Juliana Van Stolberg
Have you seen the stone monument in The Hague Bezuidenhout of a woman surrounded by five men and wondered who this was? Read on to find out her identity and her role in Dutch history…
Juliana van Stolberg, lived from 1506-1580 primarily in Germany, but played an outsized role in Dutch history. She was mother to Willem I, Prince of Oranje who would lead the Dutch rebellion against Spain for independence. But he wasn’t her only child to take up the fight. Adolf, Lodewijk and Lodewijk all lost their lives in battle.
2 HUSBANDS, 17 CHILDREN
Juliana was just 14 when she married Count Philip of Hanau-Munzenberg, who fathered her first five children. Two years after his death in 1529, she remarried, this time to Willem de Rijke. She would go on to bear an additional twelve children with De Rijke, the last of which was born in 1550, shortly before her 45th birthday. Of her twelve children with Willem de Rijke, five of them were boys: Willem, Johan, Lodewijk, Adolf and Hendrik.
JULIANA & THE FIGHT FOR DUTCH INDEPENDENCE
In 1580, Juliana died at Stolberg Castle in North Rhine-Westphalia. Her rightful place in Dutch history was not fully understood for nearly 300 years. In the late 19th century, previously unknown letters were discovered which showed clear evidence that not only was Juliana van Stolberg the mother of four figures who were integral in the fight for Dutch independence, she had also provided counsel to them as well as financial support in the years-long resistance campaign against Alva and the Spanish army (during the 80-Years War).
It was this new found understanding of Juliana’s role in the history of the House of Oranje that so impressed a young Queen Wilhelmina, she named her first daughter (born 1909) after her.
JULIANA VAN STOLBERG MONUMENT
In 1927, on her 18th birthday, it was Princess Juliana herself who officially unveiled a monument to her namesake Juliana van Stolberg. The monument sits at the intersection of Koningin Marialaan and Juliana van Stolberglaan in The Hague’s Bezuidenhout neighborhood.
In addition to Juliana van Stolberg, the monument features the likenesses of her sons Adolf (killed in battle 1568), Lodewijk and Hendrik (killed in battle 1574), Willem (assassinated in 1584) and Johan.
Related Information…