Anonymous: Portrait of Trijn van Leemput (1650)
A painting by an unknown Dutch artist. Trijn van Leemput (1530 - 1607) was a Dutch heroine from the city of Utrecht during the Dutch war of independence (1568-1648). During the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558), castle Vredenburg was built in the city of Utrecht as a coercion castle to retain control over the city's population. The castle was occupied by Spanish soldiers. In 1577 Vredenburg was besieged by Dutch forces and taken after 2 months. The citizens of Utrecht demanded that the castle demolished in order to prevent foreign powers from dominating the city again in future. The city council however refused as they didn't want to offend the emperor. A group of local women under the command of Trijn van Leemput took matters into their own hands and marched on the castle. There Trijn signalled for the start of the demolishment to begin by removing some bricks from the castle walls. Other people soon followed and began breaking down the walls. Painting from 1650.