Maria Amalia of Nassau-Dillenburg

Maria Amalia of Nassau-Dillenburg
Born27 August 1582
Died31 October 1635(1635-10-31) (aged 53)
Noble familyHouse of Nassau
Spouse(s)William I, Count of Solms-Braunfels
FatherJohn VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg
MotherKunigunde Jakobäa of Simmern

Maria Amalia (or Amalie), born countess of Nassau-Dillenburg (27 August 1582 – 31 October 1635) was countess of Solms-Greifenstein.[1] In 1600 she married William I, Count of Solms-Braunfels (1570-1635), and their descendants ruled the region for many generations to come.

Life

Maria Amalia was born at Dillenburg Castle in 1582 as a daughter of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg and his second wife, Countess Palatine Kunigunde Jakobäa of Simmern.[2]

At the age of 18, at August 22, 1600 in Dillenburg, she married her 30 year old cousin William I, Count of Solms-Braunfels (1570-1635).[2] He was a son of Conrad of Solms-Braunfels and Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg, who was Maria Amalia's aunt. This marriage was brought forward on special request of Philipp Ludwig II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg.[3]

After the death of Count Konrad of Solms-Braunfels in 1592, the county of Solms-Braunfels had been partitioned between itself, Solms-Greifenstein and Solms-Hungen. Since 1592 William I was Count of Solms-Greifenstein, with her marriage Maria Amalia became countess. Between 1602 and 1606 within 44 months she gave birth to three daughters and a son.[4] In the next fourteen years she gave birth to another six children.

In 1606, after the death of her father John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, Maria Amalia received 2000 guilders as part of her inheritance.[5] She came into sole possession of the Solmser Hof in Edingen, Hessen in 1629,[6] which is today one of the cultural heritage monuments in Sinn (Hessen).

In 1619 a second daughter of John VI married a Solmser Count. On 8 February 1619 Juliana (1565-1630), daughter of John VI's first wife Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg, married Count John Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels.[7]

From 1618 to 1648 the whole of Germany with the rest of Europe was caught up in the Thirty Years' War. In the plague year of 1635-1636[8] both Maria Amalia, her husband William I, and their eldest son died.[9]

In 1635 William II followed in his fathers footsteps and was ruler of Solms-Greifenstein until 1676. His son Wilhelm Moritz (1651–1720) reunited the county of Solms-Greifenstein and Solms-Braunfels, which he ruled until 1720. He was succeeded by his son Friedrich Wilhelm (1696–1761), who was appointed Reichsfürst in 1742.

Family

William I and Maria Amalia had the following children:[9]

  • Joanna Elisabeth (27 December 1602 – 27 March 1627)
  • John Conrad (17 December 1603 – 4 December 1635), married Anna Margaret of Solms-Hohensolms
  • Juliana (30 May 1605 – 16 August 1629)
  • Sabine (b. 9 July 1606), married George Hartmann of Zinzendorf-Pottendorf
  • Amalia (11 September 1607 – 4 November 1608)
  • William II (9 August 1609 – 19 July 1676), married Jhanetta Sibylla of Solms-Hohensolms and, secondly, Ernestine Sophie of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst
  • Louis (7 April 1614 – 7 November 1676), married Anna Maria of Criechingen
  • Kunigunde (18 June 1615 – 22 October 1635)
  • Anna Amalia (2 June 1617 – 4 November 1635), married Philip Reinhard II of Solms-Hohensolms
  • Ernest Casimir (11 June 1620 – 9 August 1648)

References

  1. ^ Chronik siebenhundertfünfzig Jahre Edingen: 1255-2005 : Geschichte und Geschichten, Gemeinde Sinn, 2005. p. 31.
  2. ^ a b A. P. van Nienes, M. Bruggeman. Archieven van de Friese stadhouders: inventarissen van de archieven van de Friese stadhouders van Willem Lodewijk tot en met Willem V, 1584-1795. Uitgeverij Verloren, 2002. p. 85
  3. ^ Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen und Waldeck, Volume 30, Nummer 1. Elwert Verlag, 1970. p. 286
  4. ^ Georg Schmidt. Der Wetterauer Grafenverein: Organisation und Politik einer Reichskorporation zwischen Reformation und Westfälischem Frieden, Elwert, 1989. p. 527.
  5. ^ Quellen und Forschungen zur hessischen Geschichte, Nummer 141, Selbstverlag der Hessischen Historischen Kommission Darmstadt und der Historischen Kommission für Hessen, 1913. p. 146.
  6. ^ Chronik siebenhundertfünfzig Jahre Edingen: 1255-2005 : Geschichte und Geschichten. Gemeinde Sinn, 2005
  7. ^ Henrich Dors. Genealogia oder Stammregister der durchläuchtigen hoch- und wohlgeborenen Fürsten, Grafen und Herren des uhralten hochlöblichen Hauses Nassau samt etlichen konterfeitlichen Epitaphien. Minerva-Verlag Thinnes & Nolte, 1983. p. 28
  8. ^ Curtis, Daniel R. "Was plague an exclusively urban phenomenon? Plague mortality in the seventeenth-century Low Countries." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 47.2 (2016): 139-170.
  9. ^ a b W. Buijze. Leven en werk van Georg Everhard Rumphius (1627-1702): een natuurhistoricus in dienst van de VOC. Boekhandel Couvée, 2006. p. 9.