by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On July 10, 1584, 51-year-old Willem I the Silent, Prince of Orange was shot and killed by Balthasar Gérard, who acted on King Philip II of Spain’s offer of 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed Willem.

Willem I the Silent, Prince of Orange

In the Netherlands, Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange is known as the Vader des Vaderlands (Father of the Fatherland), and the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, was written in his honor. He got his nickname “the Silent” (in Dutch De Zwijger) not because he was quiet, but because of his habit to hold his tongue in difficult situations. Willem is the founder of the House of Orange-Nassau and the ancestor of the Dutch monarchs, the British monarchs from King George I forward and other European royal families.

Born in 1533, Willem was the eldest of the twelve children of Willem, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg and his second wife Juliana of Stolberg-Wernigerode. Willem was being raised as a Lutheran but when he was eleven years old, his childless cousin René of Châlon, Prince of Orange died and left the Principality of Orange to Willem. Willem would receive land in present-day France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. However, Charles V, Lord of the Netherlands and Holy Roman Emperor, attached the condition that eleven-year-old Willem would convert to Roman Catholicism and receive a Roman Catholic education. Because of the immense inheritance, Willem would receive, his parents agreed.

As a young man, Willem served at the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Brussels and became a confidant of Charles. When Charles V abdicated, his younger brother Ferdinand became the Holy Roman Emperor and received Charles’ Austrian lands. The Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son King Philip II of Spain.

In 1559, Philip appointed Willem stadtholder (governor) of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht (all in the present-day Netherlands) which greatly increased his political power. Willem had been brought up as a Lutheran but had converted to Roman Catholicism. However, he was a strong proponent of freedom of religion and was increasingly disturbed by the persecution of Protestants by the Catholic Spaniards in the Netherlands. In addition, Willem wanted to see the end of Spanish troops in the Netherlands.

In 1568 the Netherlands, led by Willem, revolted against Philip II. This disagreement eventually caused the Eighty Years War which resulted in the independence of the northern United Provinces in 1581. The United Provinces, also known as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation of seven provinces, now in the present-day Netherlands, which had their own governments and were very independent.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: Willem I the Silent, Prince of Orange

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Roots of the Assassination

In 1573, Willem left the Roman Catholic Church and became a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, a Calvinist reformed religion that followed the practices of John Calvin. He was declared an outlaw in 1580 by Philip II, who called Willem “a pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race.” Philip offered 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed Willem. Willem responded with a document, Apology, which defended his actions, attacked Philip II, and restated his allegiance to the Protestant reform religion.

On March 18, 1582, Juan de Jáuregui, a Spaniard, attempted to assassinate Willem. Willem was severely wounded but survived due to the care of his third wife Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier and his sister Maria. Unfortunately, while William slowly recovered, Charlotte became exhausted from providing intensive care and died.

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The Assassin

Balthasar Gérard was born circa 1557 in Vuillafans, Franche-Comté, in eastern France. He was the ninth of eleven children from a strict Roman Catholic family. The struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants in those years did not affect Franche-Comté but nevertheless, it aroused Gérard ‘s anger. He firmly believed in the cause of the Catholic Church and in King Philip II of Spain and regarded Willem the Silent as a traitor. Gérard studied law at the University of Dole. He then worked in Dole as a clerk at the Registry of the Court and as secretary to Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, Governor of Luxembourg.

When Gérard heard of King Philip’s offer of 25,000 crowns to kill Willem the Silent, he decided he would be the one to kill Willem. He served in the army of his former employer Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, for two years, hoping to get close to Willem when the armies met. This never happened, and Gérard left the army in 1584. He then went to the Duke of Parma to present his plans for the assassination but the Duke was unimpressed. In May 1584, Gérard presented himself to Willem as François Guyon, a Protestant nobleman who had fled from France and wanted to join Willem. Gérard showed Willem forged letters with the seal of Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort and gained Willem’s trust.

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The Assassination

On Sunday, July 8, 1584, Gérard loitered in the courtyard of the Prinsenhof, the royal palace in Delft, examining the premises. The next day he purchased two wheel-lock pistols from a soldier. Gérard went to the Prinsenhof at noon on Tuesday, July 10, 1584, with the announcement that he wanted to speak to Willem. He was told that Willem was at lunch and would speak to him afterward. Gérard went to his inn to get the pistols and then returned to the Prinsenhof. By that time, Willem had finished his lunch and made his way to the stairs to his second-floor chamber where he worked and slept. Gérard, who had been hiding behind a pillar, jumped out and fired two shots, hitting Willem in the chest at close range. Willem collapsed and died instantly.

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What happened to Balthasar Gérard?

Balthasar Gérard fled the Prinsenhof, chased by soldiers and servants. He climbed over the city wall but before he could jump into the water he was caught. He was imprisoned and made a long written statement at his own request about his motives. He was interrogated that same day but did not give much information.

Gérard was brutally tortured. During the first night of his imprisonment, Gérard was hung on a pole and whipped. His wounds were covered with honey so that a goat would lick his skin with its shape tongue and scrape the skin away but the goat was uncooperative. Gérard’s hands and feet were then bound together to make his sleep difficult.

During the next three days, Gérard was hung on a pole with his hands tied behind his back. Then a 330-pound (150 kg) was attached to his big toes for thirty minutes. After the thirty minutes, Gérard was fitted with too-small shoes made of oiled, uncured leather and then he was placed before a fire. When the shoes warmed up, they contracted, crushing his feet. The shoes were removed and his broiled skin was torn off. Next, torches were held under his armpits and he was then dressed in a shirt soaked in alcohol. Burning bacon fat was poured over him and sharp nails were stuck between the flesh and the nails of his hands and feet. Gérard is said to have remained calm during his torture and refused to answer any questions.

Gérard’s trial was held on July 13, 1584. To make an example of him, he was sentenced to an extremely cruel execution. On July 14, 1584, Gérard was executed. His right hand, which committed the crime, was burned off with a red-hot iron. His flesh was torn from his bones with pincers in six different places. He was quartered and disemboweled alive. His heart torn from his chest and thrown in his face, and finally, he was beheaded.

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Willem the Silent’s Funeral and Burial

Willem had been planned to be buried at the Grote Kerk in Breda, where the House of Orange was traditionally buried, but Breda was under Spanish control. Instead, Willem was buried in the Old Crypt at the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in Delft, located in South Holland (Zuid-Holland), now in the Netherlands. His memorial was originally very modest but it was replaced in 1623 by a new one, made by Hendrik de Keyser and his son Pieter. Since then, most of the members of the House of Orange-Nassau, including all Dutch kings, queens, and consorts, have been buried in the same church in the royal vault whose entrance, sealed by a large stone cover with four brass rings, is behind the tomb of Willem the Silent. Willem’s fourth wife Louise de Coligny was buried with him.

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Aftermath

Balthasar Gérard’s parents claimed the 25,000 crowns (around 3,000,000 euros or 3,240,000 US dollars) that King Philip II of Spain had promised the murderer of Willem the Silent. However, Philip II could not afford to pay that amount of money. Instead, Philip II gave Gérard’s parents three country estates in Lievremont, Hostal, and Dampmartin in the Franche-Comté, and the family was raised to the peerage. The estates remained with the Gérard family.

Sasbout Vosmeer, the first apostolic vicar to the Dutch Mission, the Roman Catholic missionary district in the Dutch Republic, obtained the head of Balthasar Gérard and kept it in Cologne. He took it to Rome in a failed attempt to have Gérard canonized as a saint.

The village of Vuillafans, France renamed the street where Balthasar Gérard was born “Rue Gérard” in his memory.

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Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Balthasar Gérard. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar_G%C3%A9rard [Accessed 24 Feb. 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2020). William the Silent. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent [Accessed 24 Feb. 2020].
• Flantzer, Susan. (2018). Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/willem-i-the-silent-prince-of-orange/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2020].
• Nl.wikipedia.org. (2020). Balthasar Gerards. [online] Available at: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar_Gerards [Accessed 24 Feb. 2020].
• Nl.wikipedia.org. (2020). Willem van Oranje. [online] Available at: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Oranje [Accessed 24 Feb. 2020].