Prince of Orange


Prince of Orange is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France.
The title "Prince of Orange" was created in 1163 by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, by elevating the county of Orange to a principality, in order to bolster his support in that area in his conflict with the Papacy. The title and land passed to the French noble houses of Baux, in 1173, and of Chalons, in 1393, before arriving with Rene of Nassau in 1530. The principality then passed to a Dutch nobleman, Rene’s cousin William, in 1544.
In 1702, after William III of England died without children, a dispute arose between Johan Willem Friso and Frederick I of Prussia. In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht Frederick William I of Prussia ceded the Principality of Orange to King Louis XIV of France. In 1732, under the Treaty of Partition, Friso's son, William IV agreed to share use of the title "Prince of Orange" with Frederick William I of Prussia. With the emergence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the title is traditionally borne by the heir apparent of the Dutch monarch. Originally only worn by men, since 1983 the title descends via absolute primogeniture, which means that the holder can be either Prince or Princess of Orange.
The Dutch royal dynasty, the House of Orange-Nassau, is not the only family to claim the dynastical title. Rival claims to the title have been made by German emperors and kings of the House of Hohenzollern and by the head of the French noble family of Mailly. The current users of the title are Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, Georg Friedrich, and Guy.

History

County of Orange

The title originally referred to Orange in the Vaucluse department in the Rhone valley of southern France, which was a property of the House of Orange, then of the House of Baux and the House of Châlon-Arlay before passing in 1544 to the House of Orange-Nassau.
The Principality originated as the County of Orange, a fief in the Holy Roman Empire, in the Empire's constituent Kingdom of Burgundy. It was awarded to William of Gellone, a grandson of Charles Martel and therefore a cousin of Charlemagne, around the year 800 for his services in the wars against the Moors and in the reconquest of southern France and the Spanish March. His Occitan name is Guilhem; however, as a Frankish lord, he probably knew himself by the old Germanic version of Wilhelm. William also ruled as count of Toulouse, duke of Aquitaine, and marquis of Septimania.
The horn that came to symbolize Orange when heraldry came in vogue much later in the 12th century represented a pun on William of Gellone's name in French, from the character his deeds inspired in the chanson de geste, the Chanson de Guillaume: "Guillaume au Court-nez" or its homophone "Guillaume au Cornet".
The chanson appears to incorporate material relating to William of Gellone's battle at the Orbieu or Orbiel river near Carcassonne in 793 as well as to his seizure of the town of Orange.

Principality of Orange

As the kingdom of Burgundy fragmented in the early Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa elevated the lordship of Orange to a principality in 1163 to shore up his supporters in Burgundy against the Pope and the King of France. As the Empire's boundaries retreated from those of the principality, the prince acceded to the sovereign rights that the Emperor formerly exercised. As William the Silent wrote in his marriage proposal to the uncle of his second wife, the Elector August of Saxony, he held Orange as "my own free property", not as a fief of any suzerain; neither the Pope, nor the Kings of Spain or France. That historical position of honor and reputation would later drive William the Silent forward, as much as it also fueled the opposition of his great grandson William III to Louis XIV, when that king invaded and occupied Orange.
The last descendant of the original princes, René of Châlon, left the principality to his cousin William the Silent, who was not a descendant of the original Orange family but the heir to the principality of Orange by testament, however in violation against the inheritance pattern enacted by the last will of Marie des Baux, the Princess of Orange through kinship to whom Prince René derived his own right thereto.
in the 16th century.
In 1673, Louis XIV of France annexed all territory of the principality to France and to the royal domain, as part of the war actions against the stadtholder William III of Orange — who later became King William III of Great Britain. Orange ceased to exist as a sovereign realm, de facto.
In 1673, Louis XIV bestowed the titular princedom on Louis Charles de Mailly, Marquis de Nesle, whose wife was a direct descendant, and heiress-general by primogeniture, of the original princes of Orange.
After the marquis, the next holder was, marquis de Nesle. Although no longer descended from Louis-Charles, a branch of the Mailly family still claims the title today.
In 1714 Louis XIV bestowed the usufruct of the principality on his kinsman, Louis Armand of Bourbon, Prince de Conti. After his death in 1727 the principality was deemed merged in the Crown by 1731.

Abolition of the principality, continuation of the title

Because William III died without legitimate children, the principality was regarded as having been inherited by his closest cognate relative on the basis of the testament of Frederic-Henry, Frederick I of Prussia, who ceded the principality — at least the lands, but not the formal title — to France in 1713.
France supported his claim. In this way, the territory of the principality lost its feudal and secular privileges and became a part of France. The Treaty of Utrecht allowed the King of Prussia to erect part of the duchy of Gelderland into a new Principality of Orange.
The kings of Prussia and the German emperors styled themselves Princes of Orange till 1918.
An agnatic relative of William III, John William Friso of Nassau, who was also cognatically descended from William the Silent, was designated the heir to the princes of Orange in the Netherlands by the last will of William III. Several of his descendants became stadtholders. They claim the principality of Orange on the basis of agnatic inheritance, similar to that of William the Silent, who had inherited Orange from his cousin René of Châlon. They did however have a claim, albeit distant, to the principality itself due to John William Friso's descent from Louise de Coligny, who was a descendant of the original Princes of Orange.
They could also claim descent from the del Balzo, an Italian branch of the des Baux family, via the marriage of Princess Anne to William IV, Prince of Orange. Anne was the eldest daughter of George II of Great Britain, who was a descendant of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV of England. Elizabeth Woodwille's grandmother was Margherita del Balzo, another descendant of Tiburge d'Orange.
They also claimed on the basis of the testament of Philip William, Maurice and William III. Finally, they claimed on the basis that Orange was an independent state whose sovereign had the right to assign his succession according to his will. France never recognized any of this, nor allowed the Orange-Nassaus or the Hohenzollerns to obtain anything of the principality itself. The Oranje-Nassaus nevertheless assumed the title and also erected several of their lordships into a new principality of Orange.
From that derivation of the title comes the tradition of the house of Nassau-Dietz, the later stadtholders of the Netherlands, and the present-day royal family of the Netherlands, of holding this title. They maintain the tradition of William the Silent and the house of Orange-Nassau.
There are two other
claimants to this title:

As Counts of Orange

First House of Orange">:fr:Première maison des comtes d'Orange-Nice">First House of Orange

As sovereign prince of Orange

Until 1340, it was customary for all sons of the prince of Orange to inherit the title.
Only the direct line of descent to Raimond V is shown here.

[House of Baux]

The house of Baux succeeded to the principality of Orange when Bertrand of Baux married the heiress of the last native count of Orange, Tiburge, daughter of William of Orange, Omelaz, and Montpellier. Their son was William I of Baux-Orange. Bertrand was the son of Raymond of Baux and Stephanie of Gevaudan. Stephanie was the younger daughter of Gerberga, the heiress of the counts of Provence. For a genealogical table, see the reference cited:
Bertrand I used as Prince of Orange the coat of arms of the House of Baux: a 16-pointed white star placed on a field of gules. Later on, the Princes of Orange quartered the legendary bugle-horn as a heraldic figure into their coat of arms.

House of Baux-Orange">House of Baux">House of Baux-Orange

House of Châlon-Arlay">House of Chalon-Arlay">House of Châlon-Arlay (also House of Ivrea of Anscarid dynasty)

The lords of Chalons and Arlay were a cadet branch of the ruling house of the county of Burgundy, the Anscarids or House of Ivrea. They married the heiress of Baux-Orange.

House of Châlon-Orange

Rene inherited the principality of Orange from his uncle Philbert on the condition that he bear the name and arms of the house of Châlon-Orange. Therefore, he is usually counted as one of the Châlon-Orange and history knows him as Rene of Châlon, rather than "of Nassau".

[House of Orange-Nassau] (first incarnation)

inherited the principality of Orange from his cousin René. Although William descended from no previous Prince of Orange, as René had no children or siblings, he exercised his right as sovereign prince to will Orange to his first cousin on his father's side, who actually had no Orange blood. This began the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau.

Title without territory

House of Orange-Nassau (second incarnation)

The 2nd house of Orange-Nassau were cousins on their father and mother's side of the 1st house.
Head of house
Netherlands heir apparent

House of Hohenzollern

Historical background

was the first stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and the most significant representative of the House of Orange in the Netherlands. He was count of a portion of the German territory of Nassau and heir to some of his father's fiefs in Holland. William obtained more extensive lands in the Netherlands as an inheritance from his cousin René of Châlon, Prince of Orange, when William was only 11 years old. After William's assassination in 1584, the title passed to his son Philip William, and after his death in 1618, to his second son Maurice, and finally to his youngest son, Frederick Henry.
The title of Prince of Orange became associated with the stadtholder of the Netherlands.
William III was also King of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his legacy is commemorated annually by the Protestant Orange Order. William's mother, Mary, was the daughter of King Charles I of England and therefore a princess of England as well as Princess of Orange by marriage.
William III and Mary II had no legitimate children. After William's death in 1702, his heir in the Netherlands was John William Friso of Nassau-Diez, who assumed the title, King William having bequeathed it to him by testament. The other contender was the King in Prussia, who based his claim to the title on the will of Frederick Henry, William III's grandfather. Eventually, a compromise was reached by which both families were entitled to bear the title of Prince of Orange. By then, it was no more than a title because the principality had been annexed by Louis XIV of France.
Friso's line held it as their principal title during the 18th century. The French army expelled them from the Netherlands in 1795, but on their return, the Prince of Orange became the first sovereign of the Netherlands in 1813.
After the establishment of the current Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, the title was partly reconstitutionalized by legislation and granted to the eldest son of King William I of the Netherlands, Prince William, who later became William II of the Netherlands. Since 1983, the heir to the Dutch throne, whether male or female, bears the title Prince or Princess of Orange. The first-born child of the heir to the Dutch throne bears the title Hereditary Prince of Orange. When her father Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Queen Beatrix, Princess Catharina-Amalia became the Princess of Orange.

Style

The Prince of Orange is styled His/Her Royal Highness the Prince of Orange.
During the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries, the Prince of Orange was styled His/Her Highness the Prince of Orange, except for William III, who rated the "Royal/Koninklijke".

Arms

The princes of Orange in the 16th and 17th century used the following sets of arms. On becoming Prince of Orange, William placed the Châlon-Arlay arms in the center of his father's arms. He used these arms until 1582 when he purchased the marquisate of Veere and Vlissingen. He then used the arms attributed to Frederick Henry, etc. with the arms of the marquisate in the top center, and the arms of the county of Buren in the bottom center. Their growing complexity shows how arms are used to reflect the growing political position and royal aspirations of the house of Orange-Nassau.
When William VI of Orange returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, he quartered the former Arms of the Dutch Republic with the "Châlon-Orange" arms, which had come to symbolize Orange. As an in escutcheon he placed his ancestral arms of Nassau. When he became King in 1815, he combined the Dutch Republic Lion with the billets of the Nassau arms and added a royal crown to form the Coat of arms of the Netherlands. In the 19th century, the Dutch Crown prince, who holds the title "Prince of Orange", and his son, who holds the title "Hereditary Prince of Orange" had their own pre-defined arms. The House of Orange, now the Royal House of the Netherlands, and their descendants the House of Orange-Nassau, kept this title for their family. Wilhelmina further decreed that in perpetuity her descendants should be styled "princes and princesses of Orange-Nassau" and that the name of the house would be "Orange-Nassau". Since then, individual members of the House of Orange-Nassau are also given their own arms by the reigning monarch, similar to the United Kingdom. This is usually the royal arms, quartered with the arms of the principality of Orange, and an in escutcheon of their paternal arms.
As a former territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the princes of Orange used an independent prince's crown. Sometimes, only the coronet part was used. After the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they used the Dutch Royal Crowns:

Literature