Louis of Nassau

Louis of Nassau (January 10, 1538 – April 14, 1574) was the third son of William, Count of Nassau and Juliana of Stolberg, and the younger brother of Prince William of Orange Nassau.

Louis was a key figure in the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain and a strongly convinced Calvinist, unlike his brother William, whom he helped in various ways, including by arranging the marriage between him and his second wife Anna of Saxony. In 1569 William appointed him governor of the principality of Orange, giving him an indisputable position in French politics.

In 1566 he was one of the leaders of the league of lesser nobles who signed the “Compromis des Nobles”. The Compromise was an open letter, in the form of a petition, to King Philip II of Spain stating that he should withdraw the Inquisition in the Netherlands. On April 5, 1566, with the following of two hundred horsemen, the Compromise was presented to the regent Margaret of Austria. During this audience one of her councilors, count Charles of Berlaymont, tried to calm her nerves with the words “Quoi, Madame. Peur de ces gueux?” “What Madame, afraid of these beggars?”. It was from this moment on that the opponents of King Philip's policy proudly took the name Beggars (Les Gueux, Geuzen) as their own.

With the coming of Alva, Louis and his brother William withdrew from the Netherlands. From outside they gathered an army and in 1568, with the help of French Huguenots, they were able to invade from three sides. Louis and his younger brother Adolf would enter the northern Netherlands through Friesland, Jean de Villers enterd the southern provinces between the Rhine and the Meuse and the Huguenots would invade Artois.

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