Three stages of life
Biography · 1539–1599
Her life
From daughter of Nassau to Countess of Bergh. From a young bride to a widow who sealed documents in her own name and managed a dynastic inheritance.
Maria did not stand beside history. She lived inside it.
Maria was born in Dillenburg on 18 March 1539, the daughter of William the Rich and Juliana of Stolberg. She grew up in the large Nassau family. Her brother William would later become known as William of Orange. Maria’s own life linked Nassau, Bergh, Guelders and the Spanish authorities.
In 1556, at the age of seventeen, she married Willem IV van den Bergh. The marriage was both personal and political: two noble houses were bound more closely together. Over the following decades their exceptionally large family became caught up in war, faith and diplomacy.
1539–1599
Family was political too.
A noble household was not a private world in the modern sense. Marriages connected territories and families; children could become rulers, soldiers, canonesses or marriage partners. Letters, education, religion and property were political matters.
Dillenburg shaped her youth, ’s-Heerenberg her years as Countess of Bergh, and House Ulft her final phase after arrest, release and political rupture.
Widowed, but not powerless.
Widowed, but not powerless.
After Willem IV died in 1586, Maria acted as ruling Countess of Bergh. A surviving widow’s seal from 1594 shows her sealing important acts under her own name and titles.
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