Marijke Meu, 1688-1765

Ancestor of our royal house.

Marijke Meu (aunt Marijke) is the pet name of Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1688-1765) by which the Frisians know their queen from the eighteenth century. Something like that says a lot about the nature of the bond that the Frisians had with this princess from the House of Orange-Nassau. Much less known is her constant struggle to defend the interests of her only son: the later stadholder William IV. The survival of the House of Orange-Nassau, the Dutch branch of which had become extinct with the death of stadtholder William III in 1702, seemed uncertain due to the death of Johan Willem Friso in 1711. 'Marijke Meu', Friso's widow, was for a long time the thin thread that connected William of Orange to our current royal family. For a long time, official Dutch historiography paid little attention to either her or her time. This biography fills gaps in our knowledge of the eighteenth-century stadtholder's family.