William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg

William Louis
Count of Nassau-Dillenburg
William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg
Spouse(s)	Anna of Nassau
Noble family	Nassau
Father	John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg
Mother	Countess Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg
Born	13 March 1560 Dillenburg
Died	13 July 1620 (aged 60) Stadhouderlijk Hof in Leeuwarden
Buried	Jacobijner church in Leeuwarden

William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg (Dutch: Willem Lodewijk; West Frisian: Willem Loadewyk; 13 March 1560, Dillenburg, Hesse – 13 July 1620, Leeuwarden, Netherlands) was Count of Nassau-Dillenburg from 1606 to 1620, and stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen, and Drenthe.

Engraving of William Louis

Life

William Louis was the eldest son of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg and his first wife, Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg.

He served as a cavalry officer under William the Silent. Together with his cousin (and brother-in-law) Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, he commanded the Dutch States Army and helped plan the military strategy of the Dutch Republic against Spain from 1588 to 1609.

William Louis played a significant part in the Military Revolution of the 16th - 17th centuries. In a letter to his cousin Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange of December 8, 1594 he set out (from reading Aelianus Tacticus) an argument based on the use of ranks by soldiers of Imperial Rome as discussed in Aelian's Tactica. Aelian was discussing the use of the counter march in the context of the Roman sword gladius and spear pilium. William Louis in a 'crucial leap' realized that the same technique could work for men with firearms.^[1]

" I have discovered evolutionibus [a term that would eventually be translated as "drill"] a method of getting the musketeers and others with guns not only to practice firing but to keep on doing so in a very effective battle order (that is to say, they do not fire at will or from behind a barrier....). Just as soon as the first rank has fired, then by the drill [they have learned] they will march to the back. The second rank either marching forward or standing still, will then fire just like the first. After that the third and following ranks will do the same. When the last rank has fired, the first will have reloaded, as the following diagram shows:.^[2]

On 25 November 1587, he married his cousin, Anna of Nassau, daughter of William the Silent and Anna of Saxony, and older sister of Maurice of Nassau. Anna died less than six months later on 13 June 1588, and William Louis never remarried.

He was nicknamed "Us Heit" (West Frisian for "our father"). He died in his home, the Stadhouderlijk hof in Leeuwarden, the city which honored him with a statue on the government square. His body was laid to rest in the Jacobijnerkerk.

Ancestors

Ancestors of William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg

16. Jan IV of Nassau               8. John V of Nassau-Dillenburg                       17. Maria of Loon-Heinsberg               4. William I of Nassau-Dillenburg                             18. Henry III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse               9. Elisabeth of Hesse-Marburg                       19. Anna of Katzenelnbogen               2. John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg                                   20. Henry IX of Stolberg               10. Bodo VIII, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode                       21. Matilda of Mansfeld               5. Juliana of Stolberg                             22. Philip I of Eppstein-Königstein               11. Anna of Eppstein-Königstein                       23. Louise de la Marck               1. William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg                                         24. Frederick V of Leuchtenberg               12. John IV, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg                       25. Dorothea of Rieneck               6. George III, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg                             26. Günther XXXVIII, Count of Schwarzburg               13. Margaret of Schwarzburg                       27. Catherine of Querfurt               3. Countess Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg                                   28. Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg               14. Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach                       29. Anna of Saxony               7. Barbara of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach                             30. Casimir IV Jagiellon               15. Sophia Jagiellon                       31. Elizabeth of Austria

References

1. Military Revolutions, Past and Present by Geoffrey Parker in Recent Themes in Military History. Ed Donald A Yerxa. University of South Carolina Press 2008 at p13
2. Geoffrey Parker (2008) footnote 4 p 21

External links

• Biography Channel profile
• Worldroots.com entry for William Louis
• Encyclopædia Britannica entry (subscription required)