Worst Deaths In History-Balthasar Gerard- balthasar gerard(alternative spellings gerards or gerardts. c. 1557 – 14 July 1584) was the assassin of the Dutch revolt’s leader, William the Silent of the House of Orange (William the Silent, and later known as the “Father of the Fatherland”).
He killed William the Silent in Delft on 10 July 1584, by shooting him twice with a pair of pistols, and was afterwards tried, convicted, tortured, and executed.
Gérard was born in Franche-Comté (then belonging to Holy Roman Empire, afterwards to France).
He came from a Roman Catholic family with 11 children and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, peerage and an inheritable estate to anyone who killed or captured William the Silent, to whom he referred in his decree as a “pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race”.
At his trial, Gérard was sentenced to be tortured and then executed, in a manner considered brutal even by the standards at the time.
The magistrates decreed that the right hand of Gérard should be burned off with a red-hot iron, that his flesh should be torn from his bones with pincers in six different places, that he should be quartered and disemboweled alive, his heart torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and that, finally, his head should be taken off.
Gérard’s torture was extraordinarily brutal. On the first night of his imprisonment, Gérard was hung on a pole and lashed with a whip. Next, his wounds were smeared with honey and a goat was brought to lick the honey off his skin with its rough tongue. The goat, however, refused to touch his body.
After several other forms of torture, he was left to pass the night with his hands and feet bound together, like a ball, so sleep would be difficult.
During the following three days, he was repeatedly mocked and hung on a pole with his hands tied behind his back. Then, a weight of 300 metric pounds (150 kg) was attached to each of his big toes for half an hour.
Subsequently,
Gérard was fitted with shoes made of well-oiled, uncured dog skin; the shoes were two fingers shorter than his feet. In this state, he was put before a fire. When the shoes warmed up, they contracted, crushing the feet inside them to stumps. When the shoes were removed, his half-broiled skin was torn off. After his feet were damaged, his armpits were branded. He was then dressed in a shirt soaked in alcohol. Lastly, burning bacon fat was poured over him and sharp nails were stuck between the flesh and the nails of his hands and feet.
On 14 July, four days after the assassination, the sentence declared at the trial was carried out and Gérard was tortured and executed in the market square of Delft. His severed head was then displayed on a pike behind the Prinsenhof and his arms and legs displayed on four gates of the city.
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