. Perhaps the only thing Harant lacked was property. That was apparently also the cause of his modest official career, a sphere where he actually received his due only at the dramatic time of the Estates revolt, with tragic effect. (He was put to the sword with along 26 leading representatives of the Estates.)