Countess Albertine Agnes of Nassau

Albertine Agnes

Albertine Agnes and her sisters

Albertine Agnes (April 9, 1634 – May 26, 1696), 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

Frederick Henry, Amalia and their youngest three daughters, Albertine Agnes is second on the right, holding hands with her younger sister Henriette Catherine

Albertine Agnes was born in The Hague and was the sixth of nine children born to her parents. Some of her siblings died in childhood. Albertine and four other siblings lived to adulthood, her surviving siblings were: William II, Prince of Orange, Luise Henriette of Nassau, Henriette Catherine of Nassau and Mary of Nassau.

Albertine's paternal grandparents were William the Silent and his fourth wife Louise de Coligny. Her grandfather, William was murdered on the orders of Philip II of Spain who believed that William had betrayed the Spanish king and the Catholic religion.

Her maternal grandparents were Johan Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels and his wife Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein.

In 1652 she married her second-cousin, Willem Frederik of Nassau-Dietz. 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)

Regency

After the death of her husband in 1664, she became regent for her son in Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. When both England and the bishop of Münster declared war on the Netherlands. Because most of the money for defence had been used for the fleet, the army had been neglected. When Groningen was under siege, Albertine Agnes hastened to the city to give moral support. The forces of their enemies retreated, but six years later the Netherlands were attacked from the south, by the French under Louis XIV and from the north by the bishop of Münster and archbishop of Cologne. She organised defence and kept moral high.

In 1676 Albertine Agnes bought a country seat in Oranjewoud and called it Oranjewoud Palace; it was here that she died in 1696.

It is through her that the Dutch queen Beatrix is descended from William the Silent.

Ancestors

William II's ancestors in three generations

Albertine Agnes of Nassau	Father: Frederik Hendrik of Orange	Paternal Grandfather: William the Silent	Paternal Great-grandfather: William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Juliana of Stolberg
		Paternal Grandmother: Louise de Coligny	Paternal Great-grandfather: Gaspard de Coligny
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Charlotte de Laval
	Mother: Amalia of Solms-Braunfels	Maternal Grandfather: Johan Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels	Maternal Great-grandfather: Conrad Graf zu Solms-Braunfels
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Elisabeth von Nassau-Dillenburg
		Maternal Grandmother: Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein	Maternal Great-grandfather: Ludwig Graf von Sayn-Wittgenstein
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Elisabeth zu Solms-Laubach

Sources

• "Women in power 1640-1670" last accessed August 4, 2007

Persondata
Name	Nassau, Albertine Agnes
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1634
Place of birth
Date of death	1696
Place of death