René of Châlon  

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René of Châlon (5 February 1519 – 15 July 1544), also known as Renatus of Châlon, was a Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Gelre.

René was born in Breda, the only son of Count Henry III of Nassau-Breda and Claudia of Châlon. Claudia's brother, Philibert of Châlon, and the ancestor of modern royals of Great Britain was the last Prince of Orange from the house of Châlon. When Philibert died in 1530, René inherited the Princedom of Orange on condition that he used the name and coat of arms of the Châlon-Orange family. History knows him therefore as René of Châlon instead of as "René of Nassau-Breda."

René of Châlon married Anna of Lorraine (1522-1568) on 20 August 1540 at Bar-le-Duc. They had only one child, a daughter named Maria, who lived only 3 weeks and was buried in the "Grote Kerk" in Breda.

In 1544, René took part in the siege of St. Dizier in the service of Emperor Charles V. He was mortally wounded in battle and died with the Emperor attending at his bedside. René was buried in Grote Kerk in Breda, near the resting-place of his short-lived daughter. A commemorative cenotaph stands in the church of St. Etienne in Bar-le-Duc.

René of Châlon, as the last descendant of the original princes, left the principality to his first cousin William of Nassau-Dillenburg (better known as "William the Silent"), who was not a descendant of the original Orange family but the legal heir to the principality of Orange, and inheritor of all of René's lands.

The principality of Orange had already passed, through the female line, from the first dynasty of Orange to the families Les Baux, and De Châlon. William added the name of Orange to his own paternal dignities and thus became in 1544 the founder of the House of Orange-Nassau.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "René of Châlon" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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