If a distinctive sound could capture a time and place in history, then the Dutch Republic in the early seventeenth century would be represented by the clamor of breaking glass. This was the dominant noise at night. Throwing stones at windows was the most common form of vandalism by students. Regardless of whether they were locals or foreigners, young men vented their frustration by throwing stones at windows. The city council of Schiedam went so far as to forbid young people from playing kolf, a primitive form of golf where balls were battered around on the ground with sticks. A common sport for youngsters to play on town squares, it became a problem when the golf balls became airborne, smashing windows and damaging roof tiles on public buildings and churches.

College life

In university towns, the vandalism was of a different nature. Whereas flying golf balls accidently caused damage to property, in university towns the violence was deliberate. The academic court of the University of Leiden, which held jurisdiction over the students and protected them from civil law, offers a glimpse of what student life in the seventeenth century entailed. One of the most common crimes committed by students was throwing stones at windows. Most Dutch houses in the seventeenth century had shutters on the outside, which the inhabitants closed at night to conserve heat. One of the most common misdeeds committed by students in Leiden was to open the shutters and smash the tiny paned windows with the butts of their pistols or cobblestones from the street.

On a December night in Leiden in 1623, Lucas van Hulten and Otto Farmesom were struck by the same idea. Both young men were law students and had known each other a long time from their student days in Groningen. Six months earlier they had arrived in Leiden, where they enrolled at the university. Like many students, they went out late at night, gallivanting and throwing stones. This time, however, everything went wrong. Having thrown stones through somebody's window, the boys ran in opposite directions and 23-year-old Otto was arrested. After two days of incarceration, Otto finally confessed, claiming that he had not thrown any stones and that he was an innocent by-stander.