Balthasar Gérard was the assassin of the Dutch revolt's leader, William the Silent of the House of Orange. He killed William I in Delft on 10 July 1584, by shooting him twice with a pair of pistols, and was afterwards tried, convicted, and executed.
Gérard was born in Franche-Comté. He came from a Roman Catholic family with 11 children and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, peerage and an inheritable estate to anyone who killed or captured William the Silent, to whom he referred in his decree as a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race".