In 1672, Dutch Prime Minister Johan de Witt suffered one of the most gruesome final hours in history: he was stabbed, forced to resign, and then eaten by his own people. After surviving an assassination attempt, his fate turned into a living nightmare when he was stripped naked, and parts of his body were roasted and eaten.
The Disaster Year of 1672
In the 1600s, Europe was ravaged by war and descended into chaos, with conflicts and assassinations rife. In 1672, the Netherlands, then the Dutch Republic, was at war with England, France, and the two German cities of Cologne and Münster. The year became known as 'Disaster Year' or the Rampjaar, and even had its own slogan: “the people were irrational, the government helpless, and the country beyond salvation.”
The worst was reserved for one man: the Prime Minister himself. Johan de Witt had been one of the few non-royal leaders in Europe for 20 years, according to The Dutch Review. This infuriated the Dutch, who wanted the famous William III of the House of Orange-Nassau, the closest thing the country had to a royal family, to take office.
Assassination and Arrest
Johan was part of a wealthy merchant class, and his family had governed the city of Dordrecht. His brother, Cornelis de Witt, was a highly ranked naval officer and governor of Dordrecht. On June 21, an assassin stabbed the leader, fatally injuring him. A frightened De Witt resigned, but this was not enough for his people.
His brother Cornelis was arrested for treason, taken to a prison in The Hague, and tortured. Torture was commonplace and used to get a confession, right or wrong. Cornelis refused to confess and was sentenced to exile. Johan went to the prison where his brother was staying to help him prepare, but then they were both captured by a militant mob, which shot both of them and left them to the crowds.
The Gruesome Aftermath
The people were still not satisfied. The brothers were stripped naked, mutilated, and had their livers removed and eaten. Their mangled bodies were strung up on the nearby public gibbet. Others even roasted and ate pieces of the corpses, as per some accounts.
The attack was curiously well organised and kept up its pace, leading some to speculate if it was planned, or even orchestrated by the House of Orange. In those days, crowds liked to take a souvenir from public executions, whether it be teeth or fingers.
Today, you can visit the prison where Cornelis was tortured, the Gevangenpoort, which is next to the square where both brothers were killed. There is even a statue of Johan in the place he was killed and eaten by his own people.
