Holland’s Prince William of Orange, also known as William the Silent, was the first head of state to be assassinated by a gun in 1584. His murder left Holland in political quandry as the heir to power, William’s brother, was held hostage in Spain. Queen Elizabeth sent her beloved Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, to rule over Holland as a temporary govenor-general. When he arrived in Scheveningen in 15, he was met with an extraordinary display of fireworks as depicted in this etching from 1586.

A Vreugdevuur for the 40th jubilee of Queen Wilhelmina on Scheveningen’s beach, August 26th, 1938. (Gompers, collection Haags Gemeentearchief)

During World War II, Den Haag (The Hague) was under Nazi occupation. Both of my grandfathers, teenagers at the time, were threatened conscription by Nazi forces and only one them escaped it. When the wars ended, Den Haag’s working class youth turned the city into a combat zone for one week every year. Kids conscripted discarded Christmas trees into New Years Eve bonfires. They developed crews, fought each other and the police, all in the pursuit of protecting and expanding their stash of trees and many other kinds of flammable materials. Neighborhoods like Schilderswijk and Scheveningen became infamous because of it. Over time, the violence evolved into an organized bonfire rivalry between two coastal neighborhoods, Duindorp and Scheveningen. That’s where one of my grandfathers lived.