The 'Father of the Netherlands': visiting the scene of an assassination

William the Silent, who led the Dutch Revolt against Catholic Spain in the sixteenth century, is often known as the 'Father of the Netherlands'.  

I had written about his murder in my book Assassins' Deeds (Reaktion). How a fanatical Catholic named Balthasar Gerard had wormed his way into the Protestant William's confidence. How on 10 July 1584, Gerard had gone on an errand to the Dutch leader's house in Delft, and waited while William had lunch with his family. And how Gerard hid beneath a staircase and then, as William emerged, shot him dead at point blank range. 

So it was sobering and intriguing to stand on the very spot where this dramatic assassination happened. William's house is now the Prinsenhof Museum (pictured), and the hallway and staircase clearly recognisable from the accounts I had read.

Gerard tried to get away, but was caught and executed brutally. The Netherlands would have to fight on until 1648 to gain their independence in what became known as the Eighty Years War.

Another historic explosion - Delft 1654

Watched an excellent programme by Andrew Graham-Dixon about the artist Jan Vermeer on BBC-4 the other night, and learned about a huge explosion that had previously escaped my attention.    In 1654, 30 tons of gunpowder were being stored in a former convent in the painter’s home town of Delft. 

On the morning of October 12, the keeper of the magazine opened the store to check a sample of powder.   For reasons we do not know, the whole thing blew up.   Fortunately, many local people were away at a market in Schiedam and a fair in The Hague.

Even so more than 100 people were killed, and thousands injured.   According to an account written 13 years later, the explosion happened with ‘such a horrible rush and force, that the arch of heaven seemed to crack and to burst, the whole earth to split, and hell to open its jaws.’

All that was left of the store was a crater fifteen feet deep, while buildings were flattened for ‘hundreds of feet’ around.     More than 200 houses were destroyed, and 300 seriously damaged.