- Emilia of Nassau
Countess Emilia of Nassau (
Cologne ,April 10 1569 -Geneva ,March 16 1629 ) was the youngest daughter ofWilliam the Silent and his second wifeAnna of Saxony .Biography
Emilia is named after
Amalia of Neuenahr , who was in charge of her mother's household at the time of her birth. Emilia's mother had an affair with the father of painterPeter Paul Rubens . Due to this infidelity Emilia and her siblings Anna and Maurice were taken out of their mother's care and went to live with their uncleJohn VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg at Dillenburg. Emilia later went to live inDelft with her father and in Friesland with her sister Anna.After her father's death, she acted as hostess at the court of her brother Maurice. It was on one of those occasions that she met Dom
Manuel de Portugal (son of pretender to thePortuguese throne ,António, Prior of Crato ). She secretly wed him in 1597. Maurice was firmly opposed to the marriage and banished her from court for ten years. They made peace with each other later on and she was with him at his deathbed.Emilia and her husband had ten children. They went to live separately later on when her husband decided - due to financial concerns - to live at the court of Isabella of Spain, archenemy of the house of Orange, in
Brussels . Emilia went to Geneva with her daughters where she died three years later.Children:
*Daugther (1598-1602)
*Maria Belgica of Portugal (1599-1647)
*Emanuel II of Portugal (1600-1666)
*Lodewijk Willem of Portugal (1601-1660)
*Daugther (1602-1603)
*Emilia Louise of Portugal (1603-1670)
*Anna Louise of Portugal (1605-1669)
*Juliana Catharina of Portugal (ca. 1607-1680)
*Mauritia Eleonora of Portugal (1609-1674) marriedGeorg Friedrich (Nassau-Siegen) son ofJohn VII, Count of Nassau
*Sabina Delphica of Portugal (1612-1670)Ancestry
References
* [http://www.koningkeizerrijken.info/prinses-emelia.htm"Emilia van Oranje-Nassau:" last accessed April 10, 2007]
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