Poor Elsje
The majority of the inhabitants of the Republic are and remain poor. But in times of extreme need - unlike in neighboring countries - there is limited support, made possible by the bourgeoisie or the church. There is no such support for Elsje Christiaens, an 18-year-old girl who came from Jutland in search of a better future. She has only been in Amsterdam for a few weeks when she hits her landlady with an axe. The reason is a quarrel about money: Elsje can no longer pay the rent. After a quick court case, Elsje ends up on the gallows field in Amsterdam: an event that half the city attends and that even Rembrandt makes a drawing of. The writers Margriet de Moor, Geert Mak and archaeologist Michiel Bartels, among others, will speak.
