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John William Friso, who also was the Prince of Nassau-Dietz, founded thereby the second House of Orange-Nassau (the suffix name "Dietz" was dropped of the combined name Orange-Nassau-Dietz). The Revolutionary and Napoleonic era was a tumultuous episode of the history of both the Ottonian and Walramian branches of the House of Nassau.
Mar 25, 2020 · Ernest Casimir can be considered the ‘founder’ of the Nassau-Dietz dynasty, since he had inherited the territory of Dietz (today’s Diez in the Rhineland) in 1607 when the county of Nassau had been divided between himself and his brothers.
- Lidewij Nissen
- 2020
The Principality of Nassau-Diez ( Fürstentum Nassau-Diez) was a former county, later principality of the Holy Roman Empire part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle of the empire towards the end of its history.
- Overview
- Walramian Nassau.
- Ottonian Nassau.
Nassau, historical region of Germany, and the noble family that provided its hereditary rulers for many centuries. The present-day royal heads of the Netherlands and Luxembourg are descended from this family, called the house of Nassau.
The region of Nassau is located in what is now the western part of the Land (state) of Hesse and the Westerwald Kreis (district) of Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. The Lahn River divides Nassau roughly into two halves: in the south are the Taunus Mountains; in the north lies the Westerwald.
Walram II’s son, Adolf of Nassau, was the German king from 1292 to 1298. Adolf’s descendants, however, partitioned their lands, and by the late 18th century the Walramian inheritance was divided between the Nassau-Weilburg and Nassau-Usingen branches. In 1801 Napoleonic France acquired the Walramians’ lands west of the Rhine; in 1803 the branches o...
Otto I’s descendants also indulged in partitions and subdivisions, and one branch of the family acquired extensive Dutch territories, becoming known as the Nassau-Dillenburg-Breda branch. Upon the death of the last ruler of this branch in 1544, a cousin, William of Nassau (the future William I the Silent, prince of Orange), inherited the branch’s Dutch principality of Orange, and members of this line were henceforth called princes of Orange-Nassau. William the Silent was the founder of the dynasty of hereditary stadholders who were prominent in the Netherlands in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. When William’s direct male line became extinct upon the death of King William III of England in 1702, the Ottonians’ possessions in both the Netherlands and Nassau passed to Count John William Friso of the Ottonian branch of Nassau-Dietz. The Nassau-Dietz branch eventually reunited the Ottonians’ partitioned German territories in the 18th century.
The Ottonian ruler William VI of Orange lost his German possessions to Napoleon in 1806 but was awarded Luxembourg by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 in compensation. William VI also succeeded to the kingdom of the Netherlands as King William I in that year. His descendants (including female descendants) still reign in the Netherlands today with the princely title of Orange-Nassau. When the Ottonian branch became extinct in the male line with the death of William III in 1890, his daughter, Wilhelmina, became queen of the Netherlands while Luxembourg passed to Duke Adolf of Nassau, a member of the Walramian branch of the house of Nassau. The Walramian line is still the ruling house of the grand duchy of Luxembourg.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Early on they divided into two main branches: the elder (Walramian) branch, that gave rise to the German king Adolf, and the younger (Ottonian) branch, that gave rise to the Princes of Orange and the monarchs of the Netherlands.
Apr 28, 2013 · Friedrich Wilhelm's son, Wilhelm, being the heir of both branches, would become the first Duke of Nassau from the House of Nassau Weilburg in 1816. Duke Wilhelm's oldest son and heir Duke Adolph sided with the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and after Austria had lost the war, the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia.
Home > Germany > Princely Houses > House of Nassau > Ottonian Line. Ottonian Line. The Ottonian Line. Counts of Nassau. Otto I of Nassau (c. 1247–1290) Count of Dillenburg, Hadamar, Siegen, Herborn and Beilstein from 1255. After the death of Count Otto I, his country was divided between his sons in 1303:
