Detail of a letter with an original signature from Sophia Hedwig von Braunschweig-Wolffenbüttel

Detail of a letter with an original signature of Henriette Amalia von Anhalt-Dessau.

Detail of a letter from Albertine Agnes van Oranje-Nassau with an original signature.

As the eldest daughter of the duke of Braunschweig, a granddaughter of Frederik II, and a cousin of Christian IV (these latter two both kings of Denmark), Sophia was raised at the ducal court in Wolffenbüttel. In 1607 she married count Ernst Casimir…

Only three letters survive from Constantijn Huygens to Mary Stuart, the daughter of James II and herself the future queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In January 1687, when this particular letter was written, Mary and her husband Willem were…

The Frisian stadtholders were endowed with the fiefdom Dietz in present-day Germany. The 'Duke's Castle' (built in the eleventh century) was the main residence of Sophia Hedwig von Braunschweig-Wolfenbütteland and she remained there after the death…

In 1672 Albertine Agnes van Oranje-Nassau commissioned the building of a palace in the German county Dietz. She named this palace Oranienstein. It was built on the foundations of a Benedictine monastery.
Following Albertine's death in 1696, her…