ABSTRACT
The following four chapters form Section 2, ‘Transitions’. In this section, we examine practices and events in the House of Orange-Nassau that provided opportunities for expressions of power. Looking at ‘national’, religious and House identities, these chapters investigate their formation and negotiation through ritual, ceremony, and rites of passage. What were the events or moments of transition that created or limited power within the House or family, and how did they differ for women and men? These chapters explore how family members became Orange-Nassaus through rites of passage, and how that family identity was flexible. In this chapter, we study expressions of power surrounding birth, baptism, childhood expectations, education and development within the House of Orange-Nassau. The birth, development and presentation of children were profoundly important to the stability and strengthening of the House, representing a source of power or a hint of its weakness and created deep concern about the management of children. At the same time, childhood was the time in which children were made Orange, as they were inculcated into the House’s representation, rituals and interests.
