Resulting from an old princely family of the Rhineland, it accepted in heritage the Orange principality, in the South of France, and various fields in the Netherlands and in Franche-Comté.

It was high at the court of Charles Quint, who, in 1555, named it governor-general of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht, but his hostility with authoritarianism and to the religious fanaticism of the Spanishs led it to take the head of the movement of Dutch independence. Indeed, tax pressure exerted by Philippe II (sons of Charles Quint, who reigned in Spain and in the Netherlands), the setting away from the large lords, the repression increased against the Calvinism increased dissatisfaction against Spain and caused the protests increasingly sharp of the nobility of the Netherlands.

After having tried the conciliation (compromised of Breda, 1566), Guillaume passed to the open revolt and organized the rising of 1572. With his brother, Louis de Nassau, like converted to him with the Calvinism, it raised troops, but, beaten, they had to take refuge in Germany. They were again beaten in 1567 by the pile cluster (1508-1582), which organized a wild repression in the country. Dominated over ground by the Guillaume, pile cluster, Louis and other exiled calvinists then launched against Spain the fleet of the “beggars of the sea”, which took the control of the mouths of the Scheldt; in same time, the two brothers managed to turn over the situation and invaded the country.

After the departure of the pile cluster, Guillaume organized Holland and Zealand in a federation which elected it stathouder (1573); after having obtained by the pacification of Ghent (1576) the adhesion of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands which required the departure of the Spanish troops, it entered triumphantly to Brussels. But, frightened the excesses made by the calvinists, the provinces of the South, remained catholic, created the Union of Arras which was placed under the supervision of Spain, while the Protestants of the Seven provinces of North created the Union of Utrecht (1579), thus devoting the final break of the unit Dutchwoman. Philippe II put at price the head of Guillaume, who called some with national sovereignty against the king and offered the crown to the duke of Anjou (brother of Henri III), which does not fill his engagements and had to return to France (1583). The Silent one continued the combat against Spain, and perishes assassinated in 1584 in Delft by a catholic fanatic in the pay of Spanishs.  

Guillaume Silent Maria four times; he married successively Anne d' Egmont (of which he had a son who died young person and without posterity, in 1618), Anne of Saxony (from which he had Maurice de Nassau), Charlotte de Montpensier and Louise de Coligny (of which he had Philippe-Guillaume de Nassau).

Grandson of Guillaume the Silent one and son of Frederic-Henri de Nassau, it succeeded this last like stathouder and general captain and general admiral of the United Provinces. He saw the independence of the United Provinces proclaimed with the treaties of Westphalia (1648) and establishes a true dictatorship. He married Henriette-Marie Stuart (girl of Charles I er of England) and concludes with Louis XIV a treaty for division from the Spanish Netherlands. Its untimely death prevented it from transforming the elective stathoudérat into hereditary monarchy, as it had the intention of it: the general states, dominated by commercial oligarchy, abolished the stathoudérat, and the power passed then for twenty years to the republicans, who had at their head the large boarder Jean de Witt. However, in 1672, in front of the danger presented by the invasion of the armies of Louis XIV, the stathoudérat was restored in favor of his/her posthumous son, Guillaume III (1650-1702).

Guillaume III of Orange-Nassau

($the Hague, 1650 - Kensington, 1702). Stathouder of the United Provinces (1672-1702), then king d' Angleterre, of Scotland and Ireland (1689 -1702).

Posthumous son of Guillaume II of Orange-Nassau. Called by the states of the United Provinces in the catastrophic economic situation opened by the invasion of the French Armies (see: war of Holland), it was named general captain and general admiral with life, and managed to restore the external situation by signing a separated peace with England (1674) and by transforming the war into European conflict. The peace of Nimègue (1678) safeguarded the integrity of the territory of the United Provinces. Nevertheless, in 1682, anxious of the policy of the “meetings” practiced by Louis XIV, Guillaume III prepared against France a new coalition of $the Hague with Spain, Sweden, the Elector Palatine and the emperor.  

He had married Marie, girl of king d' Angleterre Jacques II Stuart, which did not have a son and whose catholic policy worried the English extremely. Jacques II, widower, remarried and had a son; this birth revived fears which the English nourished on the “Catholicism” of their king. The latter then called upon Guillaume III, who unloaded in England on on November 5th, 1688 and no resistance met. The throne having been declared vacant by the Parliament, Guillaume III and Marie were jointly proclaimed king and Queen of England (February 1689). Guillaume beat Jacques II with Boyne (Ireland), in 1690 and had to also fight against France, which by the treaty of Ryswick (1697) recognized it, two years after the death of his wife, only king d' Angleterre.  

In spite of the dissatisfaction with the Netherlands, which found extremely heavy the weight of the war, Guillaume succeeds, in 1701, to convince the general states to take the head of Large the Alliance of $the Hague, directed against Louis XIV in the conflict opened by the Succession of Spain. He died shortly after (1702), without children, of a fall of horse. The crown of England passed to his/her sister-in-law Anne, second girl of Jacques II.