In 1641, at the age of ten, Mary — the eldest daughter of the Stuart king Charles I — married Willem II van Oranje-Nassau (1626–1650). Following the death of his father, Frederik Hendrik, in 1647, Willem succeeded as stadtholder and Mary received the title of Princess of Orange [Oranje]. Mary had a poor relationship with her mother-in-law, Amalia von Solms-Braunfels, in particular following the death of Willem. At this point the two women fought over the custody of Mary’s newborn son Willem III, the future stadtholder-king, as well as over the regency of the Princedom of Orange. When Charles Stuart regained the British throne in 1660, Mary followed her brother to London where he was crowned Charles II. She died there of smallpox shortly thereafter.

While much of Mary’s correspondence remains to be collated, most of the letters currently in this catalogue are copies of her outgoing letters, collected and written in the hand of her secretary Nicolaas Oudart.

• T. Birch, ed., A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742).
• M. E. Everett Green, Lives of the princesses of England (London, 1855), vol. 6, pp. 100–334.
• P. Geyl, Oranje en Stuart, 1641–1672 (Zeist, 1963).
• Theod. Jorissen, ‘Amalia van Solms en Maria Stuart’, in Theod. Jorissen, ed., Historische Bladen (Haarlem, 1889), vol. 1, pp. 43–79.
• S. Groenveld, Verlopend getij: de Nederlandse Republiek en de Engelse burgeroorlog 1640–1646 (Dieren, 1984).
• Marika Keblusek, ‘A divertissiment of little plays. Theater aan de Haagse hoven van Elizabeth van Bohemen en Mary Stuart’, in Jan de Jongste, Juliette Roding, and Boukje Thijs, eds, Vermaak van de elite in de vroegmoderne tijd (Hilversum 1999), pp. 190–202.
• Thomas Manley, A short view of the lives of those illustrious princes, Henry, duke of Gloucester, and Mary (London, 1661).
• Alison Plowden, The Stuart princesses (Stroud, 1996).
• J. Visser, ed., Gloria Parendi. Dagboeken van Willem Frederik, stadhouder van Friesland, Groningen en Drenthe, 1643–1649, 1651–1654 (The Hague, 1995).