Maria Amalia of Nassau-Dillenburg

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.

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
Dillenburg in 1575, showing the old castle at the top of the hill and the St. Johanniskirche below it
Greifenstein Castle by Matthäus Merian, 1655.

Life

Maria Amalia was born at Dillenburg Castle in 1582 as 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, and 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.

After the dead of her father John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg in 1606 as part of the inheritance Maria Amalia received an amount in the size of 2000 guilders.[5] In 1629 Marie Amalia came into sole possesion of the Solmser Hof in Edingen, Hessen,[6] nowadays 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 to 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 and her husband William I and their eldest son died.[9]

In 1635 William II followed into 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. 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. W. Buijze. Leven en werk van Georg Everhard Rumphius (1627-1702): een natuurhistoricus in dienst van de VOC. Boekhandel Couvée, 2006. p. 9.
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