The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers

 The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers is a c. 1672–75 oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jan de Baen, now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.^[1] It shows the dead and mutilated bodies of the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt hanging upside down on the Groene Zoodje, the place of execution in front of the Gevangenpoort in The Hague.^[2]

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The two de Witt brothers, opponents of the House of Orange, had dominated Dutch politics for some years, but left the country unprepared for the invasion by Louis XIV of France in 1672, the infamous Rampjaar.^[3] Their killing, which took place on 20 August 1672, was an act of aggression of a furious local mob, supporters of the 22 year old William of Orange, the future William III of England, who had just been appointed stadtholder and commander-in-chief of the army and navy by the political opponents of Johan. On August 4 Johan had agreed to his forced resignation from his position as Grand Pensionary of Holland, i.e. the Secretary of the government. Then his brother Cornelis was accused of treason and arrested. The verdict at his trial was exile. Johan went to the jail from their house nearby to take him home for the time being. The burgerwacht, the local militia, gathered with a mob, angry at the mild verdict, and both brothers were lynched at the gate of the Gevangenispoort.