Het Loo Palace
Het Loo Palace is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was built between 1684 and 1686 for stadtholder-king William III and Mary II of England, the garden was designed by Claude Desgotz. The palace was a residence of the House of Orange-Nassau from the 17th century until the death of Queen Wilhelmina in 1962, the building was renovated between 1976 and 1982. Since 1984, the palace is a museum open for the general public, showing interiors with original furniture, objects. The building is a rijksmonument and is among the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites, in 2013, the museum had 410,000 visitors, which makes it the 8th most visited museum in the Netherlands. The Dutch Baroque architecture of Het Loo takes pains to minimize the grand stretch of its construction, so emphatic at Versailles, Het Loo is not a palace but, as the title of its engraved portrait states, a Lust-hof. Nevertheless, it is situated entre cour et jardin as Versailles and its imitators, the volumes of the palace are rhythmically broken in their massing.
The private Great Garden is situated in the back and this Dutch Baroque garden, often mislabeled the Versailles of Holland, actually serves to show more differences than similarities. It is still within the general Baroque formula established by André Le Nôtre, perfect symmetry, axial layout with radiating gravel walks, parterres with fountains, the garden as it appears in the engraving was designed by Le Nôtres nephew, Claude Desgotz. Throughout his military and diplomatic career, William of Orange was the continental antagonist of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtres main axis at Versailles, continued by the canal, runs up to the horizon. Daniel Marot and Desgotzs Het Loo garden does not dominate the landscape as Louis German imitators do, though in his idealized plan, at its far end a shaded crosswalk of trees disguised the central vista. The orange trees set out in boxes and wintered in an Orangery. Outside the garden there are a few straight scenic avenues, for following the hunt in a carriage, few of the green rooms cut into the woodlands in imitation of the cabinets de verdure of Versailles that are shown in the engraving actually got executed at Het Loo.
The patron of the Sun Kings garden was Apollo, peter the Great would opt for Samson, springing the jaws of Swedens heraldic lion. In the 18th century, William III’s baroque garden as seen in the engraving was replaced by a park in the English taste. In 1960 Queen Wilhelmina declared that when she died the palace would go to the State and she did, request that it would be returned to her family if the Dutch were to abolish the monarchy. The palace became property of the Dutch state in 1962 when Wilhelmina died at Het Loo Palace, after a thorough restoration it now houses a national museum and library devoted to the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch history. Het Loo houses the Museum van de Kanselarij der Nederlandse Orden and other material concerning decorations, the lost gardens of Het Loo were fully restored beginning in 1970 and completed in time to celebrate the buildings 1984 tercentenary
Schoonhoven
Schoonhoven is a city and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Since 2015 it has been a part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard, the former municipality had a population of 11,900 in 2014, and covered an area of 6.92 km2 of which 0.65 km2 water. From 2010 to 2014, it was the smallest municipality in the Netherlands in land area, the first winner of the Dutch version of Pop Idol, Jamai Loman, is from this town. Also Jan-Arie van der Heijden, football player for Feyenoord, lives in Schoonhoven, circa 1220 a castle was built on the north side of a small stream called Zevender, near its mouth at the Lek River. The city of Schoonhoven was formed near the castle, the oldest reference to the city is in a document from 1247, where it is referred to as Sconhoven. In 1280, it was granted city rights, around 1350, city walls and gates were constructed. The citys economy depended on shipping, brewing and agriculture, Schoonhoven was the marketplace for the region.
In 1518, the burned down and its remnants were removed in subsequent decades. Between 1582 and 1601 the citys walls were renewed and expanded to include the shipyards as well. At this point, the fortifications mainly faced eastward, because of the historically strategical location on the border between the County of Holland and the Bishopric of Utrecht, following the Disaster Year of 1672, they were reinforced once again and expanded on the west and north sides. Yet in 1816, when fortifications were no longer relevant to the warfare of the time, they were mostly demolished and made way for a cemetery. Nowadays, most of the city walls and gates too have disappeared, the only remaining medieval entrance gate of Schoonhoven is the Veerpoort that faces the Lek River. This Veerpoort has protected Schoonhoven from the floods of the river Rhine, by 1860, the city had 2900 inhabitants. Not until the middle of the 20th century did the city expand beyond the former limits, firstly in a north-westerly direction.
Schoonhoven is known for its silver and therefore carries the nickname, since the 17th century and gold smiths have been working here. Today, Schoonhoven is still known for its silver and it is the host of Het Nederlands Zilvermuseum and the International Silver School. Schoonhoven is known for is its production of clocks, there still is a variety of clock makers in Schoonhoven, some of which can be visited. A beautiful example of a large clockwork is the Van den Gheyn Beiaard in the tower of the town hall of Schoonhoven
Knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations.
Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100.
The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived.
Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
Nijmegen
Nijmegen, historically anglicized as Nimeguen, is a municipality and a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is situated on the Waal river, close to the German border, Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, the first to be recognized as such in Roman times, and in 2005 celebrated 2,000 years of existence. The municipality is part of the Stadsregio Arnhem-Nijmegen, an area with 736,107 inhabitants. By 69, when the Batavians, the inhabitants of the Rhine and Maas delta, revolted. This village was destroyed in the revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the Legio X Gemina was stationed, soon after, another village formed around this camp. In 98, Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights. In 103, the X Gemina was re-stationed to Vindobona, modern day Vienna, in 104 Emperor Trajan renamed the town, which now became known as Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum, Noviomagus for short. Beginning in the half of the 4th century, Roman power decreased.
It appeared around this time on the Peutinger Map and it has been contended that in the 8th century Emperor Charlemagne maintained his palatium in Nijmegen on at least four occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son Lothar I, thanks to the Waal river, trade flourished. The powerful Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor was born at Nijmegen in 1165, in 1230 his son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor granted Nijmegen city rights. In 1247, the city was ceded to the count of Guelders as collateral for a loan, the loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade, Nijmegen even became part of the Hanseatic League in 1364, the arts flourished in this period. Famous medieval painters like the Limbourg brothers were born and educated in Nijmegen, during the Dutch Revolt, trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces in 1585, it remained a border town and had to endure multiple sieges.
In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years, the result was the Treaty of Nijmegen that, failed to provide for a lasting peace. In the second half of the 19th century, the fortifications around the city became a major problem, there were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands. When events in the Franco-Prussian war proved that old-fashioned fortifications were no more of use, this policy was changed, the old castle had already been demolished in 1797, so that its bricks could be sold. Through the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the Waal was bridged in 1878 by a rail bridge and in 1936 by a car bridge, which was claimed to be Europes biggest bridge at the time
Herman Willem Daendels
Herman Willem Daendels was a Dutch politician who served as the 36th Governor General of the Dutch East Indies between 1808 and 1811. Born in Hattem, Netherlands, on 21 October 1762, Daendels was the son of Burchard Johan Daendels, the mayoral secretary and he studied law at the University of Harderwijk, acquiring his doctorate on 10 April 1783. In 1785, he sided with the Patriots, who had seized power in several Dutch cities, in 1786 he defended the city of Hattem against stadholderian troops. In 1787, he defended Amsterdam against the Prussian army that invaded the Netherlands to restore William V of Orange, after William V was in power again, he fled to France because of a death sentence. Daendels was a witness to the French revolution. He returned to the Netherlands in 1794, as a general in the French revolutionary army of general Charles Pichegru, Daendels helped unitarian politician Pieter Vreede to power in a coup détat on 25 January 1798. The group behind Vreede was dissatisfied with the majority in parliament.
The reign of Vreede did not bring the expected results, louis Bonaparte made Daendels colonel-general in 1806 and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in 1807. After a long voyage, he arrived in the city of Batavia on 5 January 1808 and relieved the former Governor General and his primary task was to rid the island of Java of the British Army, which he promptly achieved. He built new hospitals and military barracks, a new arms factories in Surabaya and Semarang, and he demolished the Castle in Batavia and replaced it with a new fort at Meester Cornelis, and built Fort Lodewijk in Surabaya. He moved the government from Old Batavia to Weltevreden. However, his achievement was the construction of the Great Post Road across northern Java from Anjer to Panaroecan. The road now serves as the road in the island of Java. The thousand-kilometre road was completed in one year, during which thousands of Javanese forced labourers died. He displayed an attitude towards the Javanese rulers, with the result that the rulers were willing to work with the British against the Dutch.
He subjected the population of Java to forced labour, there were some rebellious actions against this, such as those in Cadas Pangeran, West Java. There is considerable debate as to whether he increased the efficiency of the bureaucracy and reduced corruption. When the Kingdom of Holland was incorporated into France in 1810 and he was appointed a Divisional General and commanded the 26th Division of the Grande Armée in Napoleons invasion of Russia
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
It is extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights.
In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
William I of the Netherlands
William I was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In Germany, he was ruler of the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda from 1803 until 1806 and of the Principality of Orange-Nassau in the year 1806, in 1813 he proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands. He proclaimed himself King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg on 16 March 1815, in the same year on 9 June William I became the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and after 1839 he was furthermore the Duke of Limburg. After his abdication in 1840 he styled himself King William Frederick, King William Is parents were the last stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange of the Dutch Republic, and his wife Wilhelmina of Prussia. Until 1806, William was formally known as William VI, Prince of Orange-Nassau, in Berlin on 1 October 1791, William married his first cousin Wilhelmina, born in Potsdam. She was the daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia, after Wilhelmina died in 1837, William married Countess Henriette dOultremont de Wégimont, created Countess of Nassau, on 17 February 1841, in Berlin.
Like his younger brother Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau he was tutored by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and they were both tutored in the military arts by general Prince Frederick Stamford. After the Patriot revolt had been suppressed in 1787, he in 1788-89 attended the academy in Brunswick which was considered an excellent military school. In 1790 he visited a number of foreign courts like the one in Nassau and the Prussian capital Berlin, William subsequently studied briefly at the University of Leiden. As such he commanded the troops took part in the Flanders Campaign of 1793-95. He took part in the battles of Veurne and Wervik in 1793, the siege of Landrecies, which surrendered to him. In May 1794 he had replaced general Kaunitz as commander of the combined Austro-Dutch forces on the instigation of Emperor Francis II who apparently had an opinion of him. But the French armies proved too strong, and the allied leadership too inept, the French first entered Dutch Brabant which they dominated after the Battle of Boxtel.
When in the winter of 1794-95 the rivers in the Rhine delta froze over, the French breached the southern Hollandic Water Line, in many places Dutch revolutionaries took over the local government. After the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam on 18 January 1795 the stadtholder decided to flee to Britain, the next day the Batavian Republic was proclaimed. However, the neutral Prussian government forbade this, in 1799, William landed in the current North Holland as part of an Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. The local Dutch population, was not pleased with the arrival of the prince, one local Orangist was even executed. The hoped-for popular uprising failed to materialise, after several minor battles the Hereditary Prince was forced to leave the country again after the Convention of Alkmaar
Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange
Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia was the consort of William V of Orange and the de facto leader of the dynastic party and counter-revolution in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of Prince Augustus William of Prussia and Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Wilhelmina was the longest serving Princess consort of Orange. Wilhelmina was brought up by her grandmother, on 4 October 1767 in Berlin, she was married to William V of Orange, the last Dutch Stadtholder. As a person, she was proud and politically ambitious, as a Princess consort, she dominated her spouse and exerted both overt and covert influence on the politics of state. She was deeply involved in the political conflict in the Netherlands from 1781 onwards -- not only a supporter and partner. She was recognized openly as the leader of the dynastic Stadtholder party. She was in correspondence with foreign powers and used foreign supporters to influence Dutch internal policy. In 1785, her spouse was forced to leave Den Haag, Wilhelmina persuaded William not to give in, and subsequently went to Friesland -- officially to visit a jubilee, but in reality she aimed to gain support in the ongoing political conflict.
In 1786, the family moved from the capital at the Hague to Nijmegen, both Wilhelmina and her brother, King Frederick William II of Prussia perceived the occurrences as an insult. After having returned to Nijmegen, Wilhelmina asked her brother for a military intervention, despite having been in power for only for a year, attacked the Dutch Republic on 13 September 1787. Many rebels had to flee to France, and William was restored to power, with the support of foreign troops, Wilhelmina returned to The Hague and was celebrated by her followers as the true ruler of the Netherlands. However, the Dutch patriots returned in 1795 with support from the French, during their exile, the couple lived in Kew until 1802, and subsequently went to Germany, where they lived in Nassau and Braunschweig. Thereafter and her daughter – both having been widowed in 1806 – lived together at places in the Confederation of the Rhine. Wilhelmina and her returned to the Netherlands in 1814. She received Tsar Alexander I of Russia in Haarlem in 1815, an unnamed son William I, King of the Netherlands Willem Georg Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau and without issue
Sint Eustatius
Sint Eustatius, known affectionately to the locals as Statia, is part of the Caribbean Netherlands, i. e. it is a Caribbean island and a special municipality of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba. The island has an area of 21 square kilometres, in the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, with a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. As of 2015, the population was estimated at 3,877. The official language is Dutch, but English is the language of life on the island. A local English-based creole is spoken informally. Travellers to the island by air arrive through F. D, formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within The Netherlands on 10 October 2010. The name of the island, “Sint Eustatius”, is the Dutch name for Saint Eustace, the island was seen by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and claimed by many different nations.
From the first settlement, in the 17th century until the early 19th century, in 1636, the chamber of Zeeland of the Dutch West India Company took possession of the island that was reported to be uninhabited. As of 1678, the islands of St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba fell under command of the Dutch West India Company. At the time, the island was of importance for cultivation of tobacco. Its economy developed by ignoring the monopolistic trade restrictions of the British, French, St. Eustatiuss economy, under the Dutch, flourished. The island was known as The Golden Rock, edmund Burke said of the island in 1781, It has no produce, no fortifications for its defense, nor martial spirit nor military regulations. The universality of its use, the neutrality of its nature was its security and its proprietors had, in the spirit of commerce, made it an emporium for all the world. Its wealth was prodigious, arising from its industry and the nature of its commerce, the island sold arms and ammunition to anyone willing to pay.
It was one of the few places from which the young United States could obtain military stores, the good relationship between St. Eustatius and the United States resulted in the noted First Salute. On November 16,1776, Captain Isaiah Robinson of the 14-gun American brig Andrew Doria, Robinson announced his arrival by firing a thirteen gun salute, one gun for each of the thirteen American colonies in rebellion against Britain. Governor Johannes de Graaff replied with a gun salute from the cannons of Fort Oranje
States of Holland and West Friesland
The States of Holland and West Frisia were the representation of the two Estates to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a count, more powerful cities were allowed to send more representatives — Amsterdam had a delegation of four — but these together had only one vote. All members of the States were appointed officials, including the Lands Advocate or Grand Pensionary, the Lands Advocate or Grand Pensionary was nearly always a previous pensionary of a city. Very important matters, such as taxation, had to be decided on unanimously but normally decisions were made by majority. He had literally both the first — as representing the nobility vote — and the last say in a meeting, since the death of Johan van Oldebarnevelt any Prince of Orange being stadtholder indirectly had much power over the States. He had the right to appoint the mayors of all cities, mayors of cities with city rights chose the officials who served as representatives in the States of Holland.
The States of Holland were disbanded during the reforms by the Batavian Republic, the States of Holland should not be confused with the States-General, or Staten-Generaal, the confederate government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands as a whole. Each of the Netherlands had its own States and Holland was just one of seven, nevertheless this province was so dominant that a politician controlling the States of Holland by being Lands Advocate of Holland or Grand Pensionary, in fact controlled the Republic. Johan de Witt is a case in point, and Johan van Oldebarnevelt another famous example, first mentioned in 1428, the States of Holland continued to exist until 1795 when the Batavian Republic was established under French rule
House of Orange-Nassau
Several members of the house served during this war and after as governor or stadtholder during the Dutch Republic. However, in 1815, after a period as a republic. The dynasty was established as a result of the marriage of Henry III of Nassau-Breda from Germany and their son René inherited in 1530 the independent and sovereign Principality of Orange from his mothers brother, Philibert of Châlon. As the first Nassau to be the Prince of Orange, René could have used Orange-Nassau as his new family name, his uncle, in his will, had stipulated that René should continue the use of the name Châlon-Orange. History knows him therefore as René of Châlon, after the death of René in 1544 his cousin William of Nassau-Dillenburg inherited all his lands. This William I of Orange, in English better known as William the Silent, the Castle of Nassau was founded around 1100 by Count Dudo-Henry of Laurenburg, the founder of the House of Nassau. In 1120, Dudo-Henrys sons and successors, Counts Robert I and Arnold I of Laurenburg and they renovated and extended the castle complex in 1124.
The first man to be called the count of Nassau was Robert I of Nassau, the Nassau family married into the family of the neighboring Counts of Arnstein. His sons Walram and Otto split the Nassau possessions, the descendants of Walram became known as the Walram Line, which became Dukes of Nassau, and in 1890, the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg. This line included Adolph of Nassau, who was elected King of the Romans in 1292, the descendants of Otto became known as the Ottonian Line, which inherited parts of Nassau County, and properties in France and the Netherlands. The House of Orange-Nassau stems from the younger Ottonian Line, the first of this line to establish himself in the Netherlands was John I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, who married Margareta of the Marck. The real founder of the Nassau fortunes in the Netherlands was Johns son and he became counsellor to the Burgundian Dukes of Brabant, first to Anton of Burgundy, and to his son Jan IV of Brabant. He would serve Philip the Good, in 1403 he married the Dutch noblewoman Johanna van Polanen, and so inherited lands in the Netherlands, with the Barony of Breda as the core of the Dutch possessions and the family fortune. A nobles power was based on his ownership of vast tracts of land.
It helped that much of the lands that the House of Orange and Nassau controlled sat under one of the commercial and mercantile centers of the world (see below under Lands and Titles. The importance of the Nassaus grew throughout the 15th and 16th centuries as they became councilors, Engelbert II of Nassau served Charles the Bold and Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, who had married Charless daughter Mary of Burgundy. In 1496 he was appointed stadtholder of Flanders and by 1498 he had been named President of the Grand Conseil, in 1501, Maximilian named him Lieutenant-General of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. From that point forward, Engelbert was the representative of the Habsburg Empire to the region
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