The Dutch Prime Minister Who Was Eaten

Podcast Transcript

On August 20, 1672, one of the most shocking moments in Dutch political history took place.

Actually, it is one of the most shocking moments in world political history.

The man who was perhaps the most important political figure in the Dutch Republic was murdered by a mob of Dutch citizens…and then eaten.

The events that led up to this were some of the most significant in the history of the Netherlands.

Learn more about Johan de Witt and his unlikely gastronomical demise on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Before I get to the main course of this episode, I need to start with some appetizers.

The murder of Johan de Witt was the culmination of several large-scale political trends that the Netherlands experienced in the 17th century. It didn’t happen randomly, and it didn’t take place in a vacuum.

In the 17th century, the Netherlands was a republic. The largest and only major republic in Europe at the time. Known as the The United Provinces of the Netherlands, it was established in the 16th century when seven provinces controlled by Spain rebelled against Spanish rule and united to form a republic.

One of the leaders of the Dutch Rebellion was William the Silent, or as he is better known in the Netherlands, William of Orange. He was a member of the House of Nassau, was the Prince of Orange, and was the founded of the House of Nassau-Oragne.

He is not to be confused with a future William of Orange that I’ll get to in a bit, who later became King William III of England.

I mention this to establish that the House of Nassau-Orange was a royal house that nonetheless played a pivotal role in the creation of the Dutch Republic. It is often just referred to as the House of Orange.

The main character of this story is Johan de Witt. He was born on September 24, 1625, in the city of Dordrecht in the Dutch Republic.

He was born into a very influential family. His father was the mayor of the city of Dordrecht. He was a high-ranking member of the Dutch States Party, which was the Republican party that opposed the Orangeists who supported the House of Orange.

Many people in his immediate family had achieved success. His older brother Cornelius was a notable politician and naval commander, and his uncle Andries served as the Grand Pensionary of the Dutch Republic.

From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the Grand Pensionary of the Dutch Republic was the most influential governmental position within the Dutch States General, particularly in the province of Holland. Serving essentially as a prime minister, though often referred to as a chief minister, the Grand Pensionary was responsible for implementing decisions of the States General and the provincial States of Holland, coordinating foreign policy and finance, and advising on legal matters.

De Witt grew up in what would be considered the heyday of the Dutch Republic. The country went through Tulipmania when he was in his teens but was otherwise growing wealthy through its vast trading network.

He had a privileged life, with many intellectuals of the era visiting his home to meet with his father.

De Witt was exceptionally bright, studying at the University of Leiden and later broadening his education by traveling extensively through France, Italy, and England. He studied law, mathematics, and economics, which allowed him to bring a scientific approach to governance later.

His political career began in 1650 at the age of 25. He was appointed to the government of the county of Holland and then the pensioner of the city of Dordrecht.

His big break occurred in 1653, when, at the age of 28, he was elected Grand Pensionary for the Republic of the Netherlands. Politically, de Witt followed in his father’s footsteps, was a member of the States Party, and was a staunch anti-Orangist.

De Witt’s policies were centered around strengthening the economic and naval power of the Netherlands. He supported extensive trade networks overseas and implemented reforms in finance and taxation. He also worked on the “True Freedom” policy, which sought to diminish the power of the House of Orange by stipulating that the position of Stadtholder (a quasi-monarchical role in the Dutch government) should be abolished in Holland and other provinces.

During his tenure as Grand Pensionary the First Anglo-Dutch War was fought from 1652-1654 and the Second Anglo-Dutch War from 1665-167.

He proved to be deft at foreign and economic policy, navigating the Netherlands through both wars.

By all accounts, De Witt did his job well. He was appointed to the position three times in 1658, 1663, and 1668, and he was largely responsible for the policies during the Dutch Golden Age.

So, things were going great. De Witt was the leader of one of the most prosperous and powerful countries in the world.

At this point, I’ve probably wet your appetite, and you are hungry to know exactly what went wrong.

It all had to do with the year 1672. The Dutch have a name for the year. They call it the “rampjaar” which translates to “disaster year.”

The success of the Netherlands incited jealousy and resentment among other European powers.

Led by King Louis XIV, France sought territorial expansion and was eager to curtail the economic and political power of the Dutch. Louis XIV launched a surprise invasion from the south.

Under King Charles II, England joined France against the Dutch, motivated by commercial rivalry and previous conflicts such as the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

Finally, the German bishops of Münster and Cologne also saw an opportunity to gain territory and assert power, attacking from the east.

The Dutch were initially overwhelmed by the simultaneous invasions. Their poorly maintained army struggled to defend against the well-coordinated attacks, leading to rapid advances by the invaders. Major cities in the eastern and southern parts of the Republic fell quickly. The political repercussions were immediate and severe.

The Dutch population panicked. A saying was created that year which, in English, sys, “the people were irrational, the government helpless, and the country beyond salvation.”

Almost immediately, Johan de Witt, the Grand Pensioner for the republic, was used as a scapegoat for the country’s problems. One of his biggest criticisms was that he had invested too much in the Dutch Navy but ignored the Dutch Army. So, while the Dutch were very powerful on the sea, this left them vulnerable on the ground.

The Orangist faction, which again, supported a more monarchical form of government under the House of Orange, capitalized on the crisis, leading to a surge in support for Prince William III of Orange. Prince William was seen as a strong military leader, which is what the country needed at the time.

Despite the country’s problems, De Witt remained strongly anti-Orangist even though popular support in the country had shifted.

The sentiment against De Witt moved quickly and violently. There were many public protests against De Witt.

On June 21, De Witt was seriously injured by a knife-wielding attacker.

Eventually, on August 4, De Witt resigned from the position of Grand Pensioner.

However, the resignation of Johan de Witt wasn’t enough for his political opponents.

Cornelis de Witt, Johan’s brother, had been implicated in an alleged plot to assassinate William III of Orange, who at that point had been appointed statholder.

Cornelis was arrested and tortured but not found guilty; however, he was banned from public office and sentenced to exile. The accusation itself inflamed public sentiment against the De Witt brothers, who were already unpopular among the Orangists.

On August 20, after visiting his brother Cornelis in prison in the Hague, which was right next to his house, Johan de Witt and his brother were caught in a violent upheaval orchestrated by their political enemies. Johan was going to prison to escort Cornelis to his exile out of the Netherlands.

This mob was not merely a spontaneous gathering but was partly incited by Orangist leaders who sought to capitalize on the widespread panic and discontent caused by the military defeats.

The French writer Alexandre Dumas wrote of the mob that assembled to attack the De Witt brothers in his book The Black Tulip. He said,

Every one of the miscreants, emboldened by his [Johan’s] fall, wanted to fire his gun at him, or strike him with blows of the sledge-hammer, or stab him with a knife or swords, everyone wanted to draw a drop of blood from the fallen hero and tear off a shred from his garments.

There are varying accounts of what happened next. I’ve read many different versions of the story. In some reports, the brothers were shot and then lynched.

We are talking about a murderous mob of people, so meticulous record-keeping wasn’t a big concern.

However, the most common story is that the brothers were literally torn apart or killed by the crowd.

However, they met their fate, and there seems to be agreement on what happened next.

As Dumas again writes, After having mangled, and torn, and completely stripped the two brothers, the mob dragged their naked and bloody bodies to an extemporized gibbet, where amateur executioners hung them up by the feet. Then came the most dastardly scoundrels of all, who not having dared to strike the living flesh, cut the dead in pieces, and then went about the town selling small slices of the bodies of Johan and Cornelius at ten sous a piece.

Some of the members of the mob took their murderous frenzy to the next level. They reportedly cut the liver out of Johan de Witt, cooked it, and ate it.

Another man supposedly ate one of his eyeballs.

I should note that this behavior, while extreme, wasn’t as out of the ordinary as you would think for the time period.

When public executions took place, it wasn’t uncommon for spectators to take home a souvenir, which could often be a tooth or some other body part.

The murder of Johan de Witt, even though he had already resigned beforehand, had wide-ranging ramifications for the Netherlands.

William III of Orange had been appointed Stadtholder on July 4, a position which had been vacant for over twenty years most of the time while Johan de Witt was in power.

It is widely suspected but has never been proved, that William was the one who orchestrated the attack on de Witt. While his involvement has never been proven, what is undeniable is that none of the leaders of the mob were ever punished, and that he ordered a military unit out of the Hague that day that could have prevented it.

The murder of Johan de Witt remains one of the most brutal and bizarre episodes in Dutch history.

While there have been cases throughout history of mobs attacking and killing politicians, it is one of the only times such behavior led to cannibalism.