Family tree Riny Doyle geboren Marinus van Waard » Maurice OF NASSAU (1567-1625)

Personal data Maurice OF NASSAU 

• He was born on November 14, 1567 in Dillenburg, Hessen, Deutschland.
• Title: Prince of Orange
• Profession: Prince.
• He died on April 23, 1625 in Den Haag, ZH, Nederland, he was 57 years old.
• A child of William I OF ORANGE and Anna OF SAXONY

Household of Maurice OF NASSAU

He is married to Margaretha van MECHELEN.

They got married in the year 1600 at Den Haag, ZH, Nederland, he was 32 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Willem van NASSAU  1601-1627 

• The couple has common ancestors.



Notes about Maurice OF NASSAU

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange (Dutch: Maurits van Nassau; 14 November 1567 - 23 April 1625) was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange, (1554 - 1618), a Roman Catholic brought to Spain and educated in Spain since the age of 13, and stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands from earliest 1585 until his death in 1625.

Life
Maurice was a son of William the Silent and Princess Anna of Saxony and was born at the castle of Dillenburg. He was named after his maternal grandfather, the Elector Maurice of Saxony, who was also a noted general.
Maurice never married but was the father of illegitimate children by Margaretha van Mechelen (including Willem of Nassau, lord of the Lek and Louis of Nassau, lord of den Lek and Beverweerd) and Anna van de Kelder. He was raised in Dillenburg by his uncle Johan of Nassau (Jan the Old).
Together with his cousin Willem Lodewijk he studied in Heidelberg and later with his eldest half brother Philip William, Prince of Orange in Leiden where he met Simon Stevin. The States of Holland and Zeeland paid for his studies, as their father had run into financial problems after spending his entire fortune in the early stages of the Dutch revolt.
Only 16 when his father was murdered in Delft in 1584, he soon took over as stadtholder (Stadhouder), though this title was not inheritable (The monarchs of England and France had refused, and there simply was no one else to take the job). He became stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, of Guelders, Overijssel and Utrecht in 1590 and of Groningen and Drenthe in 1620 (following the death of Willem Lodewijk, who had been Stadtholder there and in Friesland).
Protestant Maurice was preceded as Prince of Orange (not a Dutch title) by his Roman Catholic eldest half-brother Philip William, Prince of Orange, deceased 1618. However, Philip William was in the custody of Spain, remaining so until 1596, and was thus unable to lead the Dutch independence cause.
Maria of Nassau, (1556 -1616), full sister of Roman Catholic Philip William, Prince of Orange, (1554 - 1618), both from the first marriage of William I, Prince of Orange, (assassinated 1584), with wealthy and powerful aristocrat Anna van Egmont, (1533 - 1558, aged 25). She was a furious contender to their Protestant, youngest half brother, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, (1567 - Prince of Orange 1618 on the death of Philip William - 1625, without legal issue)He was appointed captain-general of the army in 1587, bypassing the Earl of Leicester, who returned to England on hearing these news.

Military career
Maurice organized the rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt. He reorganised the army together with Willem Lodewijk, studied military history, strategy and tactics, mathematics and astronomy, and proved himself to be among the best strategists of his age. Paying special attention to the siege theories of Simon Stevin, he took valuable key fortresses and towns: Breda in 1590, Steenwijk in 1592, and Geertruidenberg in 1593. These victories rounded out the borders to the Dutch Republic, solidifying the revolt and allowing a national state to develop behind secure borders. They also established Maurice as the foremost general of his time. Many of the great generals of the succeeding generation, including his brother Fredick Henry and many of the commanders of the English Civil War learned their trade under his command.
His victories in the cavalry battles at Turnhout (1597) and at Nieuwpoort (1600) earned him military fame and acknowledgment throughout Europe. Despite these successes, the House of Orange did not attain great respect among European Royalty, as the Stadtholdership was not inheritable.
The training of his army is especially important to early modern warfare. Previous generals had made use of drill and exercise in order to instill discipline or to keep the men physically fit, but for Maurice, they "were the fundamental postulates of tactics". This change affected the entire conduct of warfare, since it required the officers to train men in addition to leading them, decreased the size of the basic infantry unit for functional purposes since more specific orders had to be given in battle, and the decrease in herd behavior required more initiative and intelligence from the average soldier.

Source: Wikipedia

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