Topics: History, Social Media, World News, Europe
Ever thought you’d be hungry enough to eat a Prime Minister? Maybe not, but the people of the Netherlands were in 1672.
History has so many accounts of horrible tales of leaders doing awful things, but usually, it doesn’t flip the narrative.
However, during the Rampjaar - the disaster year - England declared war on the Dutch Republic in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and so did the French (Franco-Dutch war).
This would prove to be a bad time for Johan de Witt, one of the only non-royal leaders in Europe at that time.
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De Witt, who was a mathematician and statesman, had ruled his land for almost 20 years, and was a major political figure in the First Stadtholderless Period, positive trade led to the Dutch Golden Age.
Sadly, for him, he publicly opposed the royal House of Orange as a leading party with rights to ruling the nation.
Well, this attitude didn’t go down too well for William of Orange, who wanted to lead the Dutch States Party, or with his supporters, known as Orangists.
While unconfirmed, some believe Orange incited a mob against de Witt once the Dutch Republic was forced to sign an alliance to England, France, and some German states which planned to invade the Dutch Republic.
With so much happening in one year, the people became restless, and lost faith in their ruler.
First, De Witt was attacked with a knife on June 21, and retired soon after on August 4.
But his haters wanted him gone for good, and an attack was planned.
His brother Cornelis de Witt was captured and tortured by Orangists and exiled.
But before he could be kicked to the curb, De Witt walked mere steps from his home and to the jail where he was being held, to see him off one last time.
Instead, the pair were ambushed and subsequently captured, tortured, and lynched in The Hague, before the Orangists allegedly roasted and ate their livers.
So, who became the new lucky leader?
None other than Orange, just six days after De Witt was killed, as the States of Holland wanted to restore order as many more mobs came together to cause chaos.
On social media, people were quite confused about it all, with one asking if an X user meant to say 'beaten' instead of eaten.
Others were perplexed that Orangists would actually nom on their enemies liver.
People do weird things in weird times, I guess.
