Balthasar G%C3%A9rard

Balthasar Grard was the assassin of the Dutch independence leader, William I of Orange . He killed William I in Delft onJuly 1584, by shooting him twice with a pistol, and was afterwards tried, convicted, and gruesomely executed.

Grard was born in FrancheComt . He came from a Roman Catholic family withchildren and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. OnMarch 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.

Source: Wikipedia