William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz
| William Frederick of Nassau-Dietz | |
|---|---|
William Frederick of Nassau-Dietz by Wybrand de Geest, 1632
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| Spouse(s) | Albertine Agnes of Nassau |
| Noble family | House of Nassau |
| Father | Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz |
| Mother | Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
| Born |
7 August 1613 Arnhem |
| Died | 31 October 1664 (aged 51) Leeuwarden |
William Frederick (Dutch: Willem Frederik; Arnhem 7 August 1613 – Leeuwarden 31 October 1664), Count (from 1654 Imperial Prince) of Nassau-Dietz, Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe.
William Frederick was the second son of Ernest Casimir I, Count of Nassau-Dietz and Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He married Albertine Agnes of Nassau, the fifth daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange on 2 May 1652 in Cleves. They had three children:
The fact that his wife was only the fifth daughter of Frederick Henry, and that they were married after the death of her father, would later take on a special significance in the quarrel about the inheritance of the title of Prince of Orange after the death of William III of England in 1702. This was because Frederick Henry had made a provision in his will that if his male line would die out (which was the case with William III) the title of Prince of Orange would be inherited by the male issue of the line of his elder daughter Louise Henriette of Nassau. This might even have been the case without this provision, had William III not himself left the inheritance to the descendants of William Frederick in his will. The inheritance therefore came down to a clash of testaments, with the outcome that both claimants eventually took the title and divided the material inheritance.
William Frederick was a paternal grandson of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, a younger brother of his wife's paternal grandfather William the Silent. When John died in 1606 his inheritance was divided among his five sons, one of which was William Frederick's father Ernest Casimir, who received the title of Count of Nassau-Dietz and followed his eldest brother William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg as Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe in 1620. William Frederick inherited the Nassau-Dietz possessions from his elder brother Henry Casimir I of Nassau-Dietz, who died childless in 1640.
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