French riders in Muiden

1672 is the Disaster Year, in which the Dutch Republic is attacked from all sides. The French king Louis XIV – the Sun King – marches with an army of over 100,000 men straight through our country. Nothing and no one seems capable of stopping the French advance.

After the simple capture of Naarden, five French horsemen move ahead and enter the unfortified Muiden. But instead of informing their headquarters that the way to Amsterdam is clear, they decide to relax in the charming harbor town.

The French enter lodging 'De Hertog van Gelre' (now café-restaurant Floris V). There, they belittle Albert Aris Snoeck, a mayor of Muiden. They even take his beautiful necklace with golden buttons from him. Another Frenchman casually gets a shave while he's at it. After this, they all take a strong drink, mount their horses, and leisurely head back to Naarden.

The news of the French spreads like wildfire through Muiden and beyond. Any moment, the French are expected back at full strength. But a few hours later, it is not French troops that arrive, but an Amsterdam force in the harbor town. Their commander is the 68-year-old Johan Maurits van Nassau. His nickname is 'the Brazilian' because he was governor in Dutch-Brazil for many years. He immediately has the Zeedijk and the Vechtdijk cut through, causing the surrounding area to flood. In no time at all, he turns Muiden into an impregnable fortress and halts the French advance. The Muiderslot serves as his headquarters. A nice accommodation, but not as luxurious as the Mauritshuis in The Hague where he lived earlier.

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