William the Silent

Assassinated on 10 July 1584 in Delft by Balthasar Gerard; the stadtholder of Holland was the first head of state killed with a handgun.

Overview

William of Orange, called the Silent, led the Dutch revolt against Habsburg Spain after the Duke of Alba terror councils and survived several earlier attempts, including a 1582 gunshot wound in Antwerp. Philip II had declared him an outlaw with a bounty. Balthasar Gerard, a French Catholic who had obtained the confidence of the court under a false name, shot William in the chest at close range in his own house at the Prinsenhof. Gerard was captured and executed with elaborate cruelty. The bullet holes remain in the wall. The murder failed to halt the revolt: it rallied the provinces and the doomed city of Antwerp alike, and the young republic marched on to independence in 1648.