A daughter of Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik van Oranje-Nassau and his wife Amalia von Solms-Braunfels, Albertine Agnes van Oranje-Nassau was the first member of the Oranje-Nassau dynasty to marry into the family of Nassau-Dietz.

On 31 October 1664 Willem Frederik van Nassau-Dietz, stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen, and Drenthe, and husband of Albertine Agnes, died of the injuries sustained when his own gun went off accidentally and destroyed the lower part of his face.…

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

Amalia von Solms (1602–1675) was born in Braunfels, the third daughter of Count Johann Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels, and became lady-in-waiting to the ‘Winter Queen’, Elizabeth Stuart, around 1615. When Elizabeth’s court-in-exile moved to The Hague,…

Map of the battle at Malplaquet, where the French were defeated by the allied forces, on September 11th, 1709. Illustration in: J. Lamigue, Het leven van Zyne Hoogheit Johan Willem Friso, dl. II, p. 142/143.

This letter is an exquisite example of one of the small — in terms of size — letters Constantijn wrote to Amalia. Such minute and discrete letters were written during the military campaigns in which Constantijn reported frequently to Amalia regarding…