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'Maria of Nassau', Countess, (February 7, 1556, Breda – October 10, 1616, Buren) was the second daughter of William the Silent by his first wife Anna of Egmond and Buren. She was named after William's first daughter, who had died in infancy.

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Biography

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Biography

At the start of the Eighty Years' War her older brother Philip William was removed to Spain where he was raised as a Catholic. Maria vigorously defended her brother's claims to the title ''Prince of Orange'' and the barony and city of Breda against the claims of their half-brother Maurice of Nassau. Philip William returned to Breda in 1610.
Maria married Philip, Count of Hohenlohe in 1595. The couple remained childless. After Philip died in 1606 Maria founded an orphanage in Buren where she died in 1616. She is entombed in the Saint Lambert Church there.

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★ Portrait (in Dutch): Maria of Nassau