Balthasar Gérard

Balthasar Gérard
Portrait of Gérard, c. 16th century. Author unknown. Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof, Delft
Born	c. 1557 Vuillafans, France
Died	14 July 1584 (aged 26 or 27) Delft, Dutch Republic
Nationality	Franc-Comtois
Other names	Gerards, Gerardts
Known for	Assassination of William the Silent

Balthasar Gérard (alternative spellings Gerards or Gerardts; c. 1557 – 14 July 1584) was the assassin of the Dutch independence leader, William I of Orange (William the Silent). He killed William I in Delft on 10 July 1584, by shooting him twice with a pistol, and was afterwards tried, convicted, and gruesomely executed.

Gérard was born in Franche-Comté (then belonging to Spain, afterwards to France). He came from a Roman Catholic family with 11 children and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed William the Silent, to whom he referred as a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race".

After the reward offered by Philip was published, Gérard left for Luxembourg, where he learned that Juan de Jáuregui had already been preparing to attempt the assassination, but this attempt did not succeed. In March 1584 he went to Trier, where he put his plan before the regent of the Jesuits but another Jesuit convinced him to change his original scheme and go to the prince of Parma. In Tournai, after holding counsel with a Franciscan, Father Gery, Gérard wrote a letter, a copy of which was deposited with the guardian of the convent, and the original presented personally to the Prince of Parma. In the letter Gérard wrote, in part, "The vassal ought always to prefer justice and the will of the king to his own life."