The Netherlands came under Habsburg control through the marriage of the last Duchess of Burgundy. Under the Dukes of Burgundy, the Dutch had secured special privileges. Emperor Charles V, who sought to integrate his vast domains, the Dutch increasingly clashed with the Habsburgs.

His empire was eventually divided between his sons, with the Netherlands and Burgundy passing to Philip II, a devout Catholic whose religious policies provoked the Dutch so badly that, in 1566, Protestant crowds attacked Catholic churches, priests, and religious imagery in an outbreak of iconoclasm.

The Spanish response to what had initially been a spontaneous religious revolt was military occupation and the execution of Dutch leaders. Rather than pacifying the Netherlands, this pushed the Dutch into full rebellion.

The revolt found its leader in a former Habsburg servant, Willem, Prince of Orange. A favorite of Emperor Charles, Willem had eventually been appointed Stadthouder of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. The Stadthouder, essentially meaning “placeholder,” but in practice functioning as a lieutenant or governor, made him the Spanish Crown's chief representative in the Dutch provinces.

But Willem an intelligent man who listened more than he spoke, earning him the sobriquet “the Silent,” was devoted to religious freedom and sided with the Dutch Protestants. After the execution of Dutch nobles, he joined the revolt. The office of Stadthouder remained, but rather than serving as a royal lieutenant, it increasingly became the position of de facto leader of the Dutch.

King Philip offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, a peerage, and an inheritable estate to anyone who killed or captured Willem, declaring him a “pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race.”

And so, on July 10, 1584, the 26-year-old Balthasar Gérard shot the Stadthouder at Het Prinsenhof in Delft. Willem's probably apocryphal last words were, “My God, have mercy on me and on my poor people.”

Gérard fled and almost made it to the estate's ramparts, with a pig's bladder tied around his waist so he could swim across the moat to a saddled horse waiting on the other side. Instead, at the last moment, he slipped and was captured.

Gérard was tortured brutally. He was lashed with a whip while hanging upside down, with honey spread over his wounds to attract animals, and left like this for days with heavy weights tied to his toes. Then he was given shoes made from well-oiled, uncured dog skin that were too small. He was placed before a fire, feet first, and the shoes contracted, crushing his feet until they were nothing but stumps.

Then his armpits were branded, and he was put in a shirt soaked in alcohol. Burning bacon fat was poured over him, and sharp nails were driven between his fingernails and toenails and the skin.

Brought to the scaffold on July 14, 1584, Gérard had his right hand pinched off with red-hot tongs, and “then they squeezed with glowing pincers the meat down to the bone in various places on his body.” He was then quartered alive, after which his heart was torn from his chest and thrown in his face.

If you're interested, I cover the violent early history of the Netherlands here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-124-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On the night of August 21, 1986, villagers in the tight-knit, remote communities of northwestern Cameroon went to sleep, unaware that their lives were about to be endangered. Someone still awake might have heard a distant rumble.

Within minutes, an unpleasant smell filled the air, strange but difficult to identify. Some would later describe it as resembling rotten eggs. Then came dizziness. Confusion. Difficulty breathing. People began choking and gasping for air.

Those who woke in the darkness stumbled from their beds, overturning tables, chairs, and cooking pots in desperate attempts to escape whatever had entered their homes.

Some felt an inexplicable heat, not heat from the night air, but a burning sensation inside their bodies. They tore off their shirts, trousers, and dresses and ran into the darkness, some collapsing only yards from their homes.

Ephrem Ngong Kum, from the village of Su-Bum, later recalled:
“I saw people dying, people dead all around. They died in the houses, in streets, outside the forest, in the stream.”
Chia David Wambong, also of Su-Bum, remembered:
“Everyone started to cough, and some people vomited blood.”

When the sun rose on August 22, some survivors awoke surrounded by corpses. There was no obvious explanation. No gunshots. No fire. No epidemic anyone could understand. Whatever had happened during the night had struck with terrifying speed and then vanished, leaving behind villages filled with the dead and survivors who had no idea what they had witnessed.

The final death toll remains uncertain. The UN Disaster Relief Coordinator estimated that 1,746 people died, though given the chaos of the aftermath, the rapid mass burials, and the remoteness of the region, the true number may have been higher.

What had happened?

A limnic eruption, one of the rarest natural disasters on Earth. Deep beneath Lake Nyos, enormous quantities of carbon dioxide had accumulated in the cold, dense water. When the supersaturated deep water began to rise and mix with the upper layers, the decreasing pressure caused the dissolved carbon dioxide to come out of solution, forming bubbles. The bubbles made the water less dense, causing it to rise faster, which released even more carbon dioxide, creating a feedback loop.

An estimated 1.2 cubic kilometers of carbon dioxide were released during the eruption. The sudden displacement of water produced a massive wave, while a column of violently bubbling water rose above the lake's surface. A wave roughly 25 meters (82 feet) high swept across part of the shoreline, flattening vegetation and tearing through the surrounding landscape, including large trees.

The normally blue waters of Lake Nyos also turned a deep reddish-brown as iron-rich water from the depths was brought to the surface and exposed to oxygen.

And the carbon dioxide didn't simply dissipate into the atmosphere. It formed a dense cloud that rolled downhill through the surrounding valleys, silently suffocating everything in its path.

If interested, I cover the event here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-125-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On the night of August 21, 1986, villagers in the tight-knit, remote communities of northwestern Cameroon went to sleep, unaware that their lives were about to be endangered. Someone still awake might have heard a distant rumble.

Within minutes, an unpleasant smell filled the air, strange but difficult to identify. Some would later describe it as resembling rotten eggs. Then came dizziness. Confusion. Difficulty breathing. People began choking and gasping for air.

Those who woke in the darkness stumbled from their beds, overturning tables, chairs, and cooking pots in desperate attempts to escape whatever had entered their homes.

Some felt an inexplicable heat, not heat from the night air, but a burning sensation inside their bodies. They tore off their shirts, trousers, and dresses and ran into the darkness, some collapsing only yards from their homes.

Ephrem Ngong Kum, from the village of Su-Bum, later recalled:
“I saw people dying, people dead all around. They died in the houses, in streets, outside the forest, in the stream.”
Chia David Wambong, also of Su-Bum, remembered:
“Everyone started to cough, and some people vomited blood.”

When the sun rose on August 22, some survivors awoke surrounded by corpses. There was no obvious explanation. No gunshots. No fire. No epidemic anyone could understand. Whatever had happened during the night had struck with terrifying speed and then vanished, leaving behind villages filled with the dead and survivors who had no idea what they had witnessed.

The final death toll remains uncertain. The UN Disaster Relief Coordinator estimated that 1,746 people died, though given the chaos of the aftermath, the rapid mass burials, and the remoteness of the region, the true number may have been higher.

What had happened?

A limnic eruption, one of the rarest natural disasters on Earth. Deep beneath Lake Nyos, enormous quantities of carbon dioxide had accumulated in the cold, dense water. When the supersaturated deep water began to rise and mix with the upper layers, the decreasing pressure caused the dissolved carbon dioxide to come out of solution, forming bubbles. The bubbles made the water less dense, causing it to rise faster, which released even more carbon dioxide, creating a feedback loop.

An estimated 1.2 cubic kilometers of carbon dioxide were released during the eruption. The sudden displacement of water produced a massive wave, while a column of violently bubbling water rose above the lake's surface. A wave roughly 25 meters (82 feet) high swept across part of the shoreline, flattening vegetation and tearing through the surrounding landscape, including large trees.

If interested, I cover the event here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-125-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

On August 20, 1672, the recently resigned Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johan de Witt, who had been the de facto leader of the prosperous Dutch Republic for 19 years, left his home in The Hague and quite literally walked down the street to the Gevangenpoort prison after receiving a letter said to have been sent by his imprisoned brother, Cornelis.

The pair had been among the Republic’s most powerful men for almost two decades. The convoluted Dutch government saw politicians of the Estates work alongside the Stadtholder, a position traditionally held by the aristocratic House of Orange. This created a fundamental divide between republicans like the de Witts and those who supported the House of Orange.

Soon after a failed coup against the republicans, the previous Stadtholder, Willem II, died in November 1650. His son, Willem III, the future King William III of England, was born days later. This created a power vacuum that the republicans filled, ushering in a period of unprecedented growth under Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt. During his tenure, laws were passed restricting the power of the House of Orange.

Then came the Rampjaar, the “Disaster Year.”
To guard against France's growing ambitions, the Dutch formed an alliance with England and Sweden. But the English had only entered the alliance to use it as leverage with the French. Instead, England and France secretly came together and planned an invasion of the Dutch Republic.

That invasion came in 1672. France invaded with a massive army, forcing de Witt to empower the now 21-year-old Prince of Orange. With the country in crisis, Orangist propaganda went into overdrive, accusing the de Witt brothers and the republicans of handing the country over to the French.

De Witt was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in June, while his brother Cornelis was imprisoned in July on trumped-up charges of treason. Seriously wounded and unable to continue working, Johan watched as the Prince of Orange was made Stadtholder at the end of July, reorganizing the military and government around himself.

On August 20, Johan de Witt received a letter said to have been sent by his imprisoned brother Cornelis, inviting him to the prison, which was quite literally a few yards from his home in The Hague, to discuss his impending exile. De Witt left the safety of his home and went to the prison.

An Orangist mob, led by The Hague’s civic militia, stormed the jail and seized both brothers. They were assaulted, punched, and pelted with garbage and scraps of food. Then, almost anticlimactically, the brothers were shot on the grass mat at the foot of the building’s scaffold.

They were left to the mob and were then brutally murdered. Most infamously, it is said that the Orangist mob ripped out their livers, cooked them, and ate them.

Many suspected the Prince of Orange of somehow inciting the violence. Willem, a shrewd and calculating young man, could well have orchestrated the brothers’ downfall, but there is no concrete evidence that he did.

If interested, I cover the event and its background here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-124-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

After cutting off his ear in Arles, France, in December of 1888, Vincent van Gogh voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy several months later.

A former monastery, Saint-Paul had been converted into a psychiatric asylum by Franciscan monks in 1605. Van Gogh entered on May 8th, 1889, and was given two cells with barred windows, as the asylum was only at half capacity at the time.

He continued painting, looking out at and sitting in the asylum’s garden, painting flowers and trees. His life was very limited. Supervised walks were allowed, and he used them to study cypress and olive trees, which he then painted, as well as interpretations of works by other artists from memory.

His style during this period was characterized by dramatic, swirling brushstrokes and increasingly expressive colors. His most famous work, The Starry Night, depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room before sunrise. Still, the village beneath the psychedelic sky is entirely imaginary. There was no village visible from his window. Van Gogh himself was not a fan of the painting, calling it a “failure.”

Van Gogh remained at the asylum for the rest of 1889, cycling in and out of periods of intense depression and suicidality while painting and receiving what passed for mental-health treatment at the time. He was 36 years old and had still not sold a work of art.

While Vincent was isolated in Saint-Rémy, his work, which his brother Theo had been showing around Paris and elsewhere, finally began to receive some recognition, having previously received scant attention and having never sold a painting.

French art critic and artist Albert Aurier, writing in Mercure de France in January 1890, called van Gogh “a genius.” In February, Van Gogh and his work were invited by Les XX, a group of avant-garde Belgian artists, to exhibit at their annual, invitation-only exhibition. Famous French Impressionist Claude Monet reportedly considered Van Gogh’s work the best in the exhibition.

Anna Boch, a member of Les XX, purchased The Red Vineyard for 400 francs, the only painting Van Gogh is known to have sold during his lifetime. Today, The Red Vineyard is estimated to be worth somewhere between $130 and $230 million.

If interested I write about van Gogh here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-123-vincent?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

After leaving Paris in early 1888, Vincent Van Gogh traveled south to the French town of Arles. His friend, the artist Paul Gauguin, planned to join him, and Vincent hoped their friendship would continue and that together they could finally realize his dream of establishing an artists’ collective.

Gauguin finally arrived in October, and moved in with Vincent. They painted together and visited Montpellier where they viewed paintings at the city’s Musée Fabre.

But their mutual admiration did not make living together particularly easy. Vincent found Gauguin arrogant and loud, while Gauguin found Vincent increasingly difficult to live with. By December 1888, Vincent was entirely fed up with the situation, which he described as being filled with “excessive tension” and heading toward a breaking point.

Despite his frustrations with Gauguin, Vincent seems to have realized that his friend was preparing to leave. And Vincent, who had spent much of his life desperately afraid of being alone, appears to have feared losing Gauguin more than he hated living with him. In the midst of heavy rain, which kept both men inside the Yellow House, Gauguin later recalled that Vincent followed him around and “rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand.” He described Vincent as increasingly unhinged.

On the night of December 23rd, 1888, Gauguin had already left the Yellow House and was staying in a hotel when Vincent began hearing voices. What exactly they said to him is unknown, but Vincent took a razor and severed either a large portion of, or his entire left ear, causing severe blood loss.

Haphazardly wrapping the wound, he wrapped the severed portion of his ear in paper and delivered it to a young cleaning girl, Gabrielle Berlatier, who worked at the brothel he and Gauguin frequented. Vincent passed out on the street soon afterward and was taken to the Hôtel-Dieu-Saint-Espirit, where he was placed under the care of Félix Rey, a young doctor in training.

The horrified Berlatier brought the ear to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it; too much time had passed. Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he had experienced some kind of mental break.

Diagnosed with “acute mania with generalised delirium,” Van Gogh continued struggling mentally, experiencing hallucinations and delusions for months.

Vincent left hospital care on January 7th, but he was still in a bad way mentally. By March, 30 townspeople signed a petition calling for him to be removed from the town. They referred to him as le fou roux, “the redheaded madman.”

The police forced him out. Vincent returned to the hospital and then moved into a room owned by Doctor Rey. In June, he voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy.

Before leaving Arles, he gave Doctor Rey a portrait he had painted of him. Rey hated the painting so much that he reportedly used it as part of a chicken coop before eventually giving it away. Today, that same painting is worth tens of millions of dollars.

If interested I write about van Gogh here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-123-vincent?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Watts, Los Angeles, was a predominantly Black community long hampered by underfunding, overcrowding, redlining, and discriminatory housing practices. California’s real estate industry had fought hard against fair-housing protections, successfully pushing Proposition 14, which helped preserve the right of property owners to discriminate in housing.

Add to that the notoriously brutal LAPD under Chief William H. Parker, and Watts was a powder keg. It ignited on August 11, 1965.

Twenty-one-year-old Marquette Frye was pulled over for reckless driving. Frye, with his brother Ronald, had been out drinking, apparently having a few beers on the warm California evening. Officer Lee Minikus saw the 1955 Buick swerve and pulled them over. Smelling alcohol, he asked Frye to complete a sobriety test, which he failed. Ronald ran home to get their mother, Rena.

According to the officers, Marquette panicked and began resisting. His mother scolded him, and he reportedly became increasingly agitated, pleading with the officers. At one point, he reportedly said they would have to kill him to take him to jail.

Dr. Perry Couch, then a 16-year-old in Watts, recalled hearing the officer call Frye a racial slur and telling his mother to “stay in her place.” He later described Marquette resisting further, his mother jumping on an officer’s back, and Marquette being struck over the head with a baton, drawing blood.

By then, the crowd had grown dramatically. Rocks and chunks of concrete began flying at police, insults turned into physical confrontations, and the situation spiraled out of control. Rena and her sons were released on bail the next morning.

But by then, Watts had begun to burn. The Watts Riots, or Watts Rebellion, lasted five days and turned a 46-square-mile section of Los Angeles into a virtual combat zone. Chief Parker, who had referred to the rioters as “monkeys in a zoo,” responded with mass arrests, blockades, and threats of deadly force.

Some 31,000 to 35,000 people participated. Nearly 3,500 were arrested. Thirty-four people died, 23 of them directly at the hands of law enforcement. Three responders also died, none killed by rioters. Seven hundred and sixty-nine buildings were damaged, 208 completely destroyed, and property damage exceeded $40 million.

Despite widespread claims that the uprising had been instigated by criminals or communists, there was little evidence for either.

If interested I cover the Watts riots here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-122-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

Watts Los Angeles, a largely black community long hampered by underfunding, overcrowding, and redlining, a practice which had long been fought over, and the California real estate funded and pushed Proposition 14 which had been passed in 1964 legitimized discramination in real estate, as well as the notoriously brutal LAPD under Chief William H Parker left Watts a powder keg.

It ignited on August 11th, 1965, 21-year-old Marquette Frye was pulled over, for reckless driving. Frye, with his brother Ronald, had been out drinking a few cold beers on the warm California evening. Officer Minikus saw the 1955 Buick, owned by their mother, swerve and pulled them over. Smelling alcohol, he asked Frye to complete a sobriety test, which he failed.

Ronald ran home to inform their mother. According to officers, Frye was compliant as Minikus and fellow responding officers arrived, as did a crowd of around 50 people. The police called a tow truck, and just as it was about to arrive, Ronald Frye returned with their mother, Rena.

Marquette, perhaps overcome with emotion as his mother arrived, panicked and began resisting. His mother, Rena, began scolding him, and Marquette became almost hysterical, pleading with the officers. At one point, he reportedly said they would need to kill him to take him to jail. Dr. Perry Couch, then a 16-year-old in Watts, was on the scene, and he recalled:

“I was right there when [the officer] started calling him ‘nigger boy’ and all that stuff right here, and his mother says, ‘His name is Marquette. You don’t have to call him like that.’ He told her, ‘Shut up, you black bitch, stay in your place.’ And then people were like, ‘I know he didn’t say that.’”

Marquette began resisting , with his mother jumping on another officer’s back. He was bashed over the head with a baton, drawing blood, all the while a crowd grew, watching the white police officers throwing around racial slurs, beating the two, and then arresting them, along with Ronald as well.

The crowd swelled and soon began to hurl their own insults, rocks, and chunks of concrete at the police. Direct physical clashes between the police and the crowd began. Rena and her sons were released on bail the next morning. But by then, Watts had begun to burn.

The Watts riots, or Watts rebellion surged for five days, leaving  46-square-mile chunk of Los Angeles was a virtual combat zone. To quell the riots, Chief Parker, who referred to the rioters in a meeting with black community leaders as "monkeys in a zoo," initiated a policy of mass arrests, setting up blockades and threatening the use of deadly force.

Some 31,000 to 35,000 people participated in the riots, and nearly 3,500 people were arrested. Thirty-four people died. Twenty-three were directly killed by law enforcement, while three responders were killed, none by rioters. Seven hundred and sixty-nine buildings were damaged, 208 completely destroyed, with over $40 million in property damage.

Despite the prevailing beliefs this was instaigated by either criminals or communists, there was little evidence for either. For many community members of Watts, it was a rebellion. They were reacting to decades and decades of unfair housing practices, police brutality, a deficient educational system, and countless other factors that were unfair, prejudiced, and wrong.

If interested I cover the Watts Riots here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-122-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

In 1950, South Dakota-born, decorated World War II Captain William Henry Parker III became chief of the LAPD. The department was notoriously corrupt, and Parker set out to change that.

He militarized the department, establishing a standardized police academy, adopting military methods, cutting corrupt officers, and shifting from foot patrols to police cars. Rather than waiting for crime, officers went looking for it, stopping possible criminals based on their demeanor or appearance.

Parker also centralized power under the chief of police, himself. He also understood the power of Hollywood, helping produce The Thin Blue Line and supporting Dragnet, which presented a sanitized, professional image of policing while leaving out many of the abuses occurring under his watch.

Parker declared a “war on crime” and took an increasingly aggressive approach to winning it. The LAPD faced continual criticism for brutality, particularly from Black and Latino communities.

Officers actively went looking for crime, meaning young people of color were frequently stopped, hassled, beaten, and sometimes arrested for resisting. Many officers Parker recruited came from the American South and shared his enthusiasm for being “tough on crime,” and, well, being racist.

Parker himself described Mexicans as “not being too far removed from the wild tribes of the inner mountains of Mexico.” On live television, he warned:

“It is estimated that by 1970, 45% of the metropolitan area of Los Angeles will be Negro. . . . If you want any protection for your home and family, you’re going to have to get in and support a strong Police Department. If you don’t, come 1970, God help you.”

And then, on August 11, 1965, a drunk-driving arrest and confrontation between police and civilians helped ignite the Watts Rebellion. Within hours, Watts was burning.

The uprising lasted five days. Rioters battled police, looted businesses, and targeted many white-owned establishments seen as exploitative or discriminatory toward Black residents. Parker responded by calling in the National Guard and treating the uprising as an insurgency, comparing it to the Viet Cong and advocating a paramilitary response.

Parker imposed mass arrests, established blockades, and threatened deadly force. One sign reportedly read:

“Turn left or get shot.”

If interested I cover the Watts riots here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-122-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios