Thunderclap Heath

The disastrous St. Nicholas Day of 1648: Around the middle of the 17th century, the Kempen region was terrorized and plundered by the roving troops of Charles of Lorraine, who was unable to control his army. The people of Meeuwen and the surrounding area had had enough and decided to deal with it. About 1600 men, from 28 villages, gathered on the Donderslagse Heide for this purpose. Unexpectedly, they were attacked by the soldiers who killed about four hundred villagers. Many of them died when they fled in panic from the better armed troops. There was hardly any fighting and the massacre lasted only a short time. The report of this disastrous day came to us thanks to Willem vander Linden, the town clerk at the time. He wrote, among other things: 'all that could not escape or sich nor stirred or lives in hadde, wertter al geschooten, doorhouwen ende jaemerlijck ende affrijselijck mismaeckt'. In modern Dutch it sounds like this: 'anyone who could not flee or still moved or showed signs of life, was shot at, cut through with the sword and terribly and horribly beaten.'

Lannoo