Chess Forest

This is the place where the nocturnal meeting is said to have been held, known and depicted by Rembrandt as the Conspiracy of Julius Civilis. This is where the Batavian revolt against the Romans was started.

After a fiery speech by Julius Civilis, all those present swore eternal allegiance to each other, and then messengers rushed through the Low Countries to all possible Batavian allies: to the Frisians in the north, to the Cananefates or Kennemers in the west and to the eight Batavian cohorts stationed in the Roman camp of Mainz.

Initially, the rebellion was successful. Two Roman camps in South Holland, Katwijk and Valkenburg, were captured and burned to the ground. Temples were looted. During the first clashes, the Germanic helpers of the Roman troops defected en masse.

According to the historian Tacitus, it took place in a sacrum nemus, a sacred forest, corrupted in the early Dutch translations into ''Schakerbos'' or ''Schakenbos''. Thus they naturally found the historical place in memory of this event, the former seigneury of Schakenbos near Voorburg in Holland.

Source: http://www.nationaalarchief.nl

Dromos