Editing House of Orange-Nassau (section)

=== 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}}