Five Brothers and a War

History—1500 to 1600 AD

Ultimately, he was successful and was forever heralded as the founder of free Holland. Through his life, his religious affiliation reflected his changing allegiance. He started out being German, and therefore Lutheran. He then converted to Catholicism, while he was attached to the Holy Roman Empire and therefore the Spanish. He ended being very much Dutch, and Calvinist. With the strident and intolerant actions of many Calvinists, the strongly Catholic southern provinces broke away from Willem and kept their Spanish allegiance—something that would remain until 1797. Willem was declared an outlaw by the Spanish King Philip II, and a large bounty was put on his head. He was assassinated in 1584 by a Philip loyalist, Frenchman, Balthasar Gérard, in Delft. This has been recorded as the first assassination by handgun. Gérard was sentenced to a death that was indicative of the level of hostility he aroused in the Dutch. The hand he used to kill Willem was burned off with a red-hot iron. Then his flesh was ripped from his bones with pincers. Then he was quartered and disemboweled while still alive, at which point his heart was torn out and thrown in his face. Finally, he was beheaded. Up to this point, the members of the House of Orange were buried in Breda, located in the south of Holland. However, as this city was part of the Catholic sector, and was under the control of the Spanish, Willem’s burial began a new tradition of being buried in the so called Nieuwe Kerk (“New Church”) in Delft.

holland

The Nieuwe Kerk, in Delft. While its name is “New Church”, it dates to a 1396 AD groundbreaking and completion exactly one century later.

Five Brothers and a War

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