Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange

Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange
Prince Frederick Henry by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt
Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel
In office 1625 – 1647
Preceded by	Prince Maurice
Succeeded by	Prince William II
Born	29 January 1584(1584-01-29) Delft, Dutch Republic
Died	14 March 1647 (aged 63) The Hague, Dutch Republic
Resting place	Nieuwe Kerk, Delft, Netherlands 52°00′44″N 4°21′39″E / 52.0123°N 4.3609°E / 52.0123; 4.3609
Spouse(s)	Amalia of Solms-Braunfels

Frederick Henry, or Frederik Hendrik in Dutch (29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647), was the sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel from 1625 to 1647.

Biography

Early life

Frederick Henry was born on 29 January 1584 in Delft, Holland, Dutch Republic. He was the youngest child of William the Silent and Louise de Coligny. His father William was stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland. His mother Louise was daughter of the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, and was the fourth wife of his father.

Frederick Henry was born six months before his father's assassination on 10 July 1584. The boy was trained to arms by his elder brother Maurice, one of the finest generals of his age. Frederick Henry was married in 1625 to Amalia of Solms-Braunfels.

Stadtholder

On the death of Maurice in 1625, Frederick Henry succeeded him in his paternal dignities and estates, and also in the stadtholderates of the five provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel and Guelders, and in the important posts of captain and admiral-general of the Union.

Frederick Henry proved himself almost as good a general as his brother, and a far more capable statesman and politician. For twenty-two years he remained at the head of government in the United Provinces, and in his time the power of the stadtholderate reached its highest point. The "Period of Frederick Henry," as it is usually styled by Dutch writers, is generally accounted the golden age of the republic. It was marked by great military and naval triumphs, by world-wide maritime and commercial expansion, and by a wonderful outburst of activity in the domains of art and literature.

The chief military exploits of Frederick Henry were the sieges and captures of Grol in 1627, 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629, of Maastricht in 1632, of Breda in 1637, of Sas van Gent in 1644, and of Hulst in 1645. During the greater part of his administration the alliance with France against Spain had been the pivot of Frederick Henry's foreign policy, but in his last years he sacrificed the French alliance for the sake of concluding a separate peace with Spain, by which the United Provinces obtained from that power all the advantages they had been seeking for eighty years.

Frederick Henry built the country houses Huis Honselaarsdijk, Huis ter Nieuwburg, and for his wife Huis ten Bosch, and he renovated the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Huis Honselaarsdijk and Huis ter Nieuwburg are now demolished.^[1]

Death

Frederick Henry died on 14 March 1647 in The Hague, Holland, Dutch Republic. He left a wife, a son William II, Prince of Orange, and four daughters.

On Frederick Henry's death, he was buried with great pomp beside his father and brother at Delft. The treaty of Munster, ending the long struggle between the Dutch and the Spaniards, was not actually signed until January 30, 1648, the illness and death of the stadtholder having caused a delay in the negotiations. Frederick Henry left an account of his campaigns in his Mémoires de Frédéric Henri (Amsterdam, 1743). See Cambridge Mod. Hist. vol. iv. chap. 24.

The funeral procession of Frederik Hendrik

Children

Prince Frederick Henry and his wife Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and his three youngest daughters, portrayed by Gerard van Honthorst

Frederick and Amalia's surviving daughters

Frederick Henry and his wife Amalia van Solms had nine children:

• William II, Prince of Orange (1626—50)
• Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627—67)
• Henriëtte Amalia of Nassau (1628)
• Elisabeth of Nassau (1630)
• Isabella Charlotte of Nassau (1632—42)
• Albertine Agnes of Nassau (1634–96)
• Henriette Catherine of Nassau (1637—1708)
• Hendrik Lodewijk of Nassau (1639)
• Maria of Nassau (1642—88)

Ancestors

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange

• (Dutch) Frederik Hendrik. Prins van Oranje. Een biografisch drieluik, a biography by J.J. Poelhekke