Catharina Belgica of Nassau (31 July 1578 – 12 April 1648) was a countess of Hanau-Münzenberg by marriage to Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg. She was regent of Hanau-Münzenberg during the minority of her son from 1612 until 1626.

Biography

Early life

She was the third daughter of

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

and his third spouse

Charlotte of Bourbon Charlotte of Bourbon (1546/1547 – 5 May 1582) was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bou ...

. Catharina Belgica was born in Antwerp. After her father had been assassinated in 1584, her aunt

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

took her to Arnstadt, while most of her sisters were raised by

Louise de Coligny Louise de Coligny (23 September 1555 – 9 November 1620) was a Princess consort of Orange as the fourth and last spouse of William the Silent. She was the daughter of Gaspard II de Coligny and Charlotte de Laval. Biography Louise was born at C ...

. Her older sister

Juliana Juliana (variants Julianna, Giuliana, Iuliana, Yuliana, etc) is a feminine given name which is the feminine version of the Roman name Julianus. Juliana or Giuliana was the name of a number of early saints, notably Saint Julian the Hospitaller, wh ...

would later criticize Catharina's

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

education. In 1596 she married Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg with whom she had ten children.

Regent

When her husband died in 1612, Catharina Belgica became regent for her son Philip Maurice. When emperor Ferdinand II requested passage through Hanau for his coronation in Frankfurt in 1618, she refused him entry. Her territories were ravaged by imperial troops in 1621, and she and her children had to evacuate to The Hague. In 1626, her son took over government. When king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden liberated Hanau from Imperial occupation in 1631, it was Catharina Belgica who issued negotiations with the Swedish king and successfully secured the state for her son, and she guarded the alliance between Sweden and Hanau in cooperation with her daughter, the regent of Hesse-Cassel. Matty Klatter, Catharina Belgica van Oranje, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/CatharinaBelgica 3/01/2014 She died, aged 69, in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Family

During a wedding feast in

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday road ...

that lasted from 23 October 1596 - 3 November 1596, she married Philip Louis II of Hanau-Münzenberg, producing the following children: #Charlotte Louise (1597–1649 Kassel), not married #Daughter (29 July 1598 – 9 August 1598), died unbaptised #Philip Ulrich (2 January 1601 – 7 April 1604 Steinau) # Amalia Elisabeth (1602–1651 Kassel), married to

William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel William V (german: Wilhelm) (13 February 1602 – 21 September 1637), a member of the House of Hesse, was Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel from 1627 to 1637. Having come to rule in unfavorable circumstances and in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, he c ...

#Katharina Juliane (1604–1668 Hanau), married first on 11 September 1631 to Count Albert Otto II of Solms-Laubach, Rödelheim and Assenheim and second on 31 March 1642 to Moritz Christian von Wied-Runkel # Philip Maurice (1605–1638), buried in the Marienkirche in Hanau #Wilhelm Reinhard (1607–1630 Aachen), buried in the Marienkirche in Hanau #Henry Louis (1609–1632) died during the Siege of Maastricht #Frederick Louis (27 July 1610 – 4 October 1628 Paris), buried in the family tomb of the Duke of Bouillon in Sedan #Jakob Johann (1612–1636

Zabern Saverne (french: Saverne, ; Alsatian: ; german: Zabern ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is situated on the Rhine-Marne canal at the foot of a pass over the Vosges Mountains, and 45 km (27 ...

), buried in St. Nicholas in Strasbourg

Ancestry

References

Sources

Catharina Belgica: biography on Worldroots
17th-century women rulers 1578 births 1648 deaths House of Orange-Nassau Burials in the Royal Crypt at Nieuwe Kerk, Delft Countesses of Hanau-Münzenberg Countesses of Nassau People of the Thirty Years' War {{Europe-noble-stub