Public Family Trees

Orange-Nassau Family Tree - The Dutch Royal House from William I to Catharina-Amalia

The House of Orange-Nassau is the royal family of the Netherlands, the dynasty that has given the country every monarch since William I was proclaimed king in 1815 and that is headed today by King Willem-Alexander, whose eldest daughter Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, is heir to the throne. ## Origins The family takes its name from the principality of Orange in southern France and the German county of Nassau, brought together in the sixteenth century in the person of William of Orange, known as William the Silent, who led the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule. For more than two centuries his descendants served the Dutch Republic as stadtholders rather than sovereigns. The republic fell to French invasion in 1795 and the family went into exile in Britain and Prussia. It was William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder William V, who returned in 1813 as sovereign prince and in 1815 became the first King of the Netherlands as William I, ruling Luxembourg as grand duke at the same time. ## Notable members Seven generations descend from William I and his wife Wilhelmina of Prussia. His son William II commanded Dutch troops at Waterloo and accepted the liberal constitution of 1848 that turned the country into a parliamentary monarchy. The long reign of William III ended in a dynastic crisis: all three of his sons died before him, and the crown passed to Wilhelmina, the ten year old daughter of his second marriage to Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Wilhelmina reigned for fifty eight years and became the voice of Dutch resistance, broadcasting from exile in London during the Second World War. Her daughter Juliana, remembered as the citizen queen, saw the Netherlands through decolonisation and the North Sea flood of 1953. Juliana's eldest daughter Beatrix reigned from 1980 to 2013, when she abdicated in favour of Willem-Alexander, the first Dutch king since 1890. ## Significance Three queens regnant in succession, Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix, gave the Netherlands 123 years of unbroken female rule between 1890 and 2013, an unusual record among European monarchies. Each of them handed the crown on by abdication rather than at death, a Dutch habit the family has now followed four times. The monarchy itself was stripped of real political power in 1848 and has survived by adapting to it, trading authority for a bicycling, broadly informal public style that remains one of the most popular institutions in the country. The title Prince or Princess of Orange, held today by Catharina-Amalia, still marks the heir, and the family's colour gives the Netherlands its national orange. ## Quick facts | Fact | Details | | --- | --- | | House | Orange-Nassau (Oranje-Nassau) | | Country | Netherlands, with Luxembourg in personal union until 1890 | | First king | William I, reigned 1815 to 1840 | | Monarchs since 1815 | Seven: William I, William II, William III, Wilhelmina, Juliana, Beatrix, Willem-Alexander | | Current head | King Willem-Alexander, king since 30 April 2013 | | Heir apparent | Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange | | Principal residences | Noordeinde and Huis ten Bosch palaces, The Hague | | Motto | Je maintiendrai (I will maintain) |