Wilhelmina of Prussia was born on 7 August 1751 to Prince Augustus William of Prussia and Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Her brother succeeded as Frederick William II of Prussia. She barely knew her father as he died when she was 7 years old. She was raised mostly by her grandmother, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover and her aunt, Elisabeth Christine. One of her first governesses was abusive…
The Fifteen Princesses of Orange: Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
26th December 2015
Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, is better known in the Netherlands as Anna of Hanover. She was born in 1709 as the daughter of the future George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach. Her father had been away on a hunting trip and wrote to his wife…
Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel is the ninth Princess of Orange. She was born on 7 February 1688 as the daughter of Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Maria Amalia of Courland.
Marie Louise was their 11th child. She was raised as a protestant and she was noticed as a…
The 8th Princess of Orange was also a British Princess and a namesake of the previous Princess. This Mary Stuart was born on 30 April 1662 as the daughter of James II of England and Anne Hyde. She grew up in the relative peace of Richmond Palace with her sister Anne. She spoke excellent French, learned to play several instruments, and she loved to read as well as dance. Despite her father’s…
Amalia of Solms-Braunfels probably never expected she would make such a grand marriage, but she did when she went from lady in waiting to Princess consort of Orange. It seems like a fairytale.
She was born the daughter of John Albert I, Count of Solms-Braunfels and Countess…
Éléanore de Bourbon was born on 30 April 1587 to Henri I de Bourbon and his second wife Charlotte Catherine de la Tremoille. She was closely related to the French royal family as her father was a first cousin of King Henry IV of France. She had a half-sister from her…
The second Princess of Orange, and also William the Silent’s second wife, is probably the most scandalous of them all. She was born on 23 December 1544 in Dresden as the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony and Agnes of Hesse. She would be their only surviving child and she grew up in the court of the Saxony Electors. She was just nine when her father died and continued her education at…
Anna of Egmont was born around March 1533 as the daughter of Maximilian van Egmont and Françoise de Lannoy. She would turn out to be their only child and thus heiress to her father’s estates. Her father was an ally of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and he was often…
Royal Central to start new blog series: The Fifteen Princesses of Orange
1st November 2015
Royal Central’s reporter Moniek has a new series entitled ‘The Fifteen Princesses of Orange’, which will cover the lives of the fifteen women who carried the title Princess of Orange as the consort of the Prince of Orange or in their own right. Though the…
