Save the House of Nassau-Dietz-Oranje

King Willem III had three sons from his first marriage who all died without issue.

1) Willem a.k.a. Wiwill, a.k.a le prince de citron (Prince Lemon), who wanted to marry his mistress, but was prohibited from doing so by his dad; his mom wanted him to marry Princess Alice or Princess Thyra of Denmark, while Willem wanted a Russian match. No marriage came about.

2) Maurits - died at the age of 6 of meningitis after the king refused to have him treated by the doctor recommended by the queen for a second opinion.

3) Alexander. Died unmarried but considered marrying either a Russian or Prussian princess. Asked his uncle to enquire after a match with Princess Friederike of Hannover, however this was turned down. Rumored to be homosexual. No issue.

What might the effects on the Dutch future be if Willem III and Sophie decide to be a little more willing to compromise (since the matches he refused were proposed by his wife whom he quarelled with constantly and vice versa)?

The first change is that the best monarch the Netherlands had is butterflied away, which is a pity.

Since the Netherlands was a democracy, I don't think there will be many changes for Dutch internal politics. Actualy, I think the most relevant change will be the continied personal union between the Netherlands and Luxemburg. This suddenly becomes very important around the first World War.

pompejus said:

I think the most relevant change will be the continied personal union between the Netherlands and Luxemburg. This suddenly becomes very important around the first World War.

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Interesting, never thought of that. So the Dutch will be pissed at the occupation of Luxembourg but are they bound to come to its aid?

miguelrj said:

Interesting, never thought of that. So the Dutch will be pissed at the occupation of Luxembourg but are they bound to come to its aid?

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Or, Luxemburg having a monarch who has more to lose than just Luxemburg, it might fold so totally as to appear to not have been invaded at all, merely occupied by troops officially allowed in.

Or maybe the butterflies smash WW1-as-it-happened. Sure, a different monarch for the Netherlands isn't earth-shattering, but it just takes one word in a speech by important person X to make the whole thing derail (there might still be a kind of WW1, but the PoD is way before the shift to Schlieffen by the German army).

I was actually thinking that a marriage for one of the boys would perhaps affect the Netherlands-Luxembourg's position in European conflicts. For instance, if a Prussian princess is taken, then the Netherlands might be more Germanophile, whereas a British/Hannoverian princess would have her looking across the channel, and it would be interesting to find out why the match with Princess Friederike was refused; I can imagine Victoria's own experience of the Nassaus being the reason that Alice and Wiwill's marriage negotiations got off the ground.

Victoria had been proposed for Prince Sasha of the Netherlands (I think) but referred to them as being as plain as Kalmuks in a letter to her uncle, but I think by then she had already met her darling angel already, so I would take that with a grain of salt.