biography
| name: |
Gerards, Balthazar
|
| |
originally Balthasar Gérard
|
pronunciation:
[khayrah(r)ts]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1562–84)
|
| biography:
| French lawyer, born in Vuillafans, near Besançon, NE France, the assassin of William I (the Silent), Prince of Orange. Gerards was a clerk in the Court of Justice at Dole (France), who joined Mansfeld's troops. Philip II of Spain had put a price on Orange's head, which was eventually paid to Gerards' family, who were also ennobled. He entered the prince's service under a false name (François Guyon), claiming to be a Huguenot, and on 10 July 1584, after buying two pistols with money given to him by the prince, he shot him from behind a pillar in his residence in Delft. He was captured, tortured, and executed. His head was kept as a relic in Cologne, and unsuccessful attempts were also made to canonize him. |
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