question for Pieter and Karl

[Jaga]

Is it true that an angry mob of Dutchmen killed and ate their own prime minister in 1672?

my Polish friends just posted this info in their facebook

[pieter]

Johan de Witt



Johan de Witt (24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672) was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the republic a leading European trading and seafaring power – now commonly referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. De Witt controlled the Dutch political system from around 1650 until shortly before his death in 1672, working with various factions from nearly all the major cities, especially his hometown, Dordrecht, and the hometown of his wife, Amsterdam.


The Murder of Cornelis and Johan de Witt by a Fundamentalist Orangist Calvinist Mob in The Hague, 20 augustus 1672. (Lambert Bos).

As a republican, de Witt opposed the House of Orange-Nassau and the Orangists. He was also strongly liberal, preferring lesser power to the central government and more power to the regenten. However, his negligence of the Dutch land army (as the regents focused only on merchant vessels, thinking they could avoid war) proved disastrous when the Dutch Republic suffered numerous early defeats in the Rampjaar (1672). In the hysteria that followed the effortless invasion by an alliance of three countries, he and his brother Cornelis de Witt were blamed and lynched in The Hague, whereafter rioters partially ate them. The rioters were never prosecuted, and historians have argued that William of Orange may have incited them.


The bodies of the De Witt brothers, hung on the Groene Zoodje on the Vijverberg in The Hague. (Jan de Baen)

[pieter]

Johan De Witt

Dutch statesman



Johan De Witt, (born Sept. 24, 1625, Dordrecht, Neth.—died Aug. 20, 1672, The Hague), one of the foremost European statesmen of the 17th century who as councillor pensionary (the political leader) of Holland (1653–72) guided the United Provinces in the First and Second Anglo-Dutch wars (1652–54, 1665–67) and consolidated the nation’s naval and commercial power.

De Witt was a member of one of the old burgher-regent families of his native town of Dordrecht (Dort). His father, Jacob, was six times burgomaster and for many years sat for the town in the States of Holland. He was a strenuous adherent of the republican or oligarchical States party in opposition to the princes of the House of Orange, who represented the federal principle and had the support of the masses of the people. De Witt was educated at Leiden and early displayed remarkable talents, especially in mathematics and jurisprudence. His Elementa curvarum linearum (written before 1650, but published 1659–61) was one of the first textbooks in analytic geometry. (He later also applied his mathematical knowledge to the financial and budgetary problems of the republic.) In 1645 he and his elder brother Cornelius visited France, Italy, Switzerland, and England, and on his return he lived at The Hague as an advocate.

In 1650 he was appointed pensionary of Dordrecht, which made him the leader of the town’s deputation in the States of Holland. In this year the States of Holland found themselves engaged in a struggle for provincial supremacy, on the question of the disbanding of troops. The youthful prince of Orange, William II, with the support of the States General and the army, seized five of the leaders of the States party and imprisoned them in Loevestein Castle; among these was Jacob De Witt. The sudden death of William, at the moment when he had crushed opposition, led to a reaction. He left only a posthumous child, afterwards William III of Orange; the principles advocated by Jacob De Witt triumphed, and the authority of the States became predominant in the republic.


Johan and Cornelis de Witt

It was his father’s position that gave Johan his opportunity, but his own eloquence, wisdom, and business ability caused him to be appointed councillor pensionary (raadpensionaris) of Holland on July 23, 1653, at 28. He was reelected in 1658, 1663, and 1668 and held office until just before his death in 1672. He found in 1653 his country brought to the brink of ruin through the war with England, and he resolved to bring about peace. He rejected Cromwell’s suggestion of the union of England and Holland, but in 1654 the Treaty of Westminster was concluded, by which the Dutch made large concessions and agreed to the striking of the flag to English ships in the narrow seas. The treaty included a secret article, which the States General refused to entertain, but which De Witt induced the States of Holland to accept, by which the province of Holland pledged itself not to elect a stadtholder or a captain general from the House of Orange. This Act of Seclusion was aimed at the young Prince of Orange, whose close relationship to the Stuarts made him an object of suspicion to Cromwell.

The policy of De Witt after the peace of 1654 was eminently successful. He restored the finances of the country and extended its commercial supremacy in the East Indies. In 1658–59 he sustained Denmark against Sweden, and in 1662 concluded an advantageous peace with Portugal. The accession of Charles II to the English throne led to the rescinding of the Act of Seclusion; nevertheless De Witt steadily refused to allow the Prince of Orange to be appointed stadtholder or captain general. This led to ill will between the English and Dutch governments, and to a renewal of old grievances about maritime and commercial rights, and war broke out in 1665. The councillor pensionary himself went to sea with the fleet, and it was owing to his exertions as an organizer and a diplomat quite as much as to the brilliant seamanship of Admiral De Ruyter that the Treaty of Breda (July 31, 1667), maintaining the status quo, was so honourable to the United Provinces. In 1667 he promulgated his eternal edict for the republican administration of Holland. A still greater triumph of diplomatic skill was the conclusion of the Triple Alliance (Jan. 17, 1668) between the Dutch Republic, England, and Sweden, which checked the attempt of Louis XIV of France to take possession of the Spanish Netherlands in the name of his wife, the infanta Maria Theresa.

In 1672 Louis XIV suddenly declared war and invaded the United Provinces. The voice of the people called William III to the head of affairs, and there were violent demonstrations against Johan De Witt. His brother Cornelius was arrested (July 24) on a charge of conspiring against the Prince. On August 4 Johan De Witt resigned the post of councillor pensionary. Cornelius was put to the torture and on August 19 sentenced to deprivation of his offices and banishment. His brother came to visit him in the Gevangenpoort at The Hague. A vast crowd, hearing this, collected outside and finally burst in, seized the two brothers, and tore them to pieces. Thus perished one of the greatest statesmen of his age and of Dutch history.

[pieter]

Statue of the De Witt brothers in the Dutch city of Dordrecht




Remembrance of the murder of the The Witt Brothers


Statue of Joham de Witt in the Hague


Bust of Johan de Witt (Senate, The Hague).

[pieter]

[pieter]

Commemoration of Johan de Witt

[Jaga]

Pieter, you found an excellent information. Frankly i looked online before posting the question and found info that their bodies were mutiliated butnot eaten. The picture you posted was very graphic. Thanks for finding the video in English explaining it.
Johan de Witt was so talented, he worked on Algebra. That is so sad.

This shows as you said that Dutch are still divided into liberal and conservatist/religious folks.

[pieter]

Jaga,

Yes we do, but it is more pluriform than that Jaga. The left is divided into parties and fractions, the centre (middle) is divided in centre left and centre right political parties, and even in that centre the centre left is divided into the GreenLeft, the Dutch Labour party (Social democrats) and the pragmatic social liberal D66 (who copied a lot from American pragmatism and American liberalism of the Democratic party), and the centre right is divided into the classical liberal and liberal conservative VVD party of prime Minister Mark Rutte and the social conservative Christian Democrats of the CDA party. You could call the Christian Union (ChristenUNie) centre right on social and financial economical policies, but rightwing conservative on biblical, cultural issues. On the right to far right you have the Christian rightwing, Social conservatice, Protestant christian Theocratic and Eurosceptic Reformed Political Party (SGP) and you have the larger Freedom Party of Geert Wilders (far right, which is Dutch nationalist, National liberal, Right-wing populist, Anti-Islam, Anti-immigration and Eurosceptic). Next to the PVV in the rightwing populist corner of the Dutch parliament you have the Forum for Democracy of Thierry Baudet. The Freedom Party (PVV) performed poorly in the 2019 Dutch provincial elections, losing 26 seats, with the Forum for Democracy taking many of its voters.

Forum for Democracy (Dutch: Forum voor Democratie, FvD) is a conservative, right-wing populist Eurosceptic political party in the Netherlands, initially founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet, who has been the party's leader since its founding in late 2016. The party first participated in elections in the 2017 general election, winning two seats in the House of Representatives. In the 2019 provincial elections, FvD won the most number of seats. The Forum voor Democratie (FvD) consists of the elements Dutch nationalism, Conservatism, National conservatism, Social conservatism, Conservative liberalism, Euroscepticism, Climate change denial, Direct democracy, Right-wing populism, E-democracy and Souverainism.

Souverainism (also spelled Souverainisme French: [su.vʁɛ.nism] (About this soundlisten), i.e. the ideology of sovereignty), sovereigntism or sovereignism is a doctrine which supports acquiring or preserving political independence of a nation or a region. It opposes federalism and supranational unions, leaning instead toward confederation or isolationism, and can be associated with certain independence movements.

On the left you have the Socialist Party, which is a Democratic socialist (Bernie Sanders like), Social democratic, Left-wing populist and Soft Eurosceptic political party on the left.

Nexit



Dutch withdrawal from the European Union (colloquially "Nexit", a term composed of "Netherlands" and "exit") refers to the possibility that the Netherlands might leave the European Union.

Polling

A poll by the Pew Research Center in June 2016, conducted before the British referendum, found 51% of the Dutch respondents to have a positive view of the European Union and 46% a negative view. Another poll by peil.nl in the aftermath of the British referendum found 50% of Dutch respondents to be against a similar referendum in their country, with 46% of respondents in favour of remaining in the EU compared to 43% against remaining.

Political initiatives

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the possibility of a referendum "utterly irresponsible". Political parties advocating a referendum on European Union membership are the right-wing populist Party for Freedom, Forum for Democracy, as well as the Socialist Party and 50PLUS.

The Dutch government



Our present government is a coalition government of the conservative liberal centre right VVD party, the centre left Social liberal D66 party, the social conservative centre right Christian Democrats of the CDA party (comparable to Angela Merkels CDU) and the social conservative christian party and biblical party, the ChristianUnion. Christians of all denominations vote for the ChristianUnion (ChristenUnie in Dutch), because they see the party as a represenative of the gospel, biblical testamony party, a representative of Christian Netherlands (more than the CDA, who also attracts secular social conservatives and put less amphasis on the Gospel), and thus Conservative Reformed Calvinist Christians, conservative Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Evangelicals, Baptists, Methodists and Orthodox Christians vote for the Christian Union. In Arnhem the leader of the Christian Union is a Greek Orthodox christian, who was a Calvinist christian in his previous life. Many conservative Roman-Catholics switched from the CDA to the protestant ChristianUnion, because they see the ChristianUnion as a testamony, biblical and real christian party. Due to the support of these bible true Conservative Dutch Roman Catholics the ChristianUion grew in power and therefor is a member of the present government coalition. Ofcourse the 'christian' parties CDA and ChristenUnion have some bond, because in both parties Protestant (Calvinist) and Roman Catholic politicians are active. The CDA is more pragmatic, slightly more secular, but also still a real Christian Democratic party like you have the CDU, CSU in Germany, the Kristendemokraterne in Denmark and CD&V (Christian Democratic and Flemish) in Belgium and the Union of the Centre (Italian: Unione di Centro, UdC) in Italy.


The Ministers of the VVD-D66-CDA-ChristenUnie Dutch government coalition

Today this lynching mob would consists probably PVV and SGP people and some Dutch Hooligans of Ado The Hague soccer club, and some low lives, like these lynching people on that dreadfull day 20 August 1672. Johan de Witt and Cornelis de Witt were murdered by Monarchist Organgists. This is a black stain in the book of Dutch history. These 2 brothers were talented, great and responsible men.

Cheers,
Pieter

P.S.- I have removed the Libertarian Party from the Wikipedia information in English, because I as a Dutchman have never heard of the Libertarian Party and have to say that this party plays no role in the Dutch politics whatsoever. I follow the Dutch national quality media and press daily. We have to be critical what sources we use. I respect Wikipedia, but putting the 'unknown' Libertarian party next to the Socialist Party and 50PLUS is irresponsible. The Socialist Party and 50PLUS are political parties that are represented in parliament, in the senate, have representatives in the 12 provinces and councillors in local muncipalities. The 50PLUS indirect via Parties for the elderly in muncipalities and provinces, but that is an alliance that exists, and the local and regional parties support the 50PLUS party in the National elections. The Socialist party is represented on the local (muncipality), regional (provincial), national (the parliament and the senate) and European level in the European parliament.

[pieter]

"Disaster year": 1672

For the Dutch Republic, 1672 proved calamitous. It became known as the Rampjaar ("disaster year"), because in the Franco-Dutch War and the Third Anglo-Dutch War the Netherlands was invaded by France and its allies: England, Münster, and Cologne. Although the Anglo-French fleet was disabled by the Battle of Solebay, in June the French army quickly overran the provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht. On 14 June, William withdrew with the remnants of his field army into Holland, where the States had ordered the flooding of the Dutch Water Line on 8 June. Louis XIV of France, believing the war was over, began negotiations to extract as large a sum of money from the Dutch as possible. The presence of a large French army in the heart of the Republic caused a general panic, and the people turned against De Witt and his allies.

On 4 July, the States of Holland appointed William stadtholder, and he took the oath five days later. The next day, a special envoy from Charles II, Lord Arlington, met William in Nieuwerbrug and presented a proposal from Charles. In return for William's capitulation to England and France, Charles would make William Sovereign Prince of Holland, instead of stadtholder (a mere civil servant). When William refused, Arlington threatened that William would witness the end of the Republic's existence. William answered famously: "There is one way to avoid this: to die defending it in the last ditch." On 7 July, the inundations were complete and the further advance of the French army was effectively blocked. On 16 July, Zeeland offered the stadtholdership to William.


William III (Dutch: Willem; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s and King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 until his death. Popular histories usually refer to his joint reign with his wife, Queen Mary II, as that of William and Mary. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is sometimes informally known as "King Billy" in Northern Ireland and Scotland, where his victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by Unionists and Ulster loyalists.

Johan de Witt had been unable to function as Grand Pensionary after being wounded by an attempt on his life on 21 June. On 15 August, William published a letter from Charles, in which the English king stated that he had made war because of the aggression of the De Witt faction. The people thus incited, De Witt and his brother, Cornelis, were brutally murdered by an Orangist civil militia in The Hague on 20 August. Subsequently, William replaced many of the Dutch regents with his followers.


Recapture of Naarden by William of Orange in 1673

Though William's complicity in the lynching has never been proved (and some 19th-century Dutch historians have made an effort to disprove that he was an accessory) he thwarted attempts to prosecute the ringleaders, and even rewarded some, like Hendrik Verhoeff, with money, and others, like Johan van Banchem and Johan Kievit, with high offices. This damaged his reputation in the same fashion as his later actions at Glencoe.

William continued to fight against the invaders from England and France, allying himself with Spain and Brandenburg. In November 1672, he took his army to Maastricht to threaten the French supply lines. By 1673, the Dutch situation further improved. Although Louis took Maastricht and William's attack against Charleroi failed, Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter defeated the Anglo-French fleet three times, forcing Charles to end England's involvement by the Treaty of Westminster; after 1673, France slowly withdrew from Dutch territory (with the exception of Maastricht), while making gains elsewhere.


William III

[karl]

Jaga and Pieter


In the matter of the death of the Brothers Witt and their being eaten. This bit of history is some thing I was not ware of until you had introduced the question of which Pieter has so well responded of.

Thank you Pieter for your very well response with such very excellently presented history of this long past event.. Now Thnaks to both your self and Jaga, my self am more educated on this historic event..

Karl