Murder most foul -thread.
1. #Onthisday in 1584, William of Orange, the "father of the fatherland" was murdered in Delft, in what is today Museum Prinsenhof, a former convent. William was the so-called leader of the insurrection against the Spanish oppressors.
2 This is how the Amsterdam catholic painter Dirck Barendsz. saw him. The portrait was painted in William's lifetime, but I doubt the protestant leader sat for it. A calculating, cold man Barendsz shows, not the magnanimous leader Adriaen Key paints. 16th century spin doctors.
3 Here, on 10 July 1584, William the Silent, Prince of Orange, was shot by Balthasar Gerards when he stepped out of his diningroom and crossed the hall at the bottom of these stairs after lunch. William died almost instantaneously.
4 The murderer was a French fundamentalist, Balthasar Gérard. He lived for one purpose only: to kill the arch enemy of his religion, catholicism. In Delft, he took up lodgings in an inn and weaseld his way into William's entourage so that he could get close without problems.
From his confession:
“... I bought two pistols and after loading them I shot today with the pistol that had two bullets, on the stomach of the prince of Orange and by resistance from his halberdiers I didn’t get the chance to fire the second shot, which grieves me very much.”
6 The autopsy was carried out by the Prince's personal physician, Pieter van Foreest, assisted by Cornelis Buysen. Their mentions that, after being hit, William "shortly thereafter invoked the name of the Lord twice with a few words" and then died.
7 Almost immediately after the murder of the head of state, William of Orange, in 1584, the States General of Holland published an official account of the event to prevent rumours. It is entitled "Cort verhael" (Brief story):
8 "The Prince, feeling that he had been hit, didn't say anything but these words […], and he began to stagger, but one of his pages held him and sat him on the stairs right there where he did not speak more than […]." The essential bits are dots! Why!
9 William's famous dying words which every Dutch schoolchild used to know, seem to have been an afterthought? They were scribbled in the margin of the minutes of the meeting of the States General that same day. Possibly his son and successor Maurits came up with them.
10 Mon dieu ayez pitie de mon ame […] Mon Dieu ayez pitie de ce pauvre peuple’ (my God have pity on my soul [...] My God have pity on those poor people" (he didn't speak Dutch) - which is just what you'd like a leader to have said ...
11 Because of the cost of war and uncertain times, William was first laid to rest on a catafalque surrounded by rather dreary curtains in Delft's Nieuwe Kerk to the chagrin of his widow, Louise de Coligny.
12 It wasn't until the 12 Year Truce with Spain, more than 25 years after the murder, that money was found for a more suitable monument, designed by Hendrick de Keyser. It soon became a tourist attraction and remains so today.
13 FINIS!
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