Grand Seigneur: William of Orange

In the course of this quatercentenary year, we shall hear a great deal about William of Orange the 'father of his country' and the 'martyr for the cause of Liberty'; we shall, I think, hear rather less about Orange the 'grand seigneur'. And yet the Prince, whose austere countenance gazes at us with disarming candour from the later portraits, was also one of the greatest noblemen and bon viveurs of his day. His sartorial fashions in the 1560s were considered so elegant that they were copied by the German aristocracy, and his household offered training (as a special favour) to the cooks and servants of other noblemen. He was frequently asked to part with his tailors and falconers, his horses and hunting dogs, his flowers and palanquins: even Philip II once asked to borrow his cook, Herman. Orange's second marriage in 1561, to Anna of Saxony, was one of the great social events of the age, attended by the King of Denmark and countless princes and potentates; and, better still, the bride's dowry of 250,000 florins provided new resources for further magnificence.

William of Nassau was not born to such prominence. In 1544 his cousin Rene of Chalons, Prince of Orange, had been killed in battle and the eleven-year-old William somewhat unexpectedly succeeded. At the personal request of the Emperor Charles V, he was brought at once from the comfortable (but no doubt somewhat provincial) family castle at Dillenburg in west Germany to the Imperial Court at Brussels, perhaps the most elegant and splendid in Europe. As part of his education, William was eventually to participate in the elaborate ritual of the Court, attending on the person of the sovereign. This included the important task of helping the Emperor to rise and to go to bed, both lengthy operations during which informal audiences were given. It seems that Charles V was so taken by the young William that he often made him remain while visitors came and went: 'Prince, stay!' he called. For nine years, Orange attended on his master.