The famous bullet holes left in Delft’s Prinsenhof following the 1584 murder of Prince William of Orange by a Catholic Frenchman are authentic, recent forensic research suggests. An exhibition at Delft’s Prinsenhof on the reconstruction of the murder opens today.

William of Orange, also known as the “Father of the Fatherland”, was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years’ War and resulted in the formal independence of the Dutch Republic in 1648. He was assassinated on 10 July 1584 at his home in Delft, now known as the Prinsenhof, by the Catholic Frenchman Balthasar Gérard, a supporter of King Philip II of Spain.

A 3D-scan of the hall where the prince was killed shows that the wall and the bullet holes are the original ones, according to research carried out by DelftTech, which made a detailed reconstruction of the event. Using a weapon similar to the one that killed the prince, the investigators concluded that the bullets, fired at very close range, are indeed likely to have left William’s body and hit the wall in that spot. Over time the smallish bullet holes in the wall grew larger as generations of curious visitors poked their fingers in them.

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