page_title: Prince of Orange
section_title: County of Orange
hierarchical_section_title: Prince of Orange / History / County of Orange
context_page_description: Prince of Orange is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France.
  The title "Prince of Orange" was created in 1163 by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, by elevating the county of Orange to a principality, in order to bolster his support in that area in his conflict with the Papacy. The title and land passed to the French noble houses of Baux, in 1173, and of Chalons, in 1393, before arriving with Rene of Nassau in 1530. The principality then passed to a Dutch nobleman, Rene’s cousin William, in 1544.
  In 1702, after William III of England died without children, a dispute arose between Johan Willem Friso and Frederick I of Prussia. In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht Frederick William I of Prussia ceded the Principality of Orange to King Louis XIV of France. In 1732, under the Treaty of Partition, Friso's son, William IV agreed to share use of the title "Prince of Orange" with Frederick William I of Prussia. With the emergence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the title is traditionally borne by the heir apparent of the Dutch monarch.
context_section_description: The title originally referred to Orange in the Vaucluse department in the Rhone valley of southern France, which was a property of the House of Orange, then of the House of Baux and the House of Châlon-Arlay before passing in 1544 to the House of Orange-Nassau.
  The Principality originated as the County of Orange, a fief in the Holy Roman Empire, in the Empire's constituent Kingdom of Burgundy. It was awarded to William of Gellone (born 755), a grandson of Charles Martel and therefore a cousin of Charlemagne, around the year 800 for his services in the wars against the Moors and in the reconquest of southern France and the Spanish March.  His Occitan name is Guilhem;  however, as a Frankish lord, he probably knew himself by the old Germanic version of Wilhelm.  William also ruled as count of Toulouse, duke of Aquitaine, and marquis of Septimania.
  The horn that came to symbolize Orange when heraldry came in vogue much later in the 12th century represented a pun on William of Gellone's name in French, from the character his deeds inspired in the chanson de geste, the Chanson de Guillaume: "Guillaume au Court-nez" (William the Short-Nosed) or its homophone "Guillaume au Cornet" (William the Horn).
  The chanson appears to incorporate material relating to William of Gellone's battle at the Orbieu or Orbiel river near Carcassonne in 793 as well as to his seizure of the town of Orange.
caption: Composite portrait of four generations of Princes of Orange – William I (in role 1554–1584), Maurice (1618–1625) and Frederick Henry (1625–1647), William II (1647–1650), William III (1650–1702) – Willem van Honthorst, 1662
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