Anabaptist riot

One of the many prints after a lost painting by Barend Dircksz, showing events from 10 May 1535 in Amsterdam. In the lower right the mayor Peter Colijn is being killed.

The Anabaptist riot of Amsterdam or Wederdopersoproer generally refers to an event on 10 May 1535 in which 40 Anabaptists occupied the city hall. The city guardsmen stormed the city hall and in the battle that ensued, the mayor Peter Colijn, 20 militiamen and 28 Anabaptists were killed. The surviving Anabaptists were executed in a particularly gruesome manner: their hearts were cut out of their breasts while still alive, their bodies were drawn and quartered, and their heads were stuck on pikes and posted at the city gates. The event was commemorated in a painting by Barend Dircksz.^[1][2][3]

References

1. Barend Dircksz in the Rijksmuseum
2. "The prosecution of Anabaptists in Holland, 1530-1566"
3. “Roth, J. (ed), Stayer, J. (ed) (2006) A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700, page 224”