Louise de Coligny

Female 1555 - 1620  (65 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    All

  • Name Louise de Coligny 
    Birth 1555 
    Gender Female 
    Death 1620 
    Person ID I6374  Database
    Last Modified 11 Jul 2016 

    Spouse / Partner William of Orange Nassau,   b. 1533, Dillenburg, Hessen, Germany Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1584, Delft, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years) 
    Marriage 12 Apr 1575 
    Family ID F2669  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 10 Jul 2016 

  • Notes 
    • William married for the fourth and final time on 12 April 1583 to Louise de Coligny, a French Huguenot and daughter of Gaspard de Coligny. She was to be the mother of Frederick Henry (1584 - 1647), William's fourth legitimate son.

      Louise was born at Châtillon-sur-Loing. Her parents saw to it that she received a humanist education. When she was seventeen, she married Charles de Teligny. Both he and her father were murdered at the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Like her murdered father, she was a French Huguenot and after the massacre, she spent ten years in the Swiss Confederacy.

      She then married William the Silent on 24 April 1583. She became the mother of Frederick Henry in 1584, William's fourth legitimate son and future prince of Orange. It is said that she warned her husband about Balthasar Gérard, because she thought him sinister. Gérard murdered William in 1584.

      After her husband was murdered, she raised both her son and his six daughters from his third marriage to Charlotte of Bourbon. During her life she remained an advocate for Protestantism and she corresponded with many important figures of that time, like Elizabeth I of England, Henry IV of France, Marie de' Medici and Philippe de Mornay, as well as with her many stepchildren. She died at Fontainebleau.