Prince of Orange

The title and land passed to the French noble houses of Baux, in 1173, and of Chalons, in 1393, before arriving with René of Nassau in 1530.

Subsequently, William led a successful Dutch revolt against Spain, however with independence the new country became a decentralized republic rather than a unitary monarchy.

In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht[3] Frederick William I of Prussia ceded the Principality of Orange to King Louis XIV of France (while retaining the title as part of his dynastic titulature).

[5] With the 19th century emergence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the title has been traditionally borne by the heir apparent of the Dutch monarch.

Although originally only borne by men, since 1983 the title descends via absolute primogeniture, which means that the holder can be either Prince or Princess of Orange.

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 (Orange-Nassau), Georg Friedrich (of Hohenzollern), and Guy (of Mailly-Nesle).

It was awarded to William of Gellone (born 755), 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.

[6] 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.

[6]: 7  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.

Marie des Baux-Orange had stipulated in her will that if her son Louis did not inherit Orange, her daughter Alix and her descendants should.

Through this marriage, the Orléans-Longueville, an illegitimate branch of the house of Valois, were the claimants of Orange until their extinction in male line in 1694[11][circular reference](see Famille d'Orléans-Longueville).

When William the Silent of Nassau succeeded as prince of Orange, the Orléans-Longueville protested and obtained court decisions in their favor in France.

However, as Orange was a sovereign state and not part of France, the courts' decisions were not enforceable and left the principality in the hands of the Nassau-Orange family.

The Treaty of Utrecht allowed the King of Prussia to erect part of the duchy of Gelderland (the cities of Geldern, Straelen, and Wachtendonk with their bailiwicks, Krickenbeck, Viersen, the land of Kessel, and the lordships of Afferden, Arcen-Velden-Lomm, Walbeck-Twisteden, Raay and Klein-Kevelaer, Well, Bergen, and Middelaar) into a new Principality of Orange.

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.

(Louise's great grandmother, Anne Pot, Countess of Saint-Pol, was a descendant of Tiburge d'Orange, who married into the des Baux family) 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.

[6] For a genealogical table, see the reference cited:[22] 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.

Rene inherited the principality of Orange from his uncle Philbert on the condition that he bear the name and arms of the house of Chalon-Orange.

William the Silent (Willem I) was the first stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and the most significant representative of the House of Orange in the Netherlands.

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.

[34] The first-born child of the heir to the Dutch throne bears the title Hereditary Prince(ss) of Orange.

Coat of arms of the Prince of Orange (1815–1884)
Coat of arms of the counts of Orange of the first house of Orange. It came to stand for the principality of Orange. [ 1 ] The homophony of the town's name with the fruit is a coincidence. The bugle-horn, supposedly derived from the first prince's surname "au Courb-nez" (curved-nosed or perhaps short-nosed), transformed into "au cornet" (with the bugle).
Coat of arms of the city of Orange in the Vaucluse. They were granted to the city by the princes of Orange of the house of des Baux in the last quarter of the 12th century. [ 2 ]
Composite portrait of four generations of Princes of Orange – William I (in role 1544–1584), Maurice (1618–1625) and Frederick Henry (1625–1647), William II (1647–1650), William III (1650–1702) – Willem van Honthorst, 1662
Map of the principality of Orange in the 16th century.
A detailed map of the principality in the first half of the 17th century reproduced from the famous 1627 Atlas of Willem Janszoon Blaeu. The area of the principality was approximately 12 miles long by 9 miles wide, or 108 sq. miles. [ 17 ]