“Monday, 13th May, 1619. Today was executed with the sword here in The Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the steps of the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveldt, in his life Knight, Lord of Berkel, Rodenrys, etc., advocate of Holland and West Friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty-three years two months and five days since 8th May, 1586; a man of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom – yes, extraordinary in every respect. He that stands let him see that he does not fall, and may God be merciful to his soul. Amen.” So reads a formal entry in the register of the states of Holland, marking the public execution of perhaps the most accomplished statesman in the history of the Dutch Republic. The single most important charge against the seventy-one-yearold Advocate referred to in the register – high treason – did, however, not appear in the sentence. The authorities maintained that “he had been looking toward the enemy” (Spain), but that, in light of his decades of service to the nation, they had “spared him the rack” – or, as they put it, a “sharper investigation” (Motley, Life and Death, vol. XIV, 228).