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The Dutch have for most of history
been an almost all powerful force to be

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reckoned with. They were the forerunners
for a lot of the world's exploration,

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and for a long time dominated the
seas and the trade routes through the stranglehold

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of the Dutch East India Company.
Back home in what is to day known

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as the Netherlands, was a powerful
monarchy ruling over the Dutch Republic. In

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the sixteen hundreds, they were still
considered to be a fairly new power,

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but were ruled by the now infamous
Habsburg family, who made the Habsburg Chin

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famous. And if you're not show
quite what I'm referring to, please do

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go and google it. In the
preceding century, they were still under Spanish

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rule, with two of their kings, Charles the fifth and his son Philip

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the Second, simultaneously ruling as the
Kings of Spain as well as the so

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called low countries of the Netherlands.
But the Dutch weren't having any of this

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for long, and at the first
sign of mismanagement made their feelings known.

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These are the bizarre but true stories
from history and in some way involved food.

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I'm Nick Charlie Key, and this
in the fantastic history of food.

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In the fifteen sixties, the Spanish
rulers began imposing hefty taxes on the Dutch

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provinces of Holland and Zeeland, which
was bad enough, but when they began

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incorporating religious oppression into the mix as
well, that's when general unrest in the

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population turned into a full blown revolt
against the Spanish monarchy. The revolt was

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spearheaded by the most powerful family amongst
the Dutch aristocrats, who would eventually become

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the inspiration for the color of their
country's iconic sporting outfits, the House of

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Orange. This family was immensely wealthy
and immensely powerful, holding significant swaths of

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land across both their own nation as
well as France. This initial revolt would

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mark the beginning of eighty years of
on again, off again fighting as the

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Dutch War of Independence raged onwards.
Eventually, the Spanish monarchy, battling to

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stay afloat maintaining all of their global
colonies, accepted defeat and officially acknowledge the

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birth of the Dutch Republic as an
independent state in sixteen forty eight. Now,

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as with any newly independent nation,
there is a power vacuum that exists

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into which hordes of power hungry individuals
rush headlong, hoping at the end of

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it all to have come out on
top. This high level power grabbing and

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in fighting would coincide with a major
shift in economic power across Europe, which

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in turn began to elevate the power
and status of wealthy merchants. Trade and

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industry had begun to move away from
the Mediterranean as its centralized hub, and

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more towards the North Atlantic, which
made Amsterdam perfectly situated to capitalize. Within

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a decade or to Amsterdam would become
a major financial and mercantile powerhouse. This

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was the beginning of the Dutch Golden
Age, which even now was still most

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despearheaded by the House of Orange.
But times were rapidly changing, and as

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the Republic began to settle into its
own rhythms, factions within the new ideas

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of how the country should be run
were popping up left and right. One

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of these factions was led by a
pair of brothers known as Johann and Cornelius

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de Witt. They were the figureheads
representing a conglomerate of lesser Dutch nobles and

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wealthy merchants who independently could not hope
to challenge the House of Orange, but

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collectively stood more of a chance as
they hoped to adopt more of a republican

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model of government. Just two years
after gaining their independence from Spain, it

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seemed that this faction was largely succeeding
in their efforts, as power began to

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decentralize to minor nobles and merchant companies
across the land. Just three years later

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and Johan de Witt was granted the
title of Dutch Grand Pensionary, which,

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for all intents and purposes, was
what we would nowadays consider to be equivalent

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to a prime minister. Now,
if you've read the title of this episode,

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you'll be keenly aware that this man
doesn't yet know that this isn't the

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big break he'd been hoping for.
For the first few years, things were

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going rather well, and the Dutch
Republic was dominating European and colonial trade across

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the globe, with a lot of
that success owed to the might of the

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Dutch East India Company. Amsterdam,
Rotterdam and Dordrecht blossomed as enormous wealth flooded

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into these cities. But as the
famous saying goes nothing, gold can stay,

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and their new found wealth and influence
simply could not last forever. History

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repeatedly shows us the truth of tall
poppy syndrome. As soon as one nation

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begins to edge ahead of the pack, the daggers swiftly come out. As

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such, with the rapid economic rise
of the Dutch Republic, the other grand

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old European powers became incredibly hostile towards
them and resentful of their Atlantic trade dominance.

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At this point in time, people
believed in a philosophy which argued that

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there was always a finite amount of
trade that could ever be conducted globally,

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and so if one nation was gaining, that had to mean that you were

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losing. Conversely, the only way
to increase your own share was by acquiring

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the trade away from other nations.
And what better way to both distract and

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deplete a nation's resources than by taking
it in turns to declare war on them.

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So every few years one of the
other nations would do their part in

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crushing the Dutch economic might, with
England taking the role of primary instigator upon

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the high seas and the French upon
the land. In sixteen seventy two,

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these two nations independently declared war on
the Dutch within twenty four hours of each

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other. This combined assault stretched the
Dutch to capacity, and at its outbreak

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was disastrous for your Hund of its
government. As the conflict escalated, the

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French allied with some disparate German forces
and steam rolled the Dutch defenses in the

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east. Within just a few days, these combined forces had overrun and now

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occupied much of the southern and eastern
parts of the Dutch Republic. The citizens

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of Amsterdam were watching in horror as
this all unfolded before their eyes and quickly

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began to panic. This period in
Dutch history has come to be known as

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the Disaster year. Panic became more
widespread, and the internal conflict between the

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Republican coalition headed by the Davit brothers
and the House of Orange now also became

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more pronounced Jahandavit as Prime Minister,
had served in his role for almost twenty

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years, having been re elected on
three separate occasions. As the country prospered,

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so his possession strengthened. But now
at the first major sign of trouble

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that public support would be severely tested. He would also find no backing from

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the House of Orange, as he
had always been strongly anti monarchy and refused

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to let the Prince of Orange hold
any political power. The public, fearing

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for their lives, began turning on
the government, believing they had failed to

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secure the Republic's borders and along with
it, the economic stability of the nation.

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In their minds, it would be
better to go back to a monarchy,

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with the closest thing to a royal
family being the House of Orange,

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with Prince Villim the Third being the
family figurehead. Riots and protests began in

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the streets calling for Prince villem the
Third to assume power from the Republicans.

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As town after town fell in defeat
to the French, the public outcry grew

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louder and louder, until it deafened
the ears of aristocrats across the country.

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On the twenty first of June,
one man decided to take matters into his

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own hands and waited outside the home
of Jehund Vit as the Prime Minister stepped

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out onto the street that day.
The would be assassin lunged at him with

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a knife, piercing Yehandivit's stomach and
wounding him severely. He was then rushed

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to a hospital and stabilized before he
lost too much blood, but it was

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now clear to him that neither he
nor his brother was safe. While Johan

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was still recovering in the hospital,
his brother Cornelius, who was even more

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despised by supporters of the monarchy,
was under the current circumstances of his brother's

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near miss, ironically arrested on charges
of treason for his apparent plot to murder

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the Prince of Orange. Needless to
say, these charges were never proven and

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were clearly designed as a tactic to
remove the only remaining an active divit from

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public office. Cornelius was thrown in
jail and tortured, but still he would

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not confess to any plot. Eventually, after days of not getting the information

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they needed from him, they simply
sentenced him to be exiled forever, never

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again to set foot on Dutch territory. On the morning of the twentieth of

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August, when Johann heard about his
brother's mistreatment, he pulled himself out of

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bed and made his way over to
the jail to see him and plan for

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where he would have to go.
He entered the jail, and, while

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conversing with his brother, a large
crowd began to gather outside the gates.

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They were restless, and after retribution, the Hague militia was called in on

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the auspices of being there to control
the crowd, but it had seemingly all

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become too much for everyone involved.
They were all tired of waiting for the

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men to emerge, and at some
point gave up trying and just stormed the

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prison to find the two Davite brothers
and subject them to some mob justice.

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The two men heard the commotion,
but were trapped without any possible hope for

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escape. The crowd swarmed them,
and in their efforts to fight back,

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gave the militia all the reason they
needed to shoot them right there on the

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spot. The brothers fell down dead
in front of the baying masses, but

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even their now deceased bodies could not
satisfy the blood lust that had been whipped

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into a frenzy by the crowd.
Their bodies were symbols of everything that was

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wrong in the world and became the
canvases upon which the crowd would paint their

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displeasure. At this point, I
just want to give a quick content warning.

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I've tried as bet as I can
to not indulge in unnecessary goriness,

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but I do spell out fairly plainly
what happened to them in the ensuing acts.

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So if you have any sensitive listeners, maybe now's a good time to

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switch off or pause until they're not
in the room and we're back. The

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crowd began dragging their lifeless bodies out
of the prison, tearing off their clothes

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and kicking, hitting and spitting at
them as they went. Ropes were tied

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around their necks and they were strung
up to sway in the wind from some

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nearby gibbets, but even this didn't
seem to quite quench the fury of the

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crowd. A few particularly enraged citizens
began attacking the strung up bodies, hitting,

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clawing, and scratching at them as
if they were the root cause of

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all the world's evils. Some even
grabbed knives and began stabbing and slashing the

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brothers corpses until the wounds grew large
enough that they're intestine began to spill out

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of their stomachs. In what is
now viewed as an incredibly shameful moment and

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one of the lowest points in Dutch
history, the devit Brothers livers and other

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internal organs were pulled from their bodies
and began to be roasted over open fires

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right there in the street. Crowds
gathered around the frankly heinous sight and watched

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in stunned silence as their former prime
minister's liver sizzled and popped above the roaring

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flames. Once it had been satisfactorily
cooked, the men's livers were passed around

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and bites were taken by as many
people as could get their hands on them,

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in some sort of bizarre cannibalistic ritual. Possibly the strangest part of all

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of this was that, by all
accounts from my various sources, this entire

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procedure actually happened in a very subdued
and orderly fashion in style contrast to the

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previous violence and chaos, leading some
scholars to believe that this was in fact

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their twisted intent all along. What
made the lynching of these two men even

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more cruel was that when it occurred, the war, if it had actually

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begun to improve for the Dutch,
and they had begun winning some decisive battles

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against the French, reclaiming their towns
as they went, it is speculated that

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Villain the third, the Prince of
Orange, saw his window of opportunity to

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reclaim power rapidly closing as the tide
of the war turned. Many observers point

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to the Hague militia themselves being the
ones to actually breach the prison gates,

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in contrast to their mandate to in
fact keep the peace amongst the protesters.

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There was also meant to have been
a detachment from the federal cavalry on their

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way to the prison that night,
who at the last minute, were ordered

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to turn around by nine other than
the Prince himself. Now, when viewed

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through this lens, the orderliness of
the divitzs, butchering and consumption seems to

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make a bit more sense when seen
as being orders simply carried out, as

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opposed to the outworkings of a crazed
mob. The three ring leaders on the

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night were well known men, and
instead of being prosecuted by the state,

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Prince villem in fact gave the men
promotions. And while we will never be

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able to say for certain whether the
Prince really did have a guiding hand in

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any of these events, things do
seem to line up a little too nicely

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for us to let him off the
hook. In the aftermath of the horrendous

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lynching, the public's fury abated,
and they collectively seemed to take a moment

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to look at themselves and were horrified
by what they saw. Villam the Third's

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prominence in Dutch society allowed him to
fill the power vacuum left by the murder

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of the Divitz, and instead of
very obviously placing himself in power, he

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simply orchestrated the appointment of a new
prime Minister named Gaspar Fagel, who just

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happened to be incredibly pro orange.
After a few years of ruling the Dutch

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Republic through his puppet Prime Minister,
Prince Villam the third married Mary Stuart,

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the daughter of the Duke of York, and once again put his political meddlings

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to work. Through his marriage,
in sixteen seventy seven, he acquired a

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claim to the English throne. Twelve
years later, in sixteen eighty nine,

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he usurped the crown from his very
own father in law, and so doing

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became King William the Third of England. This show is made entirely by me

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00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:30,039
Nick Charlie Key, with our theme
music having been made by the Enigma that

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is the mysterious Breakmaster cylinder. If
you'd like to support the show, the

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simplest way to do that is over
on our Patreon account. There's just one

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option, so for just two bucks
a month, you'll help me keep producing

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the show, and in return,
you'll get your name forever etched onto our

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supporters Wall of Fame over on our
website. No, and then maybe listen

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out for your name in an upcoming
episode. So until next time, bonappetit. Who yuh