William III becomes stadtholder and the de Witt brothers are lynched
- When
- 1672
- Where
- Holland and Zeeland; The Hague
- Episodes
- 2
During the 1672 Rampjaar, William III was appointed Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland on 16 July. On 20 August, an Orangist mob lynched Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis in The Hague.
Episodes
- Appointment as Stadtholder
William III was appointed Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland on 16 July 1672.
- Lynching of the De Witt Brothers
Johan and Cornelis de Witt were lynched by an Orangist mob in The Hague on 20 August 1672.
Background and detail
The Rampjaar Crisis. In 1672, England and France declared war on the Dutch Republic in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and the Franco-Dutch War, respectively. This period, known as the Rampjaar, coincided with William III's appointment as Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland on 16 July 1672.
Lynching of the De Witts. On 20 August 1672, a crowd incited by Orangist partisans lynched Johan and Cornelis de Witt in The Hague. The brothers were killed, and their remains were eaten by the mob.
People involved
- William III · Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland
- Johan de Witt · Grand Pensionary of Holland
- Cornelis de Witt · States Navy officer and statesman
Sources
- William III of England Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20
- Cornelis de Witt Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-08
- Johan de Witt Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.