Editing William the Silent (section)

==Assassination==
[[File:De moordaanslag op prins Willem I door Balthazar Gerards in 1584, objectnr A 13934.tif|right|thumb|Balthasar Gérard shooting William]]

[[File:KogelgatenPrinsenhof.jpg|thumb|upright|Bullet holes from the murder at the [[Prinsenhof]]]]
The [[Franche-Comté|Burgundian]] Catholic [[Balthasar Gérard]] (born 1557) was a subject and supporter of Philip II, and regarded William of Orange as a traitor to the king and to the Catholic religion. In 1581, when Gérard learned that Philip II had declared William an outlaw and promised a reward of 25,000 crowns for his assassination, he decided to travel to the Netherlands to kill William. He served in the army of the governor of [[Luxembourg]], [[Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort]], for two years, hoping to get close to William when the armies met. This never happened, and Gérard left the army in 1584. He went to the Duke of Parma to present his plans, but the Duke was unimpressed. In May 1584, he presented himself to William as a French nobleman, and gave him the seal of the Count of Mansfelt. This seal would allow forgeries of the messages of Mansfelt to be made. William sent Gérard back to France to pass the seal on to his French allies.

Gérard returned in July, having bought two [[wheel-lock]] pistols on his return journey. On 10 July, he made an appointment with William of Orange in his home in [[Delft]], the Prinsenhof. That day, William was having dinner with his guest [[Rombertus van Uylenburgh]]. After William left the dining room and walked downstairs, van Uylenburgh heard Gérard shoot William in the chest at close range. Gérard fled immediately.

According to official records,<ref>Minutes of the States-General of 10 July 1584, quoted in J. W. Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, ''De Vader des Vaderlands'', Haarlem 1941, p. 29: ''"Ten desen daghe es geschiet de clachelycke moort van Zijne Excellentie, die tusschen den een ende twee uren na den noen es ghescoten met een pistolet gheladen met dry ballen, deur een genaempt Baltazar Geraert&nbsp;... Ende heeft Zijne Excellentie in het vallen gheroepen: Mijn God, ontfermpt U mijnder ende Uwer ermen ghemeynte (Mon Dieu ayez pitié de mon âme, mon Dieu, ayez pitié de ce pauvre peuple)."''</ref> William's last words were:<ref>Although commonly accepted, his last words might have been modified for propaganda purposes. See Charles Vergeer, "De laatste woorden van prins Willem", ''Maatstaf'' 28 (1981), no. 12, pp. 67–100. The debate has some history, with critics pointing to sources saying that William died immediately after having been shot and proponents stating that there would have been little opportunity to fabricate the words between the time of the assassination and the announcement of the murder to the States-General. Of the final words themselves, several slightly different versions are in circulation, the main differences being of style.</ref>

{{blockquote |Mon Dieu, ayez pitié de mon âme; mon Dieu, ayez pitié de ce pauvre peuple. (My God, have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people).}}

Gérard was caught before he could escape Delft, and was imprisoned. He was tortured before his trial on 13 July, where he was sentenced to an execution brutal even by the standards of that 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 [[Dismemberment|quartered]] and disembowelled alive, that his heart should be torn from his chest and flung in his face, and that, finally, his head should be cut off.<ref>{{cite book | last = Motley | first = John L. | title = The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. 3 | url = https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4836 | author-link = John Lothrop Motley | year = 1856 }}</ref>

William was the first politician to be assassinated by handgun. (The Scottish [[James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray|Regent Moray]] had been shot 13 years earlier in the first firearm assassination of a head of government.)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harvey|first=A. D.|date=1 June 1991|title=The pistol as assassination weapon: A case of technological lag|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09546559108427107|journal=Terrorism and Political Violence|volume=3|issue=2|pages=92–98|doi=10.1080/09546559108427107|issn=0954-6553}}</ref>

===Burial and tomb===
[[File:Tomb of William of Orange.jpg|thumb|Tomb of William of Orange]]
Traditionally, members of the Nassau family were buried in [[Breda]], but as that city was under royal control when William died, he was buried in the [[Nieuwe Kerk (Delft)|New Church]] in [[Delft]]. The monument on his tomb was originally very modest, but it was replaced in 1623 by a new one, made by [[Hendrik de Keyser]] and his son Pieter.

Since then, most of the members of the [[House of Orange-Nassau]], including all [[Dutch monarchy|Dutch monarchs]], have been buried in the same church. His great-grandson [[William III of England|William III and II]], King of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Stadtholder in the Netherlands, was buried in [[Westminster Abbey]].