View source for Louis of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd

{{Short description|Dutch soldier}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
[[File:Lous of Nassau, Lord of den Lek and Beverweerd.png|thumb|Portrait of Louis of Nassau, Lord of den Lek and Beverweerd (1602-1665)about 1650.]]
[[Image:Lodewijk van Nassau (1602-1665)(Daniël van den Queborn).jpg|thumb|''Louis at 18 months of age in 1604'', by [[Daniël van den Queborn]], 1604/5]]
[[File:Nassau La Lecq Achievement.svg|thumb|300px|Arms of Louis of Lecke, Lord of Beverweerd.]]
'''Louis of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd''' (1602 – [[The Hague]], 28 February 1665) was a Dutch soldier. He was the illegitimate son of [[Margaretha van Mechelen]] and [[Maurice, Prince of Orange]], and so a collateral member of the [[House of Orange-Nassau]]. He was a Lord of the [[heerlijkheid]] van [[De Lek]] (which he inherited on the death of his older brother, [[William of Nassau (1601–1627)|William of Nassau ]] on his death in 1627), as well as the [[Beverweerd Castle]] and its [[:nl:Beverweerd|heerlijkheid]] from his father.<ref>{{Cite web | last = van der Pas | first = Leo | title = Lodewijk van Nassau Heer van Beverweerd | url = http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00002272&tree=LEO| access-date = 7 November 2011}}</ref>
==Career==
He joined the army which had claimed his brother William's life and served with distinction in 1629 in the battle near [['s-Hertogenbosch|Den Bosch]]. In 1632 he was advanced to Colonel and after 1635 was in charge of a regiment. In 1640 during the battle for [[Hulst]], he prevented the cannons from falling into enemy hands. In the same year he was sent to Paris to advise the French king of the forthcoming marriage of the 14-year-old [[William II, Prince of Orange|William II of Orange]] to the [[Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange|9-year-old English Princess Mary Stuart]]. Also, when the young Prince proceeded to England to fetch his bride, he was accompanied by Louis of Nassau. In 1643 he became General-Major and Governor of the city of Bergen-op-Zoom.
Despite his mother's objections, he married [[Isabella van Hornes]] in the spring of 1630 and from this marriage, ten children were born. His uncle, [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange|Prince Frederick Henry]], highly regarded Lodewijk, and participated in the Prince's family life.
Louis was originally a supporter of his next of kin, the Princes of Orange. After the death of William II he made his peace with the anti-Orangist regents of the cities of the Dutch Republic and worked with the administration of [[Johan de Witt]], becoming First Noble of Holland. In 1658 Louis of Nassau became Governor of Den Bosch and in 1660 was sent as a special ambassador to England. In addition to his representing the Dutch Republic, two of his daughters married British noblemen. Isabella married [[Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington]], one of King Charles II's ministers; and Emilia married [[Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory]], the heir apparent of the [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond|Duke of Ormond]]. By 1662 Louis had forged a strong relationship between England and the Dutch Republic and returned to Holland where he died on 28 February 1665.
<ref>{{cite book |title=John de Witt, grand pensionary of Holland, 1625-1672|url=https://archive.org/details/johndewittgrandp0000rowe|url-access=registration|first=Herbert H.|last =Rowen|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1978}}</ref>
==Marriage and children==
He married Countess Isabella [[House of Hornes|of Hornes]] in the spring of 1630, and had ten children.
He and Countess Isabella of Hornes had three surviving sons:
*Maurits Lodewijk I, Lord of De Lek (or LaLecq) and Beverweerd
*Willem Adriaan I, Lord of [[Odijk]], [[Kortgene]], [[Zeist]] and [[Driebergen]]
*[[Henry de Nassau, Lord Overkirk|Hendrik]], Lord of [[Ouderkerk aan den IJssel|Ouwerkerk]] and [[Woudenberg]]
He also had seven daughters of whom the three eldest were:
* Isabella van Nassau-Beverweert (28 December 1633 – 18 January 1718), sometimes recorded as Elisabeth, a notable Dutch beauty, who married March 1665 [[Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington]] and had an only daughter
**[[Isabella FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton|Lady Isabella Bennet]] (c. 1668–7 February 1723) who married 1 August 1672 as a four-year-old child [[Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton]] (28 September 1663 – 9 October 1690 d. at the storming of [[Cork (city)|Cork]]), the illegitimate son of [[King Charles II of England]] and [[Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland|his mistress the Duchess of Cleveland]]. They have many descendants.
* [[Emilia Butler, Countess of Ossory]], a notable beauty like her sister. She was wife of [[Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory]], and mother of [[James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde|the 2nd Duke of Ormonde]] and other children.
* Wilhelmina Anna, married the Dutch noble Albert Willemsz van Ruytenburgh (1630-1688), son of [[Willem van Ruytenburch]], and had [http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00016632&tree=LEO a daughter Anna Elisabeth van Ruytenbergh] who married [[George Cholmondeley, 2nd Earl of Cholmondeley]] in 1701.
Louis of Nassau died in [[The Hague]] and was buried there, 6 March 1665, in de [[Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk (The Hague)|Great, or St. James Church]].<ref>Molhuysen, Dr. P.C. and Blok, Prof. Dr. P.J., [[Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek]], volume 1, pages 1365-1366: [http://www.inghist.nl/retroboeken/nnbw?source=1&page_number=1365 Lodewijk (Louys) van Nassau]. A.W. Sijthoff's Publishers Company, Leiden, 1911</ref> His descendants are buried in the [[:nl:Grafkelder van Nassau-LaLecq|family crypt]] at [[:nl:Ouderkerk aan den IJssel|Ouderkerk aan den IJssel]].
{{Family tree of the House of Nassau-den Lek}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* Leo van der Pas. [http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00002272&tree=LEO Lodewijk van Nassau Heer van Beverweerd]. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
References:
See: Reinildis van Ditzhuyzen, Oranje-Nassau: Een biografisch woordenboek, Haarlem 2004, 171-173 (with a portrait, ca. 1650)
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[[Category:1602 births]]
[[Category:1665 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch military personnel]]
[[Category:People from Utrecht (province)]]