Women behind the rise of the house of Orange-Nassau
WHEN the house of Orange-Nassau finally became monarchs in The Netherlands in 1815, it was the result of hundreds of years of manoeuvring: battles physical and political and, Susan Broomhall contends, a solid effort by generations of the family's women.
"The male line was really weak, they died in battle or were minors for many years," says Broomhall, a professor of history at the University of Western Australia. "It was the women who kept reminding people of the family through systematically promoting it, so when The Netherlands decided on a monarchy, their family was the obvious choice." The family still rules, via Queen Beatrix.
A $450,000, four-year Australian Research Council grant will help Broomhall and colleague Jacqueline Van Gent tease out the scope of the women's influence....
Broomhall's special interest is 16th-century French history and she was researching in the Paris archives in 2000 when she came across a cache of letters written between William the Silent's daughters Charlotte Brabantina, Elizabeth and Flandrina. The first two had married and moved to France, the last was a nun there. "They wrote to each other about once a week over a 30-year period," Broomhall says.
These letters are among thousands the scholars will mine, but they will also look for paintings, palaces and other non-paper records for clues to the personalities of the family....
Read entire article at The Australian
"The male line was really weak, they died in battle or were minors for many years," says Broomhall, a professor of history at the University of Western Australia. "It was the women who kept reminding people of the family through systematically promoting it, so when The Netherlands decided on a monarchy, their family was the obvious choice." The family still rules, via Queen Beatrix.
A $450,000, four-year Australian Research Council grant will help Broomhall and colleague Jacqueline Van Gent tease out the scope of the women's influence....
Broomhall's special interest is 16th-century French history and she was researching in the Paris archives in 2000 when she came across a cache of letters written between William the Silent's daughters Charlotte Brabantina, Elizabeth and Flandrina. The first two had married and moved to France, the last was a nun there. "They wrote to each other about once a week over a 30-year period," Broomhall says.
These letters are among thousands the scholars will mine, but they will also look for paintings, palaces and other non-paper records for clues to the personalities of the family....