Dutch revolt general Lancelot van Brederode was beheaded on this date in 1573, bequeathing posterity the gorgeous ruin of his sacked castle.
Lancelot van Brederode (English Wikipedia entry | Dutch) was the bastard half-brother of Hendrick, Lord of Broderode, and both men numbered among the ranks of Calvinist Low Countries nobles determined to break away from Spanish Catholic domination.
This faction became known as the Geuzen, meaning “Beggars”; so prominent was Hendrick that he was the Grote Greus, or “Big Beggar”. Alas, he was chased into exile by the Spanish crackdown and became the Died Young Beggar.
Lancelot’s talents were on the waves, and it’s no surprise that seafaring Watergeuzen were the most prominently successful Beggars of all in the unfolding Dutch Revolt. Unfortunately he was not successful at supporting the defense of Haarlem against Spanish siege: when the Spanish took the city, Lancelot lost his head. To add insult to injury, they destroyed Brederode Castle; the gorgeous ruins were protected as a national monument and partly restored in the 19th century.
The Ruins of Brederode Caste, by Meindert Hobbema. For a more present-day view of the shattered citadel, see here.
Lancelot’s young (at the time of dad’s beheading) son Reinoud van Brederode went on to become a powerful lawyer and diplomat in the Dutch Republic. But not so powerful that he could save his father-in-law, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, from his own date with Executed Today.
On this day..
- 1909: William Hampton, Cornwall ghost
- 1934: William Bayly, bad neighbor
- 1683: Andrew Guilline, Covenanter accessory
- 1768: Francesco Arcangeli, Winckelmann-Mörder
- 1934: Not Walter Lett, To Kill a Mockingbird inspiration
- 1780: John Gamble, anti-Wilmot
- 1813: Johann Christian Claudius Devaranne
- 1301: False Margaret, Norwegian pretender
- 1898: Choe Si-hyeong, Donghak leader
- 1998: David Wilson
- 1889: "Cattle Kate" Ella Watson lynched
- 1514: György Dózsa, Transylvanian Braveheart