Maurice of Nassau

Dutch stadtholder (1585-1625), prince of Orange (1618-1625), and military leader

• Born: November 14, 1567
• Birthplace: Dillenburg, Holland (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: April 23, 1625
• Place of death: The Hague, Holland, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)

Maurice reorganized the Dutch army and united under his rule most of the area currently known as the Netherlands, and he strengthened the newly independent United Netherlands in the face of its lengthy war with Spain and its ruling Habsburg Dynasty, the leading power of that era.

Early Life

Born at Dillenburg Castle, Maurice of Nassau (NAS-aw) was the second son of Prince William of Orange (William the Silent ), and Princess Anna of Saxony. Named after his maternal grandfather, Elector Maurice of Saxony, he was raised at Dillenburg by his uncle Jan de Oude (Jan the Old). He studied in Heidelberg with his cousin Willem Lodewijk and later in Leiden with his brother Filips. The states of Holland and Zeeland paid for Maurice’s studies because his father had run into financial problems after spending his entire fortune leading the early stages of the Dutch revolt, which began in 1568.

Throughout Maurice’s entire life, the Netherlands struggled for independence from the Spanish Habsburgs, who had dominated the Low Countries. He never married, but he did father illegitimate children by Margaretha van Mechelen and Anna van de Kelder.

In January of 1579, a new Spanish governor, Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, oversaw the formation of the Union of Arras, a pro-Spanish alliance of the southern provinces of the Netherlands (now called Belgium). Later that same month, Maurice’s father united the northern Protestant provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Groningen in the Union of Utrecht. Joined by the provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe, and Friesland, this union declared its independence from Spain as the United Provinces of the Netherlands (also known as the United Netherlands) in 1581. Roman Catholicism was fully restored in the south during the next decade, while the north became increasingly Calvinist (Protestant).

England, which supported the United Netherlands unofficially for years, intervened directly in 1585, when Queen Elizabeth I sent Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, to assist the Dutch with six thousand troops and one thousand horses. England’s presence in the conflict, a presence that lasted until 1604, was the main reason why Spanish king Philip II sent his Armada against England in 1588; but the Spanish lost.

Life’s Work

Following his father’s assassination in Delft in 1584, Maurice took over as stadhouder (stadtholder), though this title was not heritable. From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, stadtholders were officials who ruled areas of the Low Countries in the name of their landowners. After the Dutch provinces declared their independence, the function of stadtholder effectively became that of provincial ruler. Although each province could assign its own stadtholder, most stadtholders governed several provinces simultaneously.

Maurice’s mentor was Landsadvocaat (civil administrator) Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who had aided Maurice’s father in the Dutch Revolt from its beginning. Representing the patrician commercial oligarchies that ruled Holland, Oldenbarnevelt oversaw a spectacular expansion of Dutch commerce and the founding of the Dutch East India Company (in 1602) and, chartered after his death, the Dutch West India Company (1621). He opposed the dictatorial policies of Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester, who the States-General (Dutch parliament) had chosen as governor-general in 1586. Unified by their commercial ties, the powerful cities of Holland were hotbeds of republicanism. Relatively unimportant until that time, Amsterdam rose dramatically in population and power. Spain’s fortunes, in contrast, were declining. Madrid’s golden age was drawing to a close. Bankrupt in 1596, the first of many shortfalls, the Spanish treasury had been depleted by costs resulting from the loss of the Armada and French king Henry IV’s declaration of war against Spain in 1595.

Meanwhile, Maurice had become stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585. With Oldenbarnevelt’s backing, he was also appointed captain-general of the army and admiral of the United Netherlands in 1588, bypassing Dudley, who returned to England. Also, Maurice was named stadtholder of Gelderland, Overijssel, and Utrecht in 1590 and of Groningen and Drenthe in 1620 following the death of Willem Lodewijk, who had been stadtholder in Groningen, Drenthe, and Friesland. In 1618, Maurice succeeded his elder brother, Philip William, as prince of Orange.

As military leader and one of the best strategists of his age, Maurice reorganized the Dutch army into an effective, modern force. Together with Lodewijk and the great mathematicianSimon Stevin, he applied his extensive studies in military history, engineering, mathematics, and astronomy to good effect. Paying special attention to the science of siege warfare, he took the offensive against the Spanish under Farnese and captured key fortress towns: Breda in 1590, Steenwijk in 1592, and St. Geertruidenberg in 1593. His later victories at Turnhout in 1597 and Nieuwpoort in 1600 earned him fame throughout Europe.

Relations between Maurice and Oldenbarnevelt, however, were strained when the impatient, overly optimistic landsadvocaat encouraged the reluctant stadtholder to invade the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium), vainly believing that the Flemings would join the Dutch in expelling the Spanish. Then, despite Maurice’s protests, Oldenbarnevelt signed the Twelve Years’ Truce with Spain, which lasted from 1609 to 1621. The two men quarreled over strategy and the funding of the army and navy.

When troubles flared between Gomarists (strict Calvinists) and Remonstrants (reformed Calvinists), the struggle between Oldenbarnevelt and Maurice intensified. Maurice sided with the Gomarists and Oldenbarnevelt with the Remonstrants. Summoned by Maurice, the Synod of Dort (1618) suppressed the Remonstrants. Brooding and sometimes vengeful, Maurice seized greater power, a move that later historians would call a coup d’état. Despite numerous pleas for mercy, Oldenbarnevelt was arrested, tried, and decapitated for treason in 1619. This dispute and the public attention it attracted were the most important reasons why the Dutch were distracted from helping the Calvinist cause in the opening phase of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

After the resumption of hostilities with Spain, Maurice’s campaigns met with little success. The Spanish, led by Genoese general Ambrosio de Spínola, recaptured Breda in 1625. Embittered by his later defeats and deteriorating health, Maurice died shortly thereafter. He was succeeded as third stadtholder of Holland and heir of the Orange family by his youngest half brother Frederick Henry, whom he had earlier urged to marry to preserve the dynasty. Stadtholdership of Friesland, and then Groningen and Drenthe, passed to Count Ernst Casimir, a cousin of Maurice and Frederick Henry. The line of Nassau-LaLecq, which descended from his illegitimate heirs, became extinct in 1861.

Significance

Despite the successes of William the Silent and Maurice of Nassau, the House of Orange did not attain much respect among European royalty, as the stadtholdership was not heritable and the Dutch system was a mixture of monarchical and republican elements. Maurice’s drive for power only served to heighten this ambiguity. More and more aware of the Orange family’s sweeping powers, even in religious matters, the United Netherlands became increasingly republican in sentiment. As long as war with Spain necessitated that Maurice be a warlord, he could rule in unchallenged safety from his palace in The Hague. However, an often rebellious Dutch spirit remained ever present.

Despite his military misfortunes and his debilitating quarrel with Oldenbarnevelt, Maurice of Nassau greatly strengthened the Dutch nation, thereby ensuring its survival in a bloody, destructive era. Indeed, the Netherlands and its far-flung overseas empire grew to the status of a world power. Maurice’s scientific approach to military matters influenced generations of Dutch leaders. Spain was further weakened in 1639, when an armada with twenty thousand troops bound for Flanders was destroyed by Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp. The Twelve Years’ Truce of 1609 had virtually secured recognition of Dutch independence, finally recognized by Spain on January 30, 1648, in the Treaty of Münster, one of two treaties comprising the Treaty of Westphalia.

Bibliography

Blom, J. C. H., and E. Lamberts, eds. History of the Low Countries. Translated by James C. Kennedy. New York: Berghahn Books, 1999. An excellent history of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, with much material on Maurice of Nassau and the Dutch Wars of Independence.

Israel, Jonathan. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1995. A detailed history of the Dutch Republic from the fifteenth century to the early nineteenth century.

Parker, Geoffrey. The Dutch Revolt. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. A thorough history of the Dutch Wars of Independence.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Spain and the Netherlands, 1559-1659. Short Hills, N.J.: Enslow, 1979. An important interpretive study of the diplomatic relations of Spain and Holland. Deals with such topics as the length of time of the Dutch revolt, the larger world of international politics to which this conflict belonged, and the revolt’s economic consequences.

Rowen, Herbert H. The Princes of Orange: The Stadtholders in the Dutch Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. This book provides biographical information on all stadtholders of the House of Orange, including a history of the house in the context of politics, government, and rulership.

Wedgwood, C. V. William the Silent, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584. London: Jonathan Cape, 1944. An excellent biography of Maurice’s father, which contains much on Maurice’s early life as well.