In one of the most brutal European history chapters, and during the Dutch golden age, which gave the world the art of the great Dutch painter Rambrant and the innovation of the microscope (microscope), an unusual crime occurred that is still a rare and irony.
On August 20, 1672, a mob -mob in The Hague killed and rescued the Dutch Prime Minister, Johan de Witt, and his brother Cornellis. The crowd was not satisfied with that. To write the chapters of a horrific story about the collapse of the regime, the anger of the masses, and the end of the political era in the bloodiest way.
When the Netherlands turned against itself
The story began in 1672, which was engraved by the Dutch in their memory in the name of “the year of disaster”. After decades of prosperity in its golden age, the Dutch Republic suddenly found itself in an existential crisis. The country was attacked by a coordinator of major European powers, and France was able to seize vast areas of its territory within weeks. As the enemies advanced, the economy collapsed, and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange witnessed a major collapse, and the country’s panic.
In the midst of this chaos, the population turned against their government. They looked for a scapegoat, and found it in the person of the Prime Minister, Johan de Wett.
De Wett, who descended from a ruling bourgeois family, represented the “State Party”, a rich oligarchy bloc that ruled the Republic. He has achieved great success since he took office in 1653 when he was 28 years old, as he reorganized the country’s financial affairs and expanded its commercial superiority. However, his main policy was to keep the position of “General Ruler” (Head of State with heredity) vacant, to prevent the rise of the Uruguine family princes to power.
On the other hand, William III, Prince of Orange, who was looking at him as “the man of the people” and the hero of the nation. His supporters, known as the Organists, were seeing the only rescue of the military disaster, and sought to return him to the authority that his father was excluded under a previous treaty. In light of the military defeats, the conflict between the two factions was fueling, and the publications and false news campaigns played a major role in fueling the street anger against the Di Witt.
A conspiracy in the port prison
The end began to be formed in June 1672, when Johan de Wet was subjected to an assassination attempt that he survived with difficulty, which prompted him to resign from his post after two months. But his opponents were not satisfied with that. His brother, Cornellis, was arrested on a fabricated charge, which is planning to assassinate William III.
The attack on the two brothers was buried with a continuous torrent of malicious propaganda, which they claimed were corrupt and conspiring with the enemies of the Republic. On the day of the crime, Johan was lured to visit his brother in his cell in the “GEVANGENPORT” prison in The Hague, at the request of the jailer maid. It was a tight trap.
When Johann tried to leave the prison, an angry crowd was waiting for him abroad. At a decisive moment, the Knights Regiment, which was supposed to protect the prison gate. The Organians surrounded the place, and unleashed the anger of its men.
The militia men stormed the prison gate, and they withdrew the two brothers de Watt to the street. Cornellis died immediately affected by strikes from rifles and stabs. As for Johan, he was stabbed on his face with a spear before he ended a bullet in his head.
But the raging crowd has not yet ended. Their bodies were stripped of their clothes, shed, and two, and then commented on the public gallows. The militia men cut their hands and feet, their ears and noses, and their genitals. At the height of collective madness, parts of their bodies were eaten, including their inbathing.
Dark legacy
This horrific assassination formed a decisive end for the first Republic period. William III seized power as a general ruler, and a new era began. As for the prison that witnessed this tragedy, it was converted into a historical museum that still exists today, and visitors can enter it and see the place where it arranged the end of the tragic prime minister.
This double crime is one of the strangest events in Dutch history. In the Hague Historical Museum, it still displays a tongue and finger, it is said that they are returning to the Di Witt, as a silent witness on the brutality of that day.
Later, many have become looking at Johann and Cornellis de Witt as two victims of political mob and intolerance, and their story is now used as a warning of the danger of the collapse of the democratic system under the pressure of the masses and political violence.
Inscriptions on meat and bone
After the massacre, a paper was found on which verses were written by poetic lament, as if it were a final testimony of what happened. The poem, titled “Inscriptions of the two brothers de Wett, 1672”: says:
At the gates of The Hague, souls are lost
And the wisdom is assassinated in the morning
Justice fell into the blood of the rulers
The people became a sword of spears
They were the voice of reason in the time of madness
They are Nuran on the night of suspicions
They carried the ruling without crown or horses
And build a country, please and preserve
But the mobs when it revolts
Her children eat without feeling
From the cracks of ignorance, the monster comes out
And it is swallowed by the light of the path with light
O Cornellis, Johann
I did not betray you except the homelands
The people did not deserve your dream
He sold justice to the altar at prices
Let history write with nails
Neither ink, nor with pens
An inscription on meat and bone
That death was the noblest of peace