Correspondence wives William of Orange online
Thanks to a collaboration between the Huygens Institute for Dutch History, the Royal Collections and Oxford University, the letters of the four wives of William of Orange have been digitized and made available in terms of content. The launch of the digitized correspondence of the wives of William of Orange took place during the opening of the new presentation Historic Women in Museum Prinsenhof in Delft.
Through a major digitization project, the Huygens Institute for Dutch History, the Royal Collections and Oxford University put the correspondence of the wives of the Dutch and Frisian stadtholders in the spotlight via the (Women’s) Early Modern Letters Online (W)EMLO platform. Previously, the letters of 17th-century stadtholders’ wives were made available online. To these have now been added the letters of all 16th-century stadtholders’ wives: Anna van Egmond (1533-1558), Anna van Saksen (1544-1577), Charlotte de Bourbon (1546/7-1582) and Louise de Coligny (1555-1620) . These letters are part of the Royal Collections in The Hague and can be viewed digitally and – thanks to the disclosure by Huygens ING – can be examined in terms of content.
The wives of William of Orange played an essential role in history
Claudia Hörster, Director of the Royal Collections: “We are delighted to be able to take another step in making these important resources available to the public. The wives of William of Orange, and also of the later stadtholders, played an essential role in history that deserves more attention. Thanks to the fantastic collaboration with Huygens ING and the University of Oxford, we can facilitate scientific research in this underexposed area. Thanks to our collaboration with Museum Prinsenhof Delft, many people can view the special letters in the context and at the place where William of Orange read a number of these letters.
