That One Time That the Dutch People Ate Their Prime Minister

AtAtthe end of the evening on the 20th of August 1672, the brothers De Witt were brutally murdered and even eaten by the Dutch people. This double murder is one of the most memorable murders in Dutch history.

How could such a brutal event happen in the quiet country of the Netherlands? In this article, I’ll tell you why and how it happened.

The Role of Johan de Witt and Willem van Oranje

In 1667, the province of Holland decided to abolish the stadtholdership under the lead of Johan de Witt to make sure that Prince Willem van Oranje (Willem III), who was the only legitime son of Willem II, couldn’t follow his father as a stadtholder.

The other provinces didn’t feel like doing the same thing as Holland did. They didn’t want to abolish the stadtholdership, and the then-popular Orangists wanted to make the Prince Commander in Chief of the Seven United Netherlands.

The brothers De Witt opposed this decision and came with a compromise, which stated that they wanted to make Willem III captain-general for one battle.

On February 24, 1672, the 21-year-old prince was appointed captain-general for one campaign, on the condition that this position remained incompatible with that of stadtholder.

The Year of Disasters, 1672

1672 would go down as the year of disasters in the Netherlands, but why? This year began with a military incident in the Channel on March 23, 1672. Despite a military alliance with England from 1668 concluded against France — the English stopped a squadron, the Smyrna Fleet, of 70 Dutch ships and shelled the fleet.

On the 27th of March, the King of England, Charles II, declared war on the Netherlands. The pressure on Johan increased even more after the declaration of war on April 6, 1672, by King Louis XIV of France, followed a little later by that of the Bishop of Munster and the Archbishop of Cologne.

The Republic of the Netherlands was on fire from all sides, but they had an ironclad war fleet and were able to repel a combined sea attack from England and France.

However, the army on the ground was completely neglected and couldn’t stand a chance, and many cities and regions had surrendered in the East of the Netherlands.

Johan De Witt saw this surrendering as an attempt of treason and made the polders flood. Soon, the population would panic and saw this as treason by the government towards them.

“Het volk was redeloos, het land reddeloos en de regering radeloos.”

— Dutch Saying

This basically means that the people were unreasonable, the country unsavable, and the government was desperate.

The States-General, against the wishes of De Witt, entered into peace negotiations with France, but the people also saw this as treason and blamed De Witt.

The Murder Attempt

The first attempted homicide took place on the 21st of June in 1672. Johan was walking to his house after his work at “Het Binnenhof.” He had his servant walk in front of him, and around 11–12 PM, suddenly, out of the bushes, they were attacked by strangers.

The strangers extinguished the lights and attacked them. De Witt and his servant fiercely resisted. De Witt was wounded in the neck, fell, injuring his head. When he was on the ground, the young men stabbed him twice with a knife.

Around the same hour, there was an unsuccessful attack on his brother in another city (Dordrecht).

Johan survived the stabbing but was not out of danger until July 12 and was forced to stay in bed until August 1 to recover.

One of the attackers on Johan was recognized and was later arrested. He stated that the murder plan had been devised on the day of execution and that there was no connection with the assassination attempt on Cornelis (De Witt). Everyone found the latter unbelievable.

The young man, of high descent, was executed a week after the attack following a quick trial.

Treason Charges Against Cornelis de Witt.

On July 23, Willem Tichelaar, a shady barber surgeon, told the court that Cornelis de Witt had offered him 30,000 guilders on July 8 to murder Willem III.

At the same time, now that William III was a stadholder, Johan saw the futility of his own position as grand pensionary, and he resigned on August 4th. With that, he no longer had political power, and he had become a regular citizen.

The people closely followed the investigation against Cornelis. On August 15, rumors circulated that Cornelis had wanted to escape or had been released. An angry crowd gathered at the Prison Gate.

The judges, fearful that something would be done to them, decided to place Cornelis by the window of his cell to show the people he was still there.

Cornelis’s defense began to show weaknesses after it became clear that he had met Tichelaar before, which Cornelis had denied.

At the time, guilt could only be proven if the suspect had confessed. In fact, the judges wanted to declare Cornelis guilty — at least three even wanted to give him the death penalty — but since they couldn’t prove his murder plan, they were legally unable to do so.

He was subsequently convicted without disclosing what for, on August 20th. Since the death penalty was not possible, Cornelis was banned from the province of Holland for life. He lost all his official functions and paid the costs of the proceedings.

The Double Murder of the De Witt Brothers

In the morning at the day of the murder, many posters and pamphlets were placed throughout The Hague, which called for murder on the De Witt Brothers.

Johan de Witt was then lured into a trap with the announcement that his brother wanted to see him.

The warden’s maid was sent to pick him up. His housemates thought it suspicious that a regent like Cornelis had sent a simple maid with a message to his brother’s house, but Johan dismissed all objections.

Upon arrival, two gunmen were on guard at the entrance. Other than that, there was no one around.

Murder of Cornelis and Johan de Witt, The Hague, 20 August 1672. Lambert Bos: Schauplatz des Krieges.

After half an hour, Johan wanted to leave the prison, which was made impossible for him by a large crowd.

At the end of the afternoon, agitated, drunken, and enraged shooters entered the prison and dragged the brothers out. It is generally assumed that Admiral Cornelis Tromp gave the signal for the storm.

The intention was to kill the brothers at the Groene Zoodje. Cornelis was stabbed several times, and his brother was injured with a spike in the head. Then he got shot from behind in the head with a pistol. The work was finished with knives by the butcher.

The Mutilation of the Bodies

After their death, the corpses were then completely undressed and hung upside down from the seesaw on the Groene Zoodje. They were then ripped open. Toes, fingers, thumbs, ears, noses, lips, tongues, and hands were cut off.

Their bodies were beaten by people walking by, and the intestines were taken out and fed to the dogs, and some people even ate them themselves.

The bodies were also castrated. A dead cat was placed between Cornelis’ legs. Also, their hearts were cut out and have been on display in pots of turpentine oil for years.