Europe in the Age of the Reformation

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The Anabaptists

Fall of King Jan

In April 1533, Matthys and others were killed in an attack on the Catholic army. His place was taken by another Dutch leader, Jan Bockelson of Leyden, who abolished the city council completely, appointed twelve elders, and proclaimed himself king. The city was under continuous siege, and only a few thousand of the most radical Anabaptists remained.

In July 1534, the city allowed polygamy, mainly because there were by this time four times as many women as men, and many thousands of children. Bockelson himself took sixteen wives. This was as much a work of social legislation as it was a statement of religious ideology. Nevertheless, actions like these served to make the city, and Anabaptists, notorious throughout Europe.

In the summer of 1535, the city was betrayed by a deserter. The Catholics stormed the city and pillaged it. The leaders were executed.