Orange’s second, son, Maurice, a child of…

Orange’s second, son, Maurice, a child of William's disastrous marriage to the schizophrenic Anna of Saxony and delicate as a youth, had been shuffled from place to place during the years of his father's struggle against Spanish tyranny.

His boyhood had been further overshadowed by the desertion and betrayal of his father by former allies and finally by William's assassination in 1584.

These experiences have deepened his natural reserve, leaving him suspicious of friends as well as of enemies.

Maurice is still a student at the newly founded University of Leiden, but the States-General, which now meet at The Hague in Holland and represent only the provinces in the Union of Utrecht, swiftly invest Maurice as stadholder (chief executive) in Holland and Zeeland.