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)
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

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 🆓

Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 🆓 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @BillyBostickson

Jan 16,
1. What's up with @WHO SAGO?

"WHO wants SAGO to also examine the possibility of a laboratory accident being responsible for the emergence of SARS-CoV-2"

(December, 2021)

thelancet.com/journals/lanin…
2. The Problem via @Ayjchan
"The question now is how do we make sure the next phase of @WHO #OriginOfCovid isn't subject to more of these pressures coming from parties with reasonably perceived conflicts of interest
Was its SAGO membership also determined under these influences?
3. Example via @DavidLRobrtson of @robertson_lab

"the focus should be on the most realistic scenario for the emergence of the virus: infected animals in markets in Wuhan"

“WHO has to stop wasting time pandering to unsubstantiated lab leak notions”

thelancet.com/journals/lanin… Image
Read 14 tweets
Jan 15,
Charles Bronson Solutions

People Forced To Live In Metal Boxes Under China's Zero Covid Rule

ndtv.com/world-news/peo…

Millions of chinese people are living in covid quarantine camps now!

2022/1/9

Read 7 tweets
Jan 12,
About some "BIG" conspiracies

It's human nature to conspire

Fuck them, they are all going to die anyway (fact)

A shroud has no pockets (fact)

A new generation will be dancing on their rotting skulls

That's my philosophy lately

Bit grim but helps put things in perspective
not saying they may not be "true"

but i prefer to focus on the little conspiracies of silence and the conspiracies of sod's law.
Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have
And pays us but with age and dust

WALTER RALEIGH, the night before his death

History hath triumphed over time, which beside it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.

Preface, History of the World
Read 24 tweets
Jan 12,
1. The remaining documents are held by Major Murphy

"EcoHealth Alliance response to the PREEMPT BAA is placed along with other proposal documents in the PREEMPT folder on DARPA Biological Technologies office JWICS share drive, address"

Network/filer/BTO/CI Folder/PREEMPT
2. "Pushed the files off-site"
3. Tick-Tock
Read 8 tweets
Jan 11,
Project Veritas Leak?
PV published DRASTIC's redacted version of the DARPA rejection letter with no credit
assets.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/5…
PV thought it was the original
We redacted it to avoid revealing author's name & provenance of the document
See here:
drasticresearch.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/defuse…
After @CharlesRixey discussed releasing the documents in their entirety with the source, we later published the unredacted DARPA rejection letter:
drasticresearch.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/hr0011…
All documents can be found here and were not leaked by the @theintercept as claimed by PV. Not PV's fault but rather the lack of respect from @theintercept specifically @fastlerner @maiahibbett who posted on document cloud without our permission
drasticresearch.org/2021/09/21/the…
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(