Jan van Schaffelaar

The oldest still existing historical record of Van Schaffelaar's actions can be found in the Utrecht Chronicle ("Utrechse Kroniek") titled "Annales Rerum in Hollandia et Dioceso Ultratrajectina gestarum Ann.MCCCCLXXXI et duobus seqq.

auctore incerto sed accurato et aequali eorum temporum" ("Almanac of Holland-Utrecht Occurrences 1481-83, from the pen of an anonymous but trustworthy and contemporary author"), first published by the 17th-century Utrecht historian Antonius Matthaeus III[1][circular reference] in his series "Veteris aevi analecta" in 1698.

The troops from Rosendael captured the church and tower of the village of Barneveld, but they were shot at with cannons, killing four or five.

Other versions expand on this account by stating that the troops under Van Schaffelaar were promised safe passage from the tower.

Prins, who grew up in Barneveld, found the name Van Schaffelaar in a 1476 muster roll in the Archives Nationales in Paris.

He features in several novels and poems, De Schaapherder by Jan Frederik Oltmans (nl) and Hasse Simonsdochter by Thea Beckman being some of the better known ones.