Kerabat Oranye-Nassau

Rumah Nassau

Lelaki pertama digelar count dari Nassau adalah Henry I, yang hidup pada separuh pertama kurun ke-13. Keluarga Nassau berkahwin dengan keluarga kawasan kejiranan Counts dari Arnstein (kini Kloster Arnstein). Anak lelakinya Walram dan Otto memisahkan milik Nassau. Barisan Walram digelarkan Keturunan Walram, yang menjadi Dukes dari Nassau, dan pada 1890, Grand Dukes of Luxembourg. Keturunan Otto digelarkan Keturunan Otton, yang mewarisi berbahagian county Nassau, harta milik di Perancis, dan di Belanda. 
Rumah Oranye-Nassau berakar dari Barisan Otton. Orang kedua adalah Engelbert I, yang memberikan perkhidmatannya kepada Duke dari Burgundy, berkahwin dengan seorang bangsawan wanita Belanda dan mewarisi tanah-tanah di Belanda, dengan barony dari Breda as the core of the Dutch possessions.
Kepentingan keluarga Nassau berkembang di sepanjang kurun ke-15 dan ke-16.
Hendrik III dari Nassau-Breda telah dilantik stadtholder dari Holland dan Zeeland oleh Charles of Ghent pada mulanya kurun ke-16. Hendrik telah diganti oleh anak lelakinya René dari Châlon-Orange pada 1538, yang, seperti nama penuhnya dinyatakan, Putera dari Oranye. Apabila René meninggal dunia secara belum waktunya pada 1544 harta miliknya diwasiatkan ke sepupunya, William I dari Oranye. Sejak itulah ahli dalam keluarga tersebut menggelarkan diri mereka "Oranye-Nassau." 
Lihat juga Adolf dari Jerman

Pemberontakan Belanda

Walaupun Charles V menentang Reformasi Protestan, dia memerintah wilayah-wilayah Belanda secara bijaksana dengan kesederhanaan dan berhubung dengan adat tempatan, dan baginda tidak menindas rakyat Protestan baginda pada suatu skala yang besar. Anak lelakinya Philip II mewarisi antipatinya untuk Protestan tetapi bukan kesederhanaannya. Di bawah pemerintahan Philip, suatu penindasan benar Protestan telah dimulakan dan cukai telah dinaikkan ke suatu peringkat yang melampaui batas.  Ketidaksenangan meningkat dan William dari Orange (dengan zaman kanak-kanak Lutheran samar-samar baginda) mempertahankan penduduk Protestan (kebanyakannya Calvinist) Belanda.  Perkara menjadi semakin teruk selepas Perang Lapan Puluh Tahun bermula pada 1568, tetapi nasib baik membawanya pada kemanfaatannya apabila pemberontak Protestan menyerang dari Laut Utara menangkap Brielle, sebuah pekan tepi pantai Holland Selatan pada hari ini in 1572.  Banyak bandar di Holland bermula menyokong William.  Sewaktu 1570an baginda terpaksa mempertahankan wiliayah=wilayah terasnya di Holland kerap kali, tetapi pada 1580an bandar-bandar dalaman di Holland telah dikawalkan.  William dari Orange telah dianggap suatu ugutan pada pemerintahan Sepanyol di kawasan itu dan telah dibunuh pada 1584 oleh seorang pembunuh diupah dikirim oleh Philip.
William telah diganti oleh anak lelaki keduanya Maurits, seorang Protestan yang dibuktikan seorang pemimpin ketenteraan yang hebat. Kemahirannya sebagai seorang pemimpin dan kekurangan pucuk pemimpin kuat di Sepanyol selepas kematian Philip II (1598) memberikan Maurits kesempatan hebat untuk menakluk bahagian-bahagian besar wilayah Belanda hari ini.
Maurits telah menciptakan stadtholder (pemimpin ketenteraan) Republik Belanda pada 1585.  Pada tahun-tahun awal kurun ke-17 telah meningkatnya perkelahian di antara stadtholder dan oligarchist regents — sekumpulan saudagar berkuasa dipimpin oleh Johan van Oldebarnevelt — kerana Maurits hendak lebih kuasa di Republik.  Maurits memenangi perjuangan kuasa ini dengan mengaturkan pembunuhan bidang kuasa Oldebarnevelt.

Buangan dan kebangkitan semula

Frederick Henry died in 1647 and his son succeeded him. As the Treaty of Munster was about to be signed, thereby ending the Eighty Years War, William tried to extend his powers beyond the military to make his function valuable at peace, at the great distress of the regents. When Andries Bicker and Cornelis de Graeff, the great regents of the city of Amsterdam refused some mayors he appointed, he besieged Amsterdam. The siege provoked the wrath of the regents. William died of smallpox on November 6, 1650, leaving only a posthumous son, William III & II (*November 14, 1650). Since there was no Prince of Orange upon the death of William II, the regents used this opportunity to leave the stadtholdership vacant. This inaugurated the era in Dutch history that is known as the First Stadtholderless Period. A quarrel about the education of the young prince arose between his mother and his grandmother Amalia (who outlived her husband by 28 years). Amalia wanted an education which was pointed at the resurgence of the Kerabat Oranye to power, but Mary wanted a pure English education. The Estates of Holland, under Jan de Witt and Cornelis de Graeff, meddled in the education and made William a "child of state" to be educated by the state. The doctrine used in this education was keeping William from the throne. William became indeed very docile to the wishes of the regents and the Estates.
The Dutch Republic was attacked by France and England in 1672. The military function of stadtholder was no longer superfluous, and with the support of the Orangists, William was restored, and he became the stadtholder as "William III". William successfully repelled the invasion and seized royal power. He became more powerful than his predecessors from the Eighty Years War. In 1677, William married Mary Stuart, the daughter of the future king James II dari England. In 1688, William embarked on a mission to depose his Catholic father-in-law from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. He and his wife were crowned the King and Queen of England on April 11, 1689. With the accession to the thrones of the three kingdoms, he became one of the most powerful sovereigns in Europe, and the only one to defeat Louis XIV dari Perancis. Many members of the Kerabat Oranye were devoted admirers of the King-Stadtholder afterwards. William III & II died childless after a riding accident on March 8, 1702, leaving the Kerabat Oranye extinct, and leaving Scotland, England and Ireland to Queen Anne.

Zaman tanpa stadtholder kedua

The regents found that they had suffered under the powerful leadership of William III and declared the stadtholdership vacant for the second time.  The main reason was a quarrel about the title Prince of Orange between John William Friso of the Frisian Nassaus and the King of Prussia. Both descended from Frederick Henry. The King of Prussia, Friedrich I was his grandson through his mother, Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau. Frederick Henry in his will had appointed this line as successor in the case the House would die out. John William Friso was a great-grandson of Frederick Henry and was appointed heir in William III's will. The solution was that both claimants were allowed to bear the title. The problem of the lands solved itself as the principality of Orange, France was conquered by Louis XIV in 1713. John William Friso drowned in 1711 in the Hollands Diep near Moerdijk, and he left his posthumously-born son William IV. William IV was proclaimed the stadtholder of Guelders, Overijssel, Drenthe, and Utrecht in 1722. When the French invaded Holland in 1747, William was restored as the stadtholder of the entire Dutch Republic, hereditary in both the male and the female lines.

Suatu rohaniah baru: Kerajaan Bersatu Belanda

Para pemberontak Belanda mengejar keluar pihak Perancis pada 1813.  Ia was virtually taken for granted that any new government would have to be headed by William VI, prince of Orange (known in Dutch as Willem Frederik), son of William V. 
At the invitation of the provisional government, William VI returned to the Netherlands on November 30. This move was strongly supported by the United Kingdom, which sought ways to strengthen the Netherlands and deny future French aggressors easy access to the Low Countries' Channel ports.  On December 6, William proclaimed himself hereditary sovereign prince of the Netherlands (having previously declined the offer of kingship).  In 1814 the former Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) was added to his realm.  On March 15, 1815 with the support of the powers gathered at the Congress of Vienna, William proclaimed himself King William I.  He was also made grand duke of Luxembourg.  The two countries remained separate despite sharing a common monarch.  
As king of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, William tried to establish one common culture.  This provoked resistance in the southern parts of the country, which had been culturally separate from the north since 1581.  He was considered an enlightened despot.
The Prince of Orange held rights to Nassau lands (Dillenburg, Dietz, Beilstein, Hadamar, Siegen) in central Germany. On the other hand the King of Prussia, Frederick William III--brother-in-law and first cousin of William I, had beginning from 1813 managed to establish his rule in Luxembourg, which he regarded as his inheritance from Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg who had died over three centuries earlier.  At the Congress of Vienna, the two brothers-in-law agreed to a trade—Frederick William received William I's ancestral lands while William I received Luxembourg. Both got what was geographically nearer to their center of power.
In 1830 Belgium declared its independence and William fought a disastrous war until 1839 when he was forced to settle for peace. With his realm halved, he decided to abdicate in 1840. Royal power was curbed during the reign of his son William II in a constitution ordered by the King to prevent the Revolution of 1848 from spreading to his country.

William III dan ancaman kepupusan

William II died in 1849. He was succeeded by his son, King William III, a rather conservative, even a reactionary man. William III was sharply opposed to the new 1848 constitution, and he continually tried to form his own royal governments. In 1868, he tried to sell Luxembourg to France, which was the source of a quarrel between Prussia and France.
William III had a rather unhappy marriage with Sophie of Württemberg, and his heirs died young. This raised the possibility of the extinction of the Kerabat Oranye-Nassau. After the death of Queen Sophie in 1877, William remarried, to Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1879. One year later, Queen Emma gave birth to their daughter and the royal heiress, Wilhelmina. 
Since females were not allowed to hold power in Luxembourg, due to the "Salic law", Luxembourg passed to the House of Nassau-Weilburg, a collateral line to the Kerabat Oranye. The Dutch Royal Family faced the threat of a complete extinction until 1909, when Wilhemina gave birth to her daughter, Juliana. The Dutch royal house remained quite small until the latter 1930s and the early 1940s, during which Juliana gave birth to four children. Although the Kerabat Oranye died out in its male line with the death of Queen Wilhelmina, the name "Orange" continues to be used by the Dutch royalty.

Sebuah monarki moden

Wilhelmina was queen of the Netherlands for 58 years, from 1890 to 1948. Because she was only 10 years old in 1890, her mother, Queen Emma, was the regent until Wilhelmina's 18th birthday in 1898. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I, during her reign, and this country was not invaded by Germany, as neighboring Belgium was. 
Nevertheless, Queen Wilhelmina became a symbol of the Dutch resistance during World War II. The moral authority of the Monarchy was restored because of her rule. After fifty years on the throne as the Queen, Wilhelmina decided to abdicate in favour of her daughter, Juliana. Juliana had the reputation of making the monarchy less "aloof", and under her reign the Monarchy became known as the "cycling monarchy". Members of the royal family were often seen bicycling through the cities and the countryside under Juliana. 
A royal marriage policy quarrel occurred starting in 1966, when the future Queen Beatrix decided to marry Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat. The marriage of a member of the royal family to a German was quite controversial in the Netherlands, which had suffered under Nazi German occupation in 1940 - 45. This reluctance to accept a German consort probably was exacerbated by Herr Amsberg's former membership in the Hitler Youth under the Nazi regime in his native country, and also his following service in the German Wehrmacht. 
Permission was needed from the civilian Government for Beatrix to marry anyone, but after some argument, it was granted. As the years went by, and Prince Claus was fully accepted by the Dutch people. In time, became one of the most popular members of the Dutch monarchy, and his death in 2002 was widely mourned. 
On April 30, 1980, Queen Juliana abdicated in favor of her daughter, Beatrix. In the decade of the 2000s, the Dutch monarchy seems to be popular with a large part of the population. The first-born son of Beatrix and her husband, Prince Claus, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, was born on April 27, 1967 - the first male heir to the Dutch throne in almost 100 years. Willem-Alexander married Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002. They are already the parents of three  daughters: Catharina-Amalia, Alexia, and Ariane. When Beatrix of the Netherlands passes away, or abdicates the throne, the Crown Prince will take the throne, most likely as King William IV.
After a long struggle with neurological illiness, Queen Juliana died on March 20, 2004, and her husband, Prince Bernhard, died on December 1 of that same year.