ABSTRACT
This chapter charts a history of how women and men associated with the House of Orange-Nassau helped this dynastic family confront the challenges and changes of the early modern period. The House of Orange-Nassau emerged from among other leading families of the region during the sixteenth century, saw a remarkable rise to power, and concluded the period as the appointed monarchs of a new country. Here we analyse the changing strategies of the House – in materials, behaviours, and acts – to increase and maintain their power and status, and the people who were instrumental to this creation and exercise.
