Princess Marianne of the Netherlands

Born in Berlin, she was the youngest child and second daughter of King William I of the Netherlands by his wife Wilhelmine of Prussia. Her elder sister, Pauline, had died in 1806, long before her birth, so Marianne became the only daughter of her parents to survive to adulthood. Her two older brothers were the future King William II and Prince Frederik of the Netherlands. Two other brothers were stillborn.

In The Hague on 14 September 1830, Marianne married her first cousin Prince Albert, the fourth son of her mother's brother, King Frederick William III of Prussia. The union produced five children:

• Charlotte (b. Schloss Schönhausen, near Berlin, 21 June 1831 – d. Meiningen, 30 March 1855), married on 18 May 1850 with the later Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.
• A son (Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, Wilhelmstraße, near Berlin, 4 December 1832). He was either stillborn or lived only a few hours.[1]
• Albert (b. Berlin, 8 May 1837 – d. Kamenz, 13 September 1906), married Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg.
• Elisabeth (b. Kamenz, 27 August 1840 – d. Kamenz, 9 October 1840).
• Alexandrine (b. Berlin, 1 February 1842 – d. Schloss Marley, near Potsdam, 26 March 1906), married on 9 December 1865 to Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Johannes Wilhelm von Reinhartshausen, the son of Princess Marianne and Johannes van Rossum.

In 1845 she left her unfaithful husband and began to live with her lover and former coachman Johannes van Rossum. On 28 March 1849, Marianne and Albert of Prussia were formally divorced. Seven months later (30 October) in Cefalù, Sicily, she gave birth to her only child with van Rossum, a son, called Johannes Willem van Reinhartshausen. After this, the courts of The Hague and Berlin broke all contact with her. Marianne, Johannes and their son spent the following years in Italy and from 1853 at Weißwasser Castle near Jauernig.

In 1855 Marianne bought Schloss Reinhartshausen in Erbach, Rheingau. An unusually progressive woman and cultural visionary, she made the Schloss Reinhartshausen a cultural center of the Rhine. Marianne reconstructed part of the Schloss as a museum to house her collection of 600 paintings. The museum is known today as the Festsäle. The Schloss was always vibrant with many guests and Marianne encouraged young artists providing them accommodation. Of her treasures, 180 paintings, 110 drawings including watercolors and gouaches, as well as various sculptures can be found there today.

Princess Marianne of the Netherlands in later years (ca. 1880).

On Christmas Day of 1861, her son Johannes Wilhelm died of pneumonia in Reinhartshausen at age twelve. To honor him, Marianne donated 60.000 Gulden to the Erbacher locals for a piece of land on which a church was to be constructed. The church was completed and Johannes buried under its altar. The church, named after Johannes, is today’s Protestant church in Erbach.

In 1872 in the name of her father King Willem I, she donated 18,000 to Dillenburg to help finance the creation of a new lookout tower, Wilhelmsturm, to commemorate her ancestor William the Silent who received the evoys from the low countries at his home on this spot asking him to take the lead in their rebellion against the Spanish Netherlands.

On 10 May 1873, Johannes van Rossum, Marianne's partner for almost thirty years and the love of her life, died aged sixty-four. He was to be buried next to his son, but the local church-councel thought it improper to bury an aldulterer within the church-walls. His grave is to be found in the graveyard next to the church where the tombstone only mentiones HRH the princess Marianne.

Marianne survived him by ten years and died in the Schloss Reinhartshausen in Erbach twenty days after her seventy-third birthday. She was buried next to Johannes van Rossum and close to their son.

Her eldest son, Prince Albert of Prussia, inherited her estate, included the Schloss Reinhartshausen. In 1940, her grandson, Prince Frederick Heinrich of Prussia -Albert's son- owned the property. Today the Schloss Reinhartshausen is a 5-star hotel.[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marianne of the Netherlands.

• Royal House of the Netherlands