Amalia of Solms-Braunfels

Amalia came to live at the court in The Hague as lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Bohemia (the English Princess Elizabeth Stuart), when the queen and her family were exiled to the Netherlands. It was there that Amalia met her second cousin Frederik Hendrik (Frederick  Henry). When Frederik Hendrik’s brother Maurits (Maurice) demanded that Frederik Hendrik marry without delay, he proposed to Amalia.

The image of the House of Orange was important to Amalia, and this included all the pomp and circumstance of royalty. Amalia furnished palaces and had elaborate gardens laid out. Amalia and Frederik Hendrik led a sumptuous life at court. It was important for the status of the House of Orange that their children make good marriages. Their only son Willem – who would later become stadtholder Willem II – married (Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of the English king Charles I. Their daughters Louise Henriette, Henriette Catharina and Maria married German princes. Albertine Agnes married Frisian stadtholder Willem Frederik, Prince of Nassau-Dietz.