We haven’t talked about the Dutch in a minute, but our Dutch internet friend recently sent us the map of countries that have eaten their prime minister (here it is, if you want the full rundown), and we need to talk about that.
The Dutch ate their prime minister!
It’s one of those things where we all have an assumption of what the story is, but we want to find out anyway, but then that assumption is right: The people were unhappy with their prime minister, so they ate him. There isn’t a whole lot more. His name was Johan de Witt, the year was 1672 (the Rampjaar, which means Disaster Year, which seems like something we should come back to), and Johan had already resigned his post after being stabbed. Johan’s brother, Cornelis, was arrested, and when Johan went to prison to help him pack before exile (he wouldn’t confess to anything after being tortured, so exile was the logical next step), a mob shot them both and is said to have eaten their livers. It’s possible William II (of the House of Orange-Nassau, which we’ll also come back to sometime) was involved in the plotting, but that hasn’t been proven.
The lesson, as always, is that if you are in a position of power during something which becomes known as the Disaster Year, you should probably flee before your people can get their hungry paws on your liver. That or start drinking so much that the liver is really gross? Or maybe force feed yourself so the liver tastes nice for them and they think more highly of you, which brings us back to the foie gras conversation…I’m not sure. There’s a lesson here, though. And it’s the same lesson as it always is. We just need to figure out what that is.
