Willem Frederik Count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 (from 1654 Imperial Prince

Fürst

Fürst is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz...

) of Nassau-Dietz

House of Nassau

The House of Nassau is a diversified aristocratic dynasty in Europe. It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The lords of Nassau were originally titled Count of Nassau, then elevated to the princely class as...

, Stadtholder

Stadtholder

A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...

 of Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 and Drenthe

Drenthe

Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...

.

Family Life

Willem Frederik was the second son of Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz and Sophie Hedwig of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. He married Albertine Agnes of Nassau

Albertine Agnes of Nassau

Albertine Agnes , was a regent of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. She was the fifth daughter of stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels.-Family:...

 the fifth daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange

Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange

Frederick Henry, or Frederik Hendrik in Dutch , was the sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel from 1625 to 1647.-Early life:...

 on May 2, 1652 in Cleves

Kleve

Kleve , is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century onwards, Kleve was capital of a county and later a duchy...

. They had three children:

• Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, married to John William of Saxe-Eisenach
• Henry Casimir II, Count of Nassau-Dietz, married to Henriëtte Amalia of Anhalt-Dessau
• Wilhelmina Sophia Hedwig (1664–1667)

The fact that his wife was only the fifth daughter of Frederick Henry, and that they were married after the death of her father, would later take on a special significance in the quarrel about the inheritance of the title of Prince of Orange

Prince of Orange

Prince of Orange is a title of nobility, originally associated with the Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France. In French it is la Principauté d'Orange....

 after the death of William III of England

William III of England

William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

 in 1702. This was because Frederick Henry had made a provision in his will that if his male line would die out (which was the case with William III) the title of Prince of Orange would be inherited by the male issue of the line of his elder daughter Luise Henriette of Nassau. This might even have been the case without this provision, had William not himself willed the inheritance to a descendant of Willem Frederik. The inheritance therefore came down to a clash of Wills, with the outcome that both claimants eventually took the title and divided the material inheritance.

Willem Frederik had himself a similarly complicated dynastic past. He was a descendant of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg a younger brother of his wife's ancestor William the Silent

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...

. When John died in 1606 his inheritance was divided among his five sons, one of which was the father of Willem Frederik, Ernst Casimir, who received the title of Count of Nassau-Dietz. This title was first inherited by Willem Frederik's elder brother Henry Casimir I of Nassau-Dietz

Henry Casimir I of Nassau-Dietz

Henry Casimir I of Nassau-Dietz was count of Nassau-Dietz and Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe....

, who followed his own elder brother William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg

William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg

William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg was Count of Nassau-Dillenburg from 1606 to 1620, and stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen, and Drenthe. He was the eldest son of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg.William Louis served as a cavalry officer under William the Silent...

 as Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe in 1620.

Career

As a second son, Willem Frederik did not seem destined for the career he eventually would follow. He studied at Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

 and the University of Groningen

University of Groningen

The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...

 and subsequently took a commission in the army of the Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

, like his male ancestors and his brother. As such he was a junior partner of his future father in law and brother in law William II, Prince of Orange

William II, Prince of Orange

William II, Prince of Orange was sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 14 March 1647 until his death three years later.-Biography:...

. However, his elder brother died in action near Hulst

Hulst

Hulst is a municipality and a city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders.- History :Hulst received city rights in the 12th century....

 in 1640. As Henry Casimir was unmarried, and did not have children, Willem Frederik inherited his titles.

However, as the office of stadtholder was not yet hereditary, Willem Frederik only managed to be appointed in Friesland. The stadtholdership in Groningen and Drenthe went to Frederick Henry, not without a struggle with Willem Frederik, however. After Frederick Henry's death in 1647 William II succeeded his father also in these two provinces as stadtholder. Only when William II died in 1650, just a week before his son William III was born, did Willem Frederik obtain the stadtholdership in the other two provinces also.

At that time he might have obtained the stadtholdership in the five other provinces (Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel) also. After all, the stadtholderate was an appointive office. The elder branch of the Nassau family might have "first claim" to the office, but as the "claimant" was a newborn babe, such a claim was not to be taken seriously. Yet, to avoid a quarrel with the members of that elder branch (William II's widow and mother) Willem Frederik did not press his personal claim, but offered to serve as lieutenant-stadtholder in the five provinces until the infant William III would come of age.

He might have been taken up on that offer, except for the events that preceded the death of William II. William had performed a military coup d'état against the States of Holland

States of Holland

The States of Holland and West Frisia were the representation of the two Estates to the court of the Count of Holland...

 in the course of a quarrel about military policy. Willem Frederik had played a key role in that coup by leading the attempt to seize the city of Amsterdam by force in August, 1650. Though the attempted seizure was unsuccessful, the coup had not been. However, after William's demise the Holland Regents

Regenten

In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the regenten were the rulers of the Dutch Republic, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations . Though not formally a hereditary "class", they were de facto "patricians", comparable to that ancient Roman class...

 seized their chance to revert to the status quo ante. They decided to leave the stadtholdership vacant in their province, followed by the four other provinces in which William had been stadtholder, thus inaugurating the First Stadtholderless Period

First Stadtholderless Period

The First Stadtholderless Period or Era is the period in the history of the Dutch Republic in which the office of a Stadtholder was absent in five of the seven Dutch provinces...

. Because of his role in the coup Willem Frederik was politically unacceptable, not just as a stand-in for William III, but also on his own account.

The office of stadtholder was a provincial office. On the federal level William II had fulfilled the office of Captain general

Captain General

Captain general is a high military rank and a gubernatorial title.-History:This term Captain General started to appear in the 14th century, with the meaning of commander in chief of an army in the field, probably the first usage of the term General in military settings...

 of the Union, like his father and uncle before him. Willem Frederik again would normally have been in line for this office (after all, he was a stadtholder in his own right), except for the same political awkwardness that blocked his appointment to stadtholder in Holland. Again he offered himself as lieutenant-captain-general (the function Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

 would fulfil in England after 1702), but again the Regents decided to leave the function vacant. Willem Frederik did not even get the function of acting commander-in-chief (Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

), which went to a noble from Holland.

This was to be the story of Willem Frederik's life. He tried to act as the de facto head of the Orangist

Orangism (Netherlands)

Orangism is a monarchist political support for the House of Orange-Nassau as monarchy of the Netherlands. It played a significant role in the political history of the Netherlands since the Dutch revolt...

 party, in opposition to the States Party faction of Grand Pensionary

Grand Pensionary

The Grand Pensionary was the most important Dutch official during the time of the United Provinces. In theory he was only a civil servant of the Estates of the dominant province among the Seven United Provinces: the county of Holland...

 Johan de Witt

Johan de Witt

Johan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid 17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age...

 and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff, also Cornelis de Graeff van Polsbroek was the most illustrious member of the De Graeff family. He was a mayor of Amsterdam from the Dutch Golden Age and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange...

, but was usually outwitted and checked by De Witt at every step. The fact that the members of the senior branch of the family were suspicious of his ambitions made his position even more difficult, even after he married into that senior branch.

Nevertheless, outside the Netherlands those ambitions met with more success. In 1654 his title of Count was "upgraded" to Imperial Prince (Reichsfuerst) by the Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

. Within the Empire this provided him with more prestige, which however did not translate to more prestige in the Republic.

For a while, in the late 1650s, there seemed to be a chance of becoming Commander-in-chief, as part of a political compromise, brought together by De Witt, but nothing came of it. Only during the invasion of Bernhard von Galen

Bernhard von Galen

Christoph Bernhard Freiherr von Galen was prince-bishop of Münster. He was born into a noble Westphalian family....

 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War

Second Anglo-Dutch War

The Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....

, which threatened his home provinces of Groningen and Friesland (Drenthe was overrun), was he entrusted with a command in the field. He was successful in the reconquest of a strategic fortress (the Deilerschans), but shortly afterward he died on October 31, 1664 in an accident with a pistol that fired unexpectedly.

Before his death he had persuaded the States of Friesland that his son Henry Casimir II (only 7 years old in 1664) should succeed him as stadtholder. The States kept their word, accepting a "regency" of the young boy's mother. The Frisian stadtholderate was made hereditary in 1675.

Sources

"Willem Frederik" in De Nederlandsche Leeuw; Maandblad van het Genealogisch-Heraldiek Genootschap. Jrg. 7, No. 12 (1889), p. 91

External links

Wilhelm Friedrich (Fürst von Nassau-Diez, , in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Bd. 43, Leipzig 1898, p. 133 ff. G.H. Jansen, Patronage en Corruptie – Essay about the way Willem Frederik used patronage
|-

|-
|-