The Dutch (19 page)

The Chief Magistrate at this time, originally from a Catholic family, was forced to hide his conversion to Calvinism, but suspicions remained. He was forced to resign his judicial position when Royal influences dominated the city. The High Sheriff, with a similar background, was demoted and delegated to checking weights and measurements in the marketplace. Since re-acquiring their positions under the new government, their efforts to diminish the power of the gangs had been inhibited by influential wealthy merchants with ties to the bandits. These rich merchants were increasing their fortunes by supplying tax free items such as beer, wine, and weapons to the criminal enclaves. These influential men reminded the magistrate and sheriff that they lacked legal authority to act on events past the Ban-Palen posts. This inhibited assistance to the small farming and fishing communities that lay beyond the city's walls that were being ravaged by crime. These villages supplied the city with food and other important items. This commerce was not only being threatened, it was being taken over by the gangs.

The Baron had prepared for his first meeting with the magistrate and sheriff. He listened intently to the frustration both men expressed when they told him of the legal barriers. They told him they had no authority to take action outside the city. They made mentioned of the merchants who had flaunted all attempts to bring to justice to those who committed grievous crimes outside the city walls. When there was a pause in the conversation, the Baron handed each a document with the seal of the Dutch Republic's Estates General. The Hague had temporarily extended the lawful authority of both the Chief Magistrate and High Sheriff to a distance of ten miles from Amsterdam. The Baron warned them to restrain their use of this new jurisdiction until his own plans were finalized. He ordered them to prepare a “List of Scoundrels' with the names of as many gang members as possible. The name of each man should be marked with an “X” if he were too leniently sentenced by the former corrupt magistrates. They were given a week to complete the list and told that the merchant collaborators' names should appear at the very top of the list.

The leaders of these gangs were no fools and the arrival of Clifford van Weir caused them alarm. They had their spies watching the movements of the Baron, and the cities gates were monitored so they might be forewarned should the Baron move against any of them. The Baron spent the next week playing the role of a congenial leader getting to know his constituents. At his first meeting with the city estate he had serious discussion regarding the city's defenses and the need for an allotment of funds to pay his troops. He also bantered good-humoredly about the inadequate furnishing at his home. He told the council he planned to activate units of the different militias for “training.” When some nobles and rich merchants objected to training with ordinary soldiers, he acceded to their objections and promised to limit the activation to the Clover Militia and a few selected units of the Common Militia.

Every day he lunched at the home of a noble who had gathered his friends and family for the occasion. When requested he would tell stories about battling the Spanish but mostly listened to his hosts and their friends. These conversations were in French, the language of the Dutch aristocracy. He had trouble hiding his distaste for newer nobles whose titles were purchased recently and still had difficulty with the language of true nobility. The Lord of the Droger Land was more at home in the market places he visited each morning. Each market was identified by the product sold, and he tried to visit a few markets every morning. His retainers carried a few bags of freshly baked pastries, which he gave to the poor children he encountered on the narrow streets. While the prices in the fish and vegetable markets had remained stable, the soaring costs at the cheese, grain and meat marketplace were becoming a problem for people of modest means. The lack of affordable staples made life unbearable for the poor, and the high prices could be traced directly to the activities of the gangs.

After his lunch with the nobles, the Baron ended his day with a tour of the ethnic enclaves whose diversity contributed much to the economic health of the city. The first afternoon was spent in discussions with the growing community of Dutch merchants from Antwerp who had fled the Spanish persecutions in the south. These men once controlled the grain trade in Europe and were rebuilding their networks with the hope Amsterdam would become the center of these new operations. On the second day of these visitations, the Baron activated the Clover Militia, who disappeared within the old monastery walls to train with his horsemen. At his luncheon with nobles the next day, he showed some interest in a suggestion regarding negotiations with gang leaders for safer, freer and less expensive access to the city. It was a ploy on his part to lure the gangs into complacency. That afternoon he visited neighborhoods where Catholics had begun to cluster following the Protestant takeover. Two years earlier the Catholic residents had been banned from possessing arms or participating in militia activities. They requested reconsideration regarding the matter claiming loyalty to the city. The next morning rumors spread across the city that groups of armed Catholic horsemen were being admitted to the monastery grounds. For the rest of the week the Baron continued his trips to the market places, his luncheons with the nobility and discussions with different ethnic groups. Once such meeting was with former Spanish and Portuguese Jews, who held all but a monopoly on the trade in precious gemstones. They were the largest group of money lenders in the city. He also visited with was the growing community of French Huguenots and their families who had fled the terror of one or more of the first five religious wars in France, knowing the warfare would continue. He received a warm welcome and pledges of support from his fellow Calvinist who disliked any version of anarchy.

At midnight, on the seventh day after his arrival, the Baron led a mixed force of his own cavalry and the Clover Militia in a showdown with the thieves. The Clover militiamen were reinforced by the return of their Catholic members. All rode toward the city's main gate. When they reached the gate, they split into five columns, pausing only to witness the hanging of the greedy merchants along with a handful of the gang's sleepy sentinels who failed in their task to give warning. Each formation followed a different roadway, riding silently toward their assigned location. The target of each column was a “Thieves Village” which lay past the Ban-Palen posts on the five roads that led to Amsterdam. The Baron's plan was to attack each and later move against the gang's hideouts along the canals. A deputy magistrate rode with each column to dispense immediate judgment. Each column was ordered to apprehend every able bodied male found in each village. If the man's name appeared on the “Scoundrels List,” he was to be hung immediately. Anyone who resisted was to be hung immediately. Those charged with the crime of “association” could be hung at the discretion of the deputy magistrate.

The Baron led his column to the largest village on the road which led to The Hague. They blocked the exits and at first broke into the inns and taverns crowded with wild men, some too drunk to provide much resistance. The fighting was more intense in other buildings when the commotion awakened sleeping wild men, giving them time to gather weapons. In a short period of time, the Baron's men killed any who resisted and detained the rest. The captured bandits were bound and lined along the roadway. When the captives refused to identify themselves, the deputy magistrate ordered them all hung. All five villages targeted for the assault were subdued, but many casualties were suffered at two of the villages. The element of surprise was lost when distant gunfire alerted the brigands. In those two villages, the fighting was fierce, but, even forewarned, few of the wild men escaped. Many of the men who perished were Catholic members of the Clover Militia. It would be harder to question the loyalty of all Catholic citizens to Amsterdam in the future.

As dawn broke, the five columns reunited near the city's main gate. To the Baron's surprise the noble's militia had awaited his return pledging fidelity to his commands. He allowed the nobles and the other wealthy gentlemen to take a position near the middle of his reforming column. This main body was soon reinforced by a large group of French Huguenot horsemen and many prosperous mounted merchants. The Jewish community also sent a small contingent of well-armed, mounted men. The most valuable addition to the Baron's force was a contingent of the common militia sent by the magistrate. These unlikely horsemen were mounted on draft animals which also pulled five small artillery pieces capable of firing a three pound ball. The Baron didn't know it at the time, but history would remember this day's battle as the “The Flight of the Three Pound Shot.” The artillery unit was commanded by another son of the Droger Land who had never set foot on its sacred soil, Ensign Gustoff Roulfs. Farmers and the Baron's own scouts had reported the gangs had abandoned their hideouts along all the canals and were consolidating a defensive position where the largest canal met the Zuider Zee. The site had stone buildings which the wild men were attempting to turn into fortresses. They were digging ditches and building barricades north and south of the buildings, using the canal itself as a defense barrier on the west. On the east, directly in front of the Baron's advance, hundreds of gang members had hidden themselves in the tree line. They hoped to ambush those who attempted to cross the open field.

The Baron led a rapid advance through orchards and cultivated fields, slowing only to manhandle the artillery through a small swamp. He halted his men at the edge of the last field where one could observe the wood line and the stone buildings. As the artillery pieces began to arrive he sent for the battery's commander. A mere boy appeared with a confident look on his face.

“I am Ensign Gustoff Roulfs, in command of your artillery, My Lord,” said the boy.

The Baron couldn't help but smile at the thought of such a young man commanding his cannons. “Well Ensign, place your guns here and fire upon the men in the woods,”

“I am a Roulfs my Lord; you know my father Henri the shipbuilder and such a placement will do little to serve your advance.”

“Where would you place the guns young man?” The Baron asked.

“My Lord, I would place the canons but a whisper out of musket range in the field itself. From that distance, when my balls strike the trees, they will shatter the wood, sending thousands of splinters upon the enemy. I promise you my lord, after five or six volleys, the thieves will be forced to attack my battery or withdraw,” he replied.

“Ensign Roulfs, place the guns where you think best; I will come to your assistance if the need arises; keep yourself safe, your father and I fought brigands like these when I was younger than you.”

Gustoff set his battery far closer to the woods than the Baron anticipated, but the psoriatic musket shots of the enemy seem to be falling short of the artillerymen. As the cannons were loaded, the boy could be seen walking calmly from one gun to the next, aiming each individually, before he gave the command to fire them together. After the first volley, an audible groan came from the trees. The young ensign had an eye for distance and had not straddled his guns, nor did he seem to use a gunner's ruler between volleys. Yet his fire was right on target, and after only four volleys, not five, a very bloody and bewildered mob of wild men left the shelter of the trees and recklessly charged the battery that had splintered them and their position.

The Baron, as promised, quickly reinforced the battery with a rapid deployment of the Clover Militia around the guns. Their small arm fire slowed the attackers while the Baron's cavalry and the remaining forces of nobles, merchants, Huguenots, and Jews simultaneously struck both flanks of the emerging men with pistols and swords. The slaughter of the wild men ended with one last volley from the cannons that Gustoff had loaded, this time with pieces of chain and iron nails. When the smoke cleared the ground was covered mostly with brigands. A great pile of bodies lay within yards of the five small field guns. There had been no quarter given. The carnage was witnessed by the surviving gang members around the stone buildings.

The Baron led an immediate cavalry charge through the trees. He rode within a stone's throw of the stone houses filled with gang members too stunned to fire their weapons. The charge quickly routed a large group of thieves positioned to defend the canal. The speed of the attack allowed only a few wild men the opportunity to escape by swimming to temporary safety on the other bank on the canal. The stone houses, still filled with wild men, were taken more slowly. There was fierce hand-to-hand combat after a few of Gustoff's well-placed cannon shots shattered a shuttered window or a locked door. Inside each stone building, the bandit's cries of “parlay” were always answered by the sound of a three-pound cannon ball in flight. No quarter was given that day. The power of the gangs had been broken. The remaining wild men met their final fate alone or in small groups at the hands of the enraged rural population they terrorized. Groups of farmers and fishermen, armed with the magistrate's approval, relentlessly hunted the survivors attempting to escape justice. Following the battle, the Baron sent men to each “Thieves village or hideout.” They were carefully searched and after “requisitioning” anything of value, each was set afire. An immense treasure of gold, silver, and precious gems were unearthed. It was equally distributed to the soldiers and militiamen who participated in the fighting and a double share was given to the families of those men killed. The Baron had anything else of value distributed among the poor.

A week later, after the fallen heroes were properly buried, a holiday was declared in their honor and a celebration prepared for Amsterdam. The highlight was a military procession led by the Baron Clifford van Weir. At his side rode the lowly Ensign of Artillery, Gustoff Roulfs. He was mounted on a great grey war horse purchased for him by grateful Jewish merchants. Tucked into Gustoff's waist band were two silver plated matchlock pistols, a gift from the Lord of the Droger Land, who was given the same pistols a week earlier by the city. The Baron Clifford van Weir turned to the young man: