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Editor says, what if William I of Orange had survived his assassination and lived for a further decade? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1584, on this day in Delft, William the Silent (pictured) survived the weakest of attempts on his life by that miserable excuse for an assassin Balthasar Gérard. The incredibly inept Frenchman failed to get even one of his three pistol shots on target.
William the Silent LivesAs the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish, he would soon be recognized with an elevation to the traditional enobled title of Count of Holland. Still only fifty-one years old, he would live for a further decade, and the issue from his branch of the Orange-Nassau line would eventually pursue greater influence, perhaps even a kingship of a greater Holland that would draw other northern German Protestant state into a new European Great Power.
Gérard however would be tried, convicted, and gruesomely executed before the week was out. 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 quartered and disembowelled alive, that his heart should be torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and that, finally, his head should be cut off.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: William of Orange, Balthasar Gerard, Holland, Netherlands, Premature Death. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurposed content from Alternate History and Wikipedia. Of course in OTL, William died.
~ Gerard would have had to be drunk as a skunk to miss three times in a row.
~ House of Orange... In Dutch, the word for orange, the fruit, is sinasappel. The word for orange juice is sinaasappelsap. Say that three times. I dare you.
~ Without losing his leadership, the Dutch continue to be united, possibly driving off the Duke of Parma and establishing Dutch independence much earlier. That shifts the balance of power in Europe, perhaps even giving the Huguenots in France long enough to avoid expulsion a century later.
~ Needs a twofer to work. Famugista does not capitulate before Lepanto. The Holy League holds together long enough to retake Cyprus. The war against the Ottomans drags on instead of a long peace. Philip simply lacks the finances to fight everywhere. Spain defaults on its loans. The stress of this and the survival of William of Orange cause Philip II of Spain to suffer a succession of strokes that kill him, leaving a child heir and a regency council. The regency sells sovereignty of Flanders and Holland to William in return for a large financial subsidy. A much larger realm ,
~ Yes, and Scott, if Philip II had died of a stroke before he got around to marrying Queen Bloody Mary of England, then he would not have been around to order her not to kill her half-sister Elizabeth. Some say he does deserve the credit for saving Elizabeth's life that way, since he knew his wife was dying and he wanted to marry Elizabeth himself. And since Elizabeth was the greatest ruler in British history...well, you can see how important his intervention turned out to be.
~ That was the time, if there ever was one, or the Netherlands to become a large, and dominant European country. Proof being in the numerous problems of Bismarck's unification of the German states -- plenty of German immigrants all over the world from that. The Dutch could have started sooner, and possibly gotten several of the dissident German states. Maybe?
~ They had some good ideas about how to deal with crime in those days. And William surviving would have done the Netherlands a lot of good, although they'd still have ended up divided---Belgium-to-be never got into the Reformation, and would have stayed separate if at all possible.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
