Het Prinsenhof - Oranje route

Attention! Museum Prinsenhof Delft is temporarily closed for renovation and renewal. During the renovation, the museum will take visitors outside. The collection will be on display in different places and activities will take place at other locations. More info can be found on the museum website or at the Info Point on Sint Agathaplein.

THE PRINSENHOF

The original convent dedicated to Saint Agatha was confiscated by the city council at the Reformation in 1572 and offered to William of Orange. He built

then lived there, initially with long interruptions, with his family and court. Since then, the building has been known as the Prinsenhof. The Prinsenhof is now a museum.

On 10 July 1584, William of Orange was murdered on the stairs to his study by Balthasar Gerards. According to tradition, the Prince's last words were: "Mon Dieu, ayez pitié de moi et de ce pauvre peuple" (Lord, have mercy on me and on this poor people)...

The murder took place on the lower part of the staircase. The bullet holes are still visible. Balthasar Gerards fled via the courtyard garden after the attack, but was soon caught. He was then tortured for days and executed after four days on the scaffold in front of the town hall. Balthasar Gerards was a Catholic Frenchman who declared after his arrest that he had not acted on the orders of King Philip II but out of Catholic faith. He wanted to put a stop to Protestantism and saw William of Orange as a reprehensible heretic. Before the attack, he was staying at inn 'de Diamant' in Choorstraat. He had posed under the name François Guyon as a refugee Huguenot. He was going to do courier work for William of Orange and bought two pistols to (supposedly) defend himself on the road. He then used these two pistols to kill William of Orange.