Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange
Frederick Henry was the son William the Silent did not live to see walk, took the stadtholderate from his dying half-brother in 1625, and in twenty-two years of sieges took back the towns that made the Republic's border, allied it with France, and made the House of Orange a court that married into the Stuarts. He was born at Delft in January 1584, six months before his father was shot there, to Louise de Coligny, the daughter of the Huguenot admiral killed on St Bartholomew's night, and was raised by her and trained in the army by Maurice, beside whom he rode at Nieuwpoort at sixteen. Maurice, dying, made him marry so that the line would go on, and he married Amalia of Solms in April 1625, three weeks before he succeeded. He was called the conqueror of cities. Grol fell in 1627, 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629 after a siege in which he drained the marshes around it, Maastricht in 1632, and Breda, which Spinola had taken from Maurice, in 1637. Each was a matter of circumvallation, mines and patience rather than assault, and the Spanish could not lift any of them. In 1635 he brought the Republic into open alliance with Richelieu's France against Spain, which put the war on two fronts and won it. He was also the first stadtholder to behave as a prince: Amalia built palaces, the poets and painters were paid, his son William was married in 1641 to the nine-year-old Mary, the daughter of Charles I, and the regents of Holland began to wonder whether they had a monarch. He was ill with gout for his last years and let Amalia govern him, which the regents also noticed. He died at The Hague in March 1647, a year before the Peace of Münster recognised what he had won. His son died three years later and Holland abolished the office for twenty-two years.
- Lived: 1584 CE – 1647 CE
- Nationality: Dutch
- Roles: stadtholder, general
