By 1159, the County of Nassau effectively claimed rights of taxation, toll collection, and justice, at which point it can be considered to become a state.

By 1128, they acquired the bailiwick of the Bishopric of Worms, which had numerous rights in the area, and thus created a link between their heritage at the lower Lahn and their possessions near Siegen.

In the middle of the 12th century, this relationship was strengthened by the acquisition of parts of the Hesse-Thüringen feudal kingdom, namely the Herborner Mark, the Kalenberger Zent and the Court of Heimau (Löhnberg).

From 1328 on, his younger brother, Otto I, held the estates north of the Lahn river, namely the County of Nassau-Siegen and Nassau-Dillenburg.

His younger brother, John VI, again reunited all Nassau-Dillenburg possessions in 1561, though the county was again divided after his death in 1606.

The Counts of Nassau-Dietz, descendants of William Frederick were stadtholders of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe and Princes of Orange from 1702 on.

The counts of Nassau-Dietz not only descended from William the Silent's brother, but in female line also from himself, as William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, had married Countess Albertine Agnes of Nassau, the fifth daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange in 1652.