by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Maurits (Maurice in English), Prince of Orange was born on November 14, 1567, at Castle Dillenburg, the ancestral seat of the Orange branch of the House of Nassau now in Hesse, Germany. He was the only surviving son and the fourth of the five children of Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange and his second wife Anna of Saxony. Maurits was named after his maternal grandfather Maurice, Elector of Saxony.

Maurits had four siblings but only two survived childhood:

• Anna (born and died 1562)
• Anna (1563 – 1588), married her first cousin Count Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg, no children
• Maurits (1564 – 1566), died in early childhood
• Emilia (1569 – 1629), married Prince Manuel of Portugal, had eight children

Maurits had three half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to Anna van Egmont:

• Maria (1553 – 1555), died in early childhood
• Filips Willem, Prince of Orange (1554 – 1618), married Eleonora of Bourbon-Condé, no children
• Maria (1556 – 1616), married Count Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein, no children

Maurits had six half-sisters from his father’s third marriage to Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier:

• Louise Juliana (1576 – 1644), married Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine, had eight children including Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, grandfather of King George I of Great Britain
• Elisabeth (1577 – 1642), married Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, had seven children
• Catharina Belgica (1578 – 1648), married Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg, had ten children
• Charlotte Flandrina (1579 – 1640), converted to Roman Catholicism and became a nun
• Charlotte Brabantina (1580 – 1631), married Claude, Duc de Thouars, had four children
• Emilia Antwerpiana (1581 – 1657), married Friedrich Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Landsberg, had three children

Maurits had one half-brother from his father’s fourth marriage to Louise de Coligny:

• Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau (1584 – 1647), married Countess Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, had nine children including Willem II, Prince of Orange who was the father of Willem III, Prince of Orange who was later King William III of England; the current Dutch royal family are Frederik Hendrik’s descendants through two of his daughters

The marriage of Maurits’ parents was not a happy one. The situation between Anna and Willem was strained and they often lived apart. In early 1571, when Maurits was only four years old, his mother Anna realized she was pregnant. Immediately, the paternity was controversial. Two possibilities were discussed: either Anna’s husband Willem, who had visited Anna and his children during Christmas 1570, was the father or the lawyer Jan Rubens, the future father of the painter Peter Paul Rubens, who spent a lot of time with Anna as her legal adviser was the father. A daughter, Christine, was born in August 1571. Willem accused Rubens and Anna of adultery and forced Anna to agree to a divorce. Anna was sent to her family in Saxony where they imprisoned her as an adulteress until her death five years later. Maurits never saw his mother again and his elder half-sister Maria took over the care of Maurits and his sisters.

Maurits grew up at the family ancestral home, Castle Dillenburg, and was educated in Heidelberg (now in Germany) and Leiden (now in the Netherlands) with his first cousin Willem Lodewijk, the eldest son of his paternal uncle Count Jan VI of Nassau-Dillenburg.

In 1568, Willem I, Prince of Orange, Maurit’s father, became the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs who held the land that we now know as the Netherlands and Belgium. That set off the Eighty Years’ War and resulted in the formal independence of the Dutch Republic in 1581. In 1568, Maurits’ 13-year-old half-brother and the eldest son of his father, Filips Willem, was a student at the University of Leuven (now in Belgium). Angered by Willem’s actions against Spain, King Philip II of Spain had Filips Willem abducted, taken to Spain, and held hostage. In Spain, Filips Willem was made to convert to Roman Catholicism and educated as a Spaniard. He never saw his father again.

In 1580, Willem I was declared an outlaw by Philip II. He called Willem “a pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race” and offered 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed Willem. Willem was severely injured by an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1582. On July 10, 1584, Balthasar Gérard, a subject and supporter of Philip II who regarded Willem as a traitor to both Philip and the Catholic religion, succeeded in assassinating Willem.

Filips Willem became Prince of Orange, a French hereditary title, not a Dutch title. However, he was not allowed to return to his homeland because he was not trusted and was considered an agent of Spain. In his absence, his sister Maria vigorously defended his claims to the title Prince of Orange and other titles against the claims of their half-brother Maurits. In 1585, 17-year-old Maurits held his father’s elective offices as Stadtholder (Governor) of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland. Five years later, Maurits became Stadtholder of the provinces of Guelders, Overijssel, and Utrecht. As the Stadtholder of five of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic, Maurits was effectively the ruler of the Dutch Republic. In 1590, Maurits became Captain-General and Admiral of the military forces of the Dutch Republic. He organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt and won fame as a military strategist.

In 1596, 28 years after he was kidnapped, Filips Willem returned to the Netherlands and lived at the Palace of Nassau in Brussels. At the request of the States-General (the legislature), he did not engage in political affairs. In 1606, at the age of 51, he married 19-year-old Éléonore de Bourbon-Condé but the couple remained childless. Filips Willem died on February 20, 1618, at the age of 63 and Maurits succeeded him as Prince of Orange.

Maurits never married but he did have a number of illegitimate children.

by Margaretha van Mechelen

• Willem of Nassau, Lord of De Lek (1601–1627)
• Lodewijk of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd (1604–1665)
• Maurits (1604–1617)

by Cornelia Jacobsdochter

• Anna (died 1673)

by Ursula de Rijck

• Elisabeth (1611–1679)
• Karl (ca. 1612–1637)

by Anna van de Kelder

• Karl Maurits

by Deliana de Backer

• Eleonora (died 1673)

Maurits refused to marry his mistress Margaretha van Mechelen because she was Catholic. On his deathbed, he threatened to legitimize her sons which would then threaten the succession of his unmarried half-brother Frederik Hendrik. A few years earlier, Frederik Hendrik had met Princess Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and asked her to become his lover. She refused saying she would only marry him. Frederik Hendrik summoned Amalia and married her on April 4, 1625. Maurits died on April 23, 1625, at the age of 57 and was buried in the royal vault in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.

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