FREDERICK HENRY (1583-1647), prince of Orange, the youngest child of William the Silent, was born at Delft about six months before his father's assassination on Jan. 29, 1584. His mother, Louise de Coligny, daughter of the Huguenot leader, Admiral de Coligny, was the fourth wife of William the Silent. The boy was trained to arms by his elder brother, Maurice of Nassau, one of the first generals of his age. On the death of Maurice in 1625, Frederick Henry succeeded him in his paternal dignities and estates, and also in the stadtholderates of the five provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overysel and Gelderland, and in the important posts of captain and admiral-general of the Union. Frederick Henry proved himself scarcely inferior to his brother as a general, and a far more capable statesman and poli tician. For z a years he remained at the head of affairs in the United Provinces, and the "period of Frederick Henry," as it is usually styled by Dutch writers, is generally accounted the golden age of the republic. The chief military exploits of Frederick Henry were the sieges and captures of Hertogenbosch in 1629, of Maas tricht in 1632, of Breda in 163 7, of Sas van Ghent in 1644, and of Hulst in 1645. The alliance with France against Spain had been the pivot of Frederick Henry's foreign policy, but in his last years he sacrificed the French alliance to conclude at Munster a sepa rate peace with Spain, by which the United Provinces obtained the advantages for which they had for 8o years been contending. Frederick Henry died on March 14, 1647, and was buried at Delft. The actual signing of the peace was delayed by his death until 1648. Frederick Henry was married in 1625 to Amalia von Solms, and left one son, William II. of Orange and four daughters. See also NETHERLANDS : History.
Frederick Henry left an account of his campaign in his Memoires de Frederic Henri (Amsterdam, i743). See Cambridge Mod. Hist. vol. iv. chap. 24, and the bibliography on p. 931.