On January 22, 1536, Jan van Leiden, Anabaptist King of Münster and "Messiah of the last days" was tortured and executed.
Van Leiden, AKA Jan Bockelson, led a general peasant uprising in 1532/3 with Jan Matthys and others, declaring Münster the seat of a New Jerusalem and fulfillment of God's plan for Earth. After Matthys was beheaded outside the city walls defending Münster from attack on Easter, 1534, van Leiden assumed complete dictatorial control, declaring himself the successor to King David. Though there were egalitarian and proto-socialist elements to the Anabaptist movement, which had grown from theocratic Protestant uprisings in Germany a decade before, van Leiden commandeered Münster's wealth, assembled a harem of 16 wives, and presided over summary beheadings.
A siege continued against Münster by cities throughout the region, causing starvation; and panic was suppressed only by the increased viciousness of van Leiden's reign. Once Münster was defeated in the field in 1535 and the city fell, van Leiden and two co-conspirators were publicly tortured with hot tongs, stabbed to death, and left suspended in cages which remain in place within the steeple of St. Lambert's church to this day (the bones were removed after 50 years.)
