WI: No Elizabeth Stuart

Was the House of Orange considered 'Royal' enough? I mean I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about early Dutch history but the House of Orange wasn't considered a real reigning House until William III and even then there was times that their rule was threatened internally. Until William II of Orange's marriage to Princess Royal Mary none of the major Houses married into or out of the House of Orange.

Hm. I think that the Principality of Orange itself didn't really count, being by that time merely nominal and not, I think, held immediately (might be wrong on that though) . Nor did the Dutch headship of state, because the Staatholdership was elective. But, the House of Orange also held their hereditary domain of Nassau-Dillenburg, which was am Imperial county and therefore a ruling house . That was quite respectable, though not very rich. But German protocol and precedence is inhumanly complex.
 
Frederick V's mother was a daughter of William the Silent, so the House of Orange seems to be an acceptable marriage option for the Palatinate, at least in the abstract.
 
Maybe his cousin Catharina, daughter of Charles IX of Sweden? IOTL she married into other branch of the Wittelsbachs (John Casimir of Palatinate-Zweibrücken) in 1615, and Frederick V was higher match than John Casimir.

Catharina of Sweden actually sounds like the best possible match for Fred V if this quote is anything to go by--"a happy union of her father's power and wisdom and her mother's soft humility." She'd certainly make a good advisor for him, and she was still available in 1612.
 
Hm. I think that the Principality of Orange itself didn't really count, being by that time merely nominal and not, I think, held immediately (might be wrong on that though).

I don't know how accurate the Wikipedia article about the Prinicpality is, but that says:
It was constituted in 1163, when Holy Roman EmperorFrederick I elevated the Burgundian County of Orange (consisting of the city of Orange and the land surrounding it) to a sovereign principality within the Empire. The principality became part of the scattered holdings of the house of Orange-Nassau from the time that William I "the Silent" inherited the title of Prince of Orange from his cousin in 1544, until it was finally ceded to France in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. Although permanently lost to the Nassaus then, this fief gave its name to the extant Royal House of the Netherlands by virtue of the imperial immediacy it used to enjoy.
and
As an independent enclave within France, Orange became an attractive destination for Protestants and a Huguenot stronghold. William III of Orange, who ruled England as William III of England, was the last Prince of Orange to rule the principality.
and if that's right then it looks as though the Principality would have counted.
 
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