Countess Emilia of Nassau
Countess Emilia of Nassau (Cologne, April 101569 - Geneva, March 161629) was the youngest daughter of William the Silent and his second wife Anna of Saxony.
Biography
Emilia is named after Amalia of Neuenahr, who was in charge of her mother's household at the time of her birth. Emilia's mother had an affair with the father of painter Peter Paul Rubens. Due to this infidelity Emilia and her siblings Anna and Maurice were taken out of their mother's care and went to live with their uncle John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg at Dillenburg. Emilia later went to live in Delft with her father and in Friesland with her sister Anna.
After her father's death, she acted as hostess at the court of her brother Maurice. It was on one of those occasions that she met Dom Manuel de Portugal (son of pretender to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato). She secretly wed him in 1597. Maurice was firmly opposed to the marriage and banished her from court for ten years. They made peace with each other later on and she was with him at his deathbed.
Emilia and her husband had ten children. They went to live separately later on when her husband decided - due to financial concerns - to live at the court of Isabella of Spain, archenemy of the house of Orange, in Brussels. Emilia went to Geneva with her daughters where she died three years later.
Ancestry
| Countess Emilia of Nassau | Father: Prince William I of Orange (The Silent) (1533-1584) |
Grandfather: Count William I of Nassau-Dillenburg (1487-1559) |
Greatgrandfather: Count John V of Nassau-Dillenburg (1455-1516) |
| Greatgrandmother: Landgravine Elisabeth of Hesse-Marburg (1466-1523) | |||
| Grandmother: Countess Juliana of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1506-1580) |
Greatgrandfather: Count Botho VIII of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1467-1538) | ||
| Greatgrandmother: Anna of Epstein-Königstein (1482-1538) | |||
| Mother: Anna of Saxony (1544-1577) |
Grandfather: Elector Maurice I of Saxony (1521-1553) |
Greatgrandfather: Duke Henry IV of Saxony (1473-1541) | |
| Greatgrandmother: Catharina of Mecklenburg (1487-1561) | |||
| Grandmother: Agnes of Hesse (1527-1555) |
Greatgrandfather: Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (1504-1567) | ||
| Greatgrandmother: Christine of Saxony (1505-1549) |