Willem Tichelaar
Willem Tichelaar , including Willem Tichelaer (* around 1642 in Oud-Beijerland , † about 1714 in The Hague ) is a Dutch barber who in the conspiracy to murder the statesmen in August 1672 was de Cornelis Witt and Johan de Witt was involved, by an incited mob took place in The Hague.
Tichelaar was the son of Janneken Joris daughter Hopzoomer, who in 1665 became mayor and secretary of Heerjansdam Willem Karducz. got married. Tichelaar was a barber by trade, which at that time also included surgery ( Feldscher ). He lived in Geervliet and later in Piershil on the island of Hoeksche Waard , which was under the supervision of Cornelis de Witt. He had a reputation for being a bad boy, but was also an avid churchgoer. He lived with a woman of dubious reputation with whom he visited the camp of the Orange Army in July 1672, returning with so much money in his pocket that he kept his shop closed for the time being. Some of the money came from pimping in the army camp, but from the following events it can be concluded with certainty that he was recruited as an agent provocateur of the Orange Party to harm the De Witt brothers.
background
Johan de Witt had long led the Netherlands as a statesman and was the head of the republican party that had been in conflict with the supporters of William of Orange for years. At this point, however, he had already resigned and panic prevailed in the country due to the threat from the French army, which seemed to be advancing inexorably and could only be stopped by opening the dikes (see Rampjaar ). Since July power lay with Wilhelm III. von Orange , whose party had not forgotten the deposition of the then governor Wilhelm II by De Witt, distrusted his withdrawal from politics and part of the supporters sought his assassination. To what extent Wilhelm III. of Orange was involved is controversial. A first attack on Johan de Witt was carried out on June 21st in The Hague when the council pensioner, accompanied by two servants, entered the area in front of the prison (prison gate) where the brothers were later murdered. The assassins came from good and influential families (Jacob and Pieter van de Graeff). In the scuffle, Johan de Witt suffered injuries from a knife, but his servants were able to repel the attack. The assassin Jacob van de Graeff was sentenced to death and executed by sword on June 29th. At that time Johan de Witt was wounded with a fever in the sick bed and could not be politically active in this decisive phase - he was chained to the sick bed with fever until July 12th and politically eliminated, and so the attack was crowned with success. Insurgents (first in Dordrecht) forced Wilhelm III. was installed as governor. Johan de Witt also officially agreed to this at the beginning of August. The assassination attempt on de Witt was later presented as an individual action by Orange supporters, but on the same day and around the same time four gunmen who were unknown there tried to get to Cornelis de Witt in Dordrecht, which was repulsed by the servants who called the guard. At that time, the orangists hounded the de Witts in pamphlets with violent insults and calls for murder. In addition to the charge of treason (he had long advocated an alliance with France against England), he was also accused of unlawful enrichment and atheism (his resistance to an appropriation of the state by Orthodox Calvinists also led preachers to agitate against him). Johan de Witt mostly ignored these accusations, the accusation that he did not support the army decisively enough in the fight against France and that he had enriched himself with state money for secret service reports, but outraged him and he turned to Wilhelm III. for the purpose of a public defense, which he did only half-heartedly.
Indictment and trial against Cornelius de Witt
Tichelaar visited Cornelius de Witt on July 7, under the pretext of asking that a conviction against him be dropped. Two years earlier he had been sentenced to pay the high sum of 1000 guilders and perpetual banishment from Piershil because he tried to rape a young woman from his town, who then fled to Dordrecht. Tichelaar was initially turned away, but the next day he was able to get to Cornelius de Witt. As he later claimed in court, de Witt offered him to lift the conviction against him if he Wilhelm III. would murder and also 30,000 guilders. According to De Witt, on the other hand, Tichelaar suggested doing something against the governor because of his friendliness towards England, but was rejected by De Witt, who broke off the conversation after barely a quarter of an hour and also informed the city secretary and, about him, the mayor. Tichelaar went back to the Orange camp three days later and reported his version that De Witt had him for the murder of Wilhelm III. want to recruit. William III. passed this on to the State Court of Justice ( Hof van Holland ) in The Hague, which was chaired by Adriaan Pauw van Bennebroek (1622–1697) and was known for its political compliance. He listened to Tichelaar and decided on July 23 to arrest Cornelis de Witt while Tichelaar was released. He was only arrested after the representatives of Dordrecht protested against the arrest of De Witt. Johan de Witt, who had meanwhile recovered from the assassination attempt, was concerned about these signs of a political process and hired the best lawyers, which did not help. Although there was no convincing evidence against De Witt and the bad reputation of Tichelaar as a pimp was known to the court, a slim majority voted in favor of questioning De Witt under torture. This came under political pressure from the Orange Party (and the local mob who, following a rumor that Cornelius had fled, gathered around the prison all night on August 15), as the Dutch criminal law of the time actually ruled that out. He was also asked less about Tichelaar than about his behavior when the Eternal Edict was recalled on June 29th. All indications indicated that one wanted to harm Cornelius de Witt in order to get at his brother Johan. William III. officially did not intervene, although he knew of what was going on and was at a secret meeting in The Hague during this time. De Witt was severely tortured several times, but did not admit anything and instead quoted from the Odes of Horace. A conviction (the death penalty threatened) could no longer be made, but under political pressure there was a tie between the judges and the decision fell to Wilhelm III, who pronounced the eternal banishment from Holland and the loss of all offices. Tichelaar was released unconditionally. One of the judges is even said to have regretted Tichelaar, who was present at the judgment against de Witt, that banishment would be the best thing that could be won.
Murder of the de Witt brothers
At 9.30 a.m. on August 20, after the verdict had been announced, Tichelaar appeared in front of the crowd gathered in front of the prison (Gevangenpoort) and incited them with other Orange supporters, but the crowd was still kept in check by guards. Around the same time Johan de Witt came to the court to pick up his brother. The message with the request to pick up his brother reached him through the prison director's maid, but it was not clear who it was from (there were reports that it had been sent by high-ranking conspirators of the Orange Party to arrest Johan de Witt To lure mob). Despite warnings from his family, for example (they were amazed that the message had been delivered by a maid and wanted to wait for confirmation first), Johan de Witt rushed to the prison, where it was confirmed that the message had not come from his brother. When the brothers were about to leave the prison at 11 am after completing formalities (such as paying the legal costs), the crowd violently stopped them. When asked whether there would be a back exit, the guards said no, against their better judgment. From time to time the crowd sent envoys to see if the de Witts were still in prison. At 1 p.m. reinforcements came from the city guard, but they found themselves unable to advance to the prison gate despite reinforcements from three cavalry companies. The delegates of the States General met in the nearby Binnenhof (one topic was the choice of a successor to Johan de Witt) and gave orders to do everything possible to save the De Witts. They also sent to Wilhelm III. to Alphen , fifteen miles away , but who faced the French in the field and refused to appear in person or to send troops. The mob (which also included the armed vigilante) was still kept in check by the cavalry units under the command of Count Claude Frédéric t'Serclaes van Tilly (1648–1723). Before 4 p.m. rumors surfaced that insurgent peasants were marching on the town; de Tilly was ordered to retreat to face them. The order was signed by Baron von Boetzelaer , Lord von Asperen (1634–1688), President of the Council of Holland (he met in the nearby Binnenhof) and ardent orangist, who also gave the previous order to send the riders to the square, as well by Adriaan van Bosveld (1633–1698), who was a delegate for Haarlem in the Council of Holland, and by a bailiff named De Wilde, who drafted the letter. According to other sources, the order was drawn up by Simon van Beaumont (1641 / 42–1726), then still assistant secretary (Griffier) of the States of Holland, who was actually connected with the de Witts. Tilly obeyed the orders, knowing full well (which he also said when carrying out the order) that the fate of the De Witts was sealed. The crowd, which comprised about a thousand people in the square, was once again incited with the rumor that looters were approaching the city and that action must now be taken. Led by sections of the vigilante group (another section that was supposed to defend the prison offered little resistance at first, but then gave way) the prison was stormed and the crowd pushed their way to the brothers and sisters. Cornelis was lying on the bed, half-dressed in a Japanese throw, Johan on a chair next to him. Cornelis is said to have read a volume by French playwrights, Johan the Bible with the passage where Jezebel was torn to pieces by the dogs. He asked what you wanted from them and when you answered that you wanted to kill them he asked why you didn't do this immediately. He was told that this should be done in public on the square (the De Plaats) and the brothers were dragged out there. They wanted to shoot them at the nearby place of execution, but they could no longer reach them alive. Cornelius first died from blows from muskets, pikes and swords, Johan covered his face and was killed kneeling from behind by a pistol shot. His last words were an appeal to his fellow citizens to consider what they are doing.
The bodies were hung and later eviscerated by parts of the mob (cannibalism even occurred and body parts were cut off as souvenirs) after the bourgeois part of the conspirators had withdrawn. Apart from the De Witts, nobody was injured. When night fell the crowd dispersed. The severely mutilated corpses could not be recovered by friends and servants until around one in the morning. Signs were hung on the corpses with the inscription Landprinz with Johan and Wasserprinz with Cornelius, which mockingly alluded to the earlier rivalry between the two of them with William of Orange. The events could also be seen from the Binnenhof, the seat of the government, which was only separated from the scene of the events on De Plaats by the court pond .
The main conspirators involved, who steered the events from the background (they met on the day of the murder in a nearby inn), included the supporters of the Orange Party Admiral Cornelis Tromp (who is also said to have been seen on the square during the murder ), Willem Adriaan van Nassau-Odijk (1632–1705, lord of Odijk and confidante of Wilhelm III.) And Willem Hendrik van Nassau-Zuylestein (1649–1708), also a confidante (and relative) of Wilhelm III. This emerges from the records of a contemporary witness, the lawyer Gerrit Copmoyer (or Kopmoijer), who left a diary. Was also involved Johan Kievit (1627-1692), who in 1666 in the-Buat conspiracy was involved and had to flee. He was a brother-in-law of Cornelis Tromp, who still harbored a grudge against Johan de Witt for being deposed in 1666 over his quarrel with Admiral de Ruyter. Other conspirators were Johan van Banchem (1615–1694), who, as aldermen of The Hague, swore the vigilantes not to let the de Witts escape, and the head of the blue vigilante (rifle guild) Hendrik Verhoeff (1645–1710), the notorious became known when he showed the de Witts' hearts that had been cut out on a drinking tour after the murders. They too were later by Wilhelm III. rewarded.
Tichelaar later received an annual pension of 450 guilders from Wilhelm III. In 1675 he became governor of Geervliet, but dismissed in disgrace in 1681. After the death of Wilhelm III. his pension was no longer paid and he fell into great poverty and begged on crutches in The Hague. He later admitted to having falsely accused Cornelis de Witt.
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literature
- Herbert J. Rowen: John de Witt, Cambridge University Press 1986, 2002, pp. 207 ff.
Web links
- Biographical Portaal van Nederland
- Biography on the Piershil website
- André Horlings, Murder of the de Witt brothers was carefully prepared, 2013 (Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The father Jacob de Graef was a judge at the Hof van Holland, at which Cornelis de Witt was indicted, but was not involved in the process because he was biased.
- ^ Rowen, Johan de Witt, 1986, p. 206
- ^ Rowen, Johan de Witt, p. 202
- ^ Rowen, John de Witt, 1986, p. 212
- ↑ One squeezed his foot and stretched it with weights hanging from his toe over a barrel
- ^ Rowen, p. 214
- ↑ Rowen p. 214
- ↑ Claude-Frédéric t'Serclaes van Tilly, originally French, was in the service of the Netherlands and later the Empire from 1672, he rose to the rank of general, served under Marlborough and Prince Eugene in Malplaquet and was later governor of Maastricht.
- ↑ Biographical Portaal van Nederland
- ↑ See for example Moord op de gebroeders de Witt: deel 2. De moord
- ↑ In 1673 he became co-secretary and then secretary. In his article in the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek he is described as a statesman from the school of Jan de Witt, son of Herbert van Beaumont, who was his predecessor in the office of secretary. He is also known as the De Witt's nephew.
- ↑ Rowen, Jan de Witt, p. 216 calls him a cousin of the de Witts. According to Rowen, the initiators of the order may not have acted with the intention of depriving the De Witts of their protection, but rather in response to an alleged danger. It was also suspected that the order was bogus.
- ↑ The shooter was the lieutenant at sea Maerten van Valen, as shown in the book by Ronald Prud'homme van Reine, Moordenaars van Jan de Witt, de zwartste bladzijde van de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 2013, detailing those involved in the act treated. Review of the book in the history portal Corvinus 2016 (Dutch).
- ↑ He was hired by Johan Francois van Schagen, Herr von Heenvliet, who succeeded Cornelis de Witt Ruwaard von Putten . Van der Aa u. a., Biographical Woordenboek der Nederlanden.
- ↑ Japikse, Biographical entry by Willem Tichelaer in Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tichelaar, Willem |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tichelaer, Willem |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch barber and field surgeon |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1642 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oud-Beijerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 1714 |
| Place of death | The hague |