As I walked aimlessly through the halls of Haags Historisch Museum / The Hague Historical Museum, a loud painting caught my eye.
“The Murder of the De Witt Brothers”, by Pieter Frits, 1672.
Scene one on the left, De Witt brothers dressed in black and white being dragged out of prison.
Scene two on the right centre, bodies mutilated by the common folks.
Scene three, their naked bodies on the background, strung upside down from a gibbet, in the city’s public gibbet.
Three horrific scenes depicting their murders in one painting!
Hidden out of sight on the left, a small wooden oak box accompanied the exhibit.
“Tongue and finger of Johan and Cornelis De Witt”
WHAT??
Johan de Witt (1625 – 1672) was the Grand Pensionary of the Province of Holland in 1653.
His brother, Cornelis De Witt (1623 – 1672), was his right hand man, a naval commander appointed by States General.
The De Witt brothers, were political opponents of the House of Orange, who had dominated Dutch politics for some years.
On August 4 1672, Johan had agreed to a forced resignation from his position, equivalent to the Secretary of the government.
Cornelis was then accused of conspiring against Prince of Orange, future William III of England. He was unjustly convicted, tortured and put in prison. The verdict at his trial was exile.
On 20 August 1672, Johan de Witt went to visit his brother at the Gevangenpoort (now Prison Museum), right here in The Hague.
An organized mob was waiting at the gate. The brothers were dragged out of the prison, lynched and hung up by the feet. Dead. Conveniently there were no guards in sight.
After their brutal murders, the bodies of De Witt brothers were cut or rather ripped out on the spot. Their limbs sold off at auction. Opponents kept parts as trophies. The supporters cherished parts as relics. Pieces of the De Witt brothers were later displayed in pubs. Some pieces were dried and their hearts were preserved in turpentine.
Somehow …
In 1889, the tongue and the finger came into the possession of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Many museum visitors were shocked at the sight of this new acquisition. The Hague city council banned these gruesome ‘souvenirs’ from public display in 1893.
For centuries, it was thought that the box contained a tongue and a toe. Research carried out by the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) in 2011 revealed that the toe is in fact, an index finger!
Time has changed. You can find this particular exhibit on the ground floor of the Hague Historical Museum.
A miniature coffin with glass lid contains the tongue of Johan de Witt and the dried finger of Cornelis, each preserved in salt.
Accompanying this exhibit is a decorated silver tobacco box with handwritten poem describing the content. The tongue was originally kept in this box. The owner of this box was a fan of the De Witt brothers. He bought the box and its content from the then mayor of Amsterdam, who owned the relics between 1672 and 1717. Supposedly, with a depiction of the brothers’ murder engraved on the lid.
One of the most brutal assassinations of a political figure in European history.