Editing House of Orange-Nassau (section)

== 17th century ==
=== Expansion of dynastic power ===
Maurice died unmarried in 1625 and left no legitimate children. He was succeeded by his half-brother [[Frederick Henry, prince of Orange|Frederick Henry]] (Dutch: ''Frederik Hendrik''), youngest son of William I. Maurits urged his successor on his deathbed to marry as soon as possible. A few weeks after Maurits's death, he married [[Amalia van Solms-Braunfels]].
Frederick Henry and Amalia were the parents of a son and several daughters. These daughters were married to important noble houses such as the house of [[Hohenzollern]], but also to the Frisian Nassaus, who were stadtholders in [[Friesland]]. His only son, [[William II of Orange|William]], married [[Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange]], the eldest daughter of [[Charles I of England]]. These dynastic moves were the work of Amalia.<ref name="Rowen"/>{{rp|72–74}}<ref name="Geyl">{{cite book |title=Orange and Stuart 1641–1672|first=Pieter |last =Geyl|others = [[Arnold Pomerans]] (trans.)|publisher=Phoenix|edition=reprint|year=2002}}</ref>{{rp|61}}

=== Exile and resurgence ===
{{Further|First Stadtholderless period}}
[[File:Nason, Pieter (attributed to) - Four generations Princes of Orange - William I, Maurice and Frederick Henry, William II and William III - 1662-1666.jpg|thumb|300px|Painting by Willem van Honthorst (1662), diachronically depicting four generations of Princes of Orange: [[William the Silent|William I]], [[Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange|Maurice]] and [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange|Frederick Henry]], [[William II, Prince of Orange|William II]], and [[William III of England|William III]].]]
Frederick Henry died in 1647 and his son succeeded him. As the [[Peace of Münster|Treaty of Munster]] was about to be signed, thereby ending the Eighty Years' War, William tried to maintain the powers he had in wartime as military commander. These would necessarily be diminished in peacetime as the army would be reduced, along with his income.  This met with great opposition from the regents. When [[Andries Bicker]] and [[Cornelis de Graeff]], the great regents of the city of [[Amsterdam]] refused some mayors he appointed, he besieged Amsterdam. The siege provoked the wrath of the regents. William died of smallpox on November 6, 1650, leaving only a posthumous son, [[William III of England|William III]] (*November 14, 1650). Since the Prince of Orange upon the death of William II, William III, was an infant, the regents used this opportunity to leave the stadtholdership vacant. This inaugurated the era in Dutch history that is known as the [[First Stadtholderless Period]].<ref name="Rowen2">{{cite book |title=John de Witt, grand pensionary of Holland, 1625–1672|url=https://archive.org/details/johndewittgrandp0000rowe|url-access=registration|first=Herbert H.|last=Rowen|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1978|isbn=9780691052472}}</ref>  A quarrel about the education of the young prince arose between his mother and his grandmother Amalia (who outlived her husband by 28 years). Amalia wanted an education which was pointed at the resurgence of the House of Orange to power, but Mary wanted a pure English education. The Estates of Holland, under [[Jan de Witt]] and Cornelis de Graeff, meddled in the education and made William a "child of state" to be educated by the state. The doctrine used in this education was keeping William from the throne. William became indeed very docile to the wishes of the regents and the Estates.<ref name=Geyl/><ref name=Rowen2/>

The Dutch Republic was attacked by France and England in 1672. The military function of stadtholder was no longer superfluous, and with the support of the [[Orangism (Netherlands Republic)|Orangist]]s, William was restored, and he became the stadtholder. William successfully repelled the invasion and seized royal power. He became more powerful than his predecessors from the Eighty Years' War.<ref name=Geyl/><ref name=Rowen2/> In 1677, William married his cousin [[Mary II of England|Mary Stuart]], the daughter of the future king [[James II of England]]. In 1688, William embarked on a mission to depose his Catholic father-in-law from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. He and his wife were crowned the King and Queen of England on April 11, 1689. With the accession to the thrones of the three kingdoms, he became one of the most powerful sovereigns in Europe, and the only one to defeat [[Louis XIV of France]].<ref name=Geyl/> William III died childless after a riding accident on March 8, 1702, leaving the main male line of the House of Orange extinct, and leaving Scotland, England and Ireland to his sister-in-law [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]].

=== Position in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century ===
[[File:Willem II prince of Orange and Maria Stuart.jpg|right|thumb|Willem II (1626–50), prince of Orange, and his wife Princess Maria Stuart of England (1631–60).]]

The house of Orange-Nassau was relatively unlucky in establishing a hereditary dynasty in an age that favoured hereditary rule.   The [[House of Stuart|Stuarts]] and the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbons]] came to power at the same time as the Oranges, the [[House of Vasa|Vasas]] and [[House of Oldenburg|Oldenburgs]] were able to establish a hereditary kingship in Sweden and Denmark, and the [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollerns]] were able to set themselves on a course to the rule of Germany.  The House of Orange was no less gifted than those houses, in fact, some might argue more so, as their ranks included some the foremost statesmen and captains of the time.   A 104 years separated the death of William the Silent from the accession of his great-grandson, William III, as King of England. Although the institutions of the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] became more republican and entrenched as time went on, William the Silent had been offered the countship of Holland and Zealand, and only his assassination prevented his accession to those offices.  This fact did not go unforgotten by his successors.<ref name="Rowen">{{cite book |title=The princes of Orange: the stadholders in the Dutch Republic|first=Herbert H.|last =Rowen|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1988}}</ref>{{rp|28–31,64,71,93,139–141}}

The [[Prince of Orange]] was also not just another noble among equals in the Netherlands.  First, he was the traditional leader of the nation in war and in rebellion against Spain.  He was uniquely able to transcend the local issues of the cities, towns and provinces.  He was also a sovereign ruler in his own right (see [[Prince of Orange]] article).  This gave him a great deal of prestige, even in a republic.  He was the center of a real court like the Stuarts and Bourbons, French speaking, and extravagant to a scale.  It was natural for foreign ambassadors and dignitaries to present themselves to him and consult with him as well as to the [[States General of the Netherlands|States General]] to which they were officially credited.  The marriage policy of the princes, allying themselves twice with the Royal Stuarts, also gave them acceptance into the royal caste of rulers.<ref name="Haley">{{cite book |title=The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century|first=K(enneth) H(arold) D(obson)|last =Haley|publisher=Thames and Hudson|year=1972|pages= 75–83|isbn=0-15-518473-3}}</ref>{{rp|76–77,80}}

Besides showing the relationships among the family, the family tree below also points out an extraordinary run of bad luck. In the 211 years from the death of William the Silent to the conquest by France, there was only one time that a son directly succeeded his father as Prince of Orange, Stadholder and Captain-General without a minority (William II).  When the Oranges were in power, they also tended to settle for the actualities of power, rather than the appearances, which increasingly tended to upset the ruling regents of the towns and cities. On being offered the dukedom of Gelderland by the States of that province, [[William III of England|William III]] let the offer lapse as liable to raise too much opposition in the other provinces.<ref name="Haley"/>{{rp|75–83}}
<gallery class="center" >
File:Counts of Nassau.jpg|The collateral house of Nassau: the four brothers of Willem I, prince of Orange: Jan (1536–1606), sitting, Hendrik (1550–1574), Adolf (1540–1568) and Lodewijk (1538–1574), counts of Nassau.
File:Willem Jacobsz. Delff 003.jpg|"The Nassau Cavalcade", members of the House of Orange-Nassau on parade in 1621 from an engraving by Willem Delff. From left to right in the first row: [[Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange|Prince Maurice]], [[Philip William, Prince of Orange|Prince Philip William]] and [[Frederick Henry, prince of Orange|Prince Frederick Henry]], between Maurice and Frederick Henry is [[William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Delff |first=Willem Jacobsz. |title=De Nassauische Cavalcade |work=From an engraving on exhibit in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |publisher=Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |url= http://www.rijksmuseum.nl |access-date=26 April 2011}}</ref>
File:Groepsportret van Vier Graven van Nassau met bedienden 1662-1670.jpg|Princes of the collateral House of Nassau-Dietz from the Stadhouderlijk Hof (nowadays called [[Princessehof Ceramics Museum]]) in [[Leeuwarden]],  H.Prince of Nassau, Henry Casimir, Prince of Nassau, George, Prince of Nassau, and Willem Frederick, Prince of Nassau_Dietz
</gallery>

The house of Orange was also related by marriage to several of these key European dynasties of the time, [[House of Stuart|Stuart]], [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]], and [[House of Wittelsbach#Palatinate branch|Palatine]], [[House of Hannover|Hannover]] and [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]]. These alliances had consequences for all of them.  William III used his double relationship with the Stuarts to justify his co-equal status with his wife on the English throne after the Glorious Revolution.  As an [[fils de france|arrière petit fils de France]], albeit in the female line, he felt doubly insulted by his cousin [[Louis XIV]]'s occupation and seizure of his sovereign [[principality of Orange]].  His death without children of his own ensured the passing of Orange to a Dutch cousin and years of squabbles over the same, while securing the British throne to the more distantly related [[House of Hanover]].

{{Houses of Orange and Stuart}}