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Countess Elisabeth von Nassau
(1577-1642)
Born 26 April 1577 Middelburg
Died 3 September 1642 Sedan
Married 15 April 1595 's-Gravenhage
Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon,
son of Francois III de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Baron
de Montgascon
and Eleonore de Montmorency
Born 28 September 1555 Joze-en-Auvergne
Died 25 March 1623 Sedan
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After the murder of William of Orange, his widow, Louise de Coligny,
was confronted with a wide range of step-children. Maria, born from the
Prince's first marriage, was a year younger than she was herself; and lived
in her own castle at Buren with Anna from the second marriage. Emilia,
also from the second marriage was in Germany, as was Catharina Belgica
from the third marriage. Flandrina, also from the third marriage, had gone
to her grandfather in France some years earlier; leaving Louise with the
four remaining from the third marriage, as well as her own son, born half
a year before the murder. Louise tried to create a home for the girls but
soon they were going their own way. In 1593 the eldest of these girls,
Louise Juliana, married the Elector Palatine and took with her the youngest,
Emilia Antwerpiana. In 1594, Louise went to Paris and took with her both
the 17-year-old Elisabeth and the 15-year-old Charlotte Brabantina. At
the same time, it became known that the French king, Henri IV, was returning
to the Roman Catholic religion. This frightened many of the French Huguenots
and one of these, the Duc de Bouillon, found it safer to find foreign alliances
to strenghten their position. On hearing of the presence in Paris of Louise
and her two step-daughters, he proposed marriage to the 17-year-old Elisabeth.
On 15 April 1595, they married in The Hague. Then in 1598 his first cousin,
the Duc de Thouars, married Charlotte Brabantina. Even though the Duc de
Bouillon was twenty-one years older and a widower, this arranged marriage
worked well. After their marriage they went to Sedan, the seat of the Duc.
As he had to travel a great deal, she missed him and felt lonely, even
to declaring herself unfit for company as her sadness also made her bad-tempered.
However, she still had to do a great deal of socializing with many people
passing through Sedan having to be entertained. Inheriting her mother's
cheerful character, she learned a musical instrument and as well became
expert in embroidery. Also her sister, Charlotte Brabantina, and her step-mother,
Louise, would sent recipies to preserve fruit. However, despite being so
physically distant, all six sisters were still very close and regular correspondence
kept them in touch with each other. Even the change in religion of Charlotte
Flandrina, who became a nun and in turn Abbess of St.Croix, made no difference.
Elisabeth, having at first expressed her sadness at the many absences of
ther husband while the Duc de Thouars seemed always to be at home, then
had her sister, the Duchess de Thouars, become a widow after only six years,
and this brought these two sisters even closer. The Duc de Bouillon tried
to keep his small but independant state of Sedan independant from France;
but as more and more Huguenots came for refuge, it became a Protestant
centre within an increasingly hostile Catholic country. On several occasions
the Duc was accused of treachery and eventually had to flee from Paris.
He asked Protestant Princes for support but none dared give it as this
would mean war with France. In the meantime, Elisabeth tended to her own
and her sister's children. Even the heir of the Elector Palatine---and
son of her eldest sister, Louise Juliana---came to her to be educated.
The future Elector of Brandenburg also came to the academy of Sedan and
in turn married a daughter of the same Louise Juliana. To honour her two
half-brothers as champions of the Protestant movement, she named her eldest
son-and-heir after them both, or Frederic-Maurice. She had thus created
a cultural and Protestant centre, but in the long run was to be disappointed
in her children after her daughter Marie was married in 1619 to the Duc
de Thouars, son of her sister Charlotte Brabantina, for this was the last
grand Huguenot alliance. In 1623 her husband had died embittered by the
many trials enforced upon the Huguenots. Yet another concern was for her
sister, Louise Juliana, who, after the failure of her son's Bohemian venture,
had to flee imperial armies and spend the rest of her life as a refugee.
Elisabeth's son-and-heir, Frederic-Maurice, not only married a Catholic,
but became a Catholic himself; he sold Bouillon to the Bishop of Liege
(Luik) and ceded Sedan to the French King. Even the youngest son, known
as Turenne, became a famous French but Catholic Marshall. Her daughter,
Marie, a true and faithful protestant all her life, was shocked and betrayed
when, after nine years, her husband changed religion and he, too, became
Roman Catholic. This betrayal brought Elisabeth closer to both her sister,
the Dowager Duchesse de Thouars, and her own daughter; then, after her
sister's death in 1631, it was this daughter who was to be her main support
until her own death eleven years later on 3 September 1642.
Source: Leo van de Pas |
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