Thread by @BillyBostickson

Historical Curiosities

Assassination of William the Silent

Gérard returned in July 1584 with 2 wheel-lock pistols.

William was having dinner.

After he left and walked downstairs, van Uylenburgh heard Gérard shoot William in the chest at close range.

Gérard fled immediately

Gérard fled through a side door and ran across a narrow lane, pursued by Roger Williams.

Gérard had almost reached the ramparts, from which he intended to jump into the moat. On the other side a saddled horse stood ready.

A pig's bladder around his waist was intended to help keep him afloat. However, he stumbled over a heap of rubbish. A servant and a halberdier of the prince who had raced after him caught him.

At his trial, Gérard was sentenced to be tortured & executed, in a manner considered brutal even by the standards at the time. It was decreed that his right hand should be burned off with a red-hot iron, his flesh should be torn from his bones with pincers in 6 different places

that he should be quartered and disemboweled alive, his heart torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and that, finally, his head should be taken off.[

Gérard's torture was extraordinarily brutal.

On the first night of his imprisonment, Gérard was hung on a pole and lashed with a whip. Next, his wounds were smeared with honey and a goat was brought to lick the honey off his skin with its rough tongue.

The goat, however, refused to touch his body.

he was left to pass the night with his hands and feet bound together, like a ball, so sleep would be difficult. During the following three days, he was repeatedly mocked and hung on a pole with his hands tied behind his back.

Then, a weight of 300 metric pounds (150 kg) was attached to each of his big toes for half an hour.

Subsequently, Gérard was fitted with shoes made of well-oiled, uncured dog skin; the shoes were two fingers shorter than his feet. In this state, he was put before a fire.

When the shoes warmed up, they contracted, crushing the feet inside them to stumps. When the shoes were removed, his half-broiled skin was torn off. After his feet were damaged, his armpits were branded.

He was then dressed in a shirt soaked in alcohol. Lastly, burning bacon fat was poured over him and sharp nails were stuck between the flesh and the nails of his hands and feet.

On 14 July, 4 days after the assassination, the sentence declared at the trial was carried out and Gérard was tortured and executed in the market square of Delft.

His severed head was then displayed on a pike behind the Prinsenhof and his arms and legs displayed on four gates of the city.

On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, peerage and an inheritable estate to anyone who killed or captured William the Silent, to whom he referred in his decree as a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race"

The shooting is notable for being the 1st recorded political assassination of a head of state with a firearm

More than 200 years would pass until another head of state was killed by a firearm, Gustav III, King of Sweden

Animation of Wheellock

arc.id.au/Wheellock.html

The Bullet Holes at Prinsenhof (Delft)

Information mostly culled from Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_t…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II…

Just one episode in the Eighty Years War

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Ye…

For more detail

The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Hand-Gun

harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-a…

Just taking a break from endless yandex ocr translations of tedious WIV "confidential" engineering documents and tenders, essential for my long delayed 5th report.

These gory threads help relieve the boredom ;)

unroll William the Silent @threadreaderapp