The Roots of our Royal Family

Breda the cradle of our royal family? Few people know this. Oranjesteden often thinks of Delft, The Hague and Apeldoorn. But the roots of the Nassaus stick deep in Brabant soil. The municipality of Breda wants to highlight this fact and asked PastFuture to write the story about the beginning of the Nassaus in the Netherlands.

And what a story. It all starts with a marriage. We don't know whether it was romantic. In any case, the marriage was sophisticated. The rich girl Johanna van Polanen, Lady of Breda, married Engelbrecht van Nassau in 1403, a count of old, but not too rich German nobility. He left Münster for Breda and settled in Breda Castle.

From that moment on, Breda built up a close, perhaps sometimes somewhat expensive bond with the Nassaus. The Onze Lieve Vrouwe kerk (the Grote Kerk) is being upgraded and transformed into a late Gothic work of art, including the first and oldest burial vault of the Nassaus in the Netherlands. The Castle is being expanded. Breda is boosted by the speed of the nations. Princes, kings and emperors visit the city at the invitation of the Nassaus, who welcome them in a lavish, exuberant way.

The story of the Nassaus in Breda is too extensive to list here. It offers hundreds of starting points for the city to tell the story, to touch people and to involve them in the Pearl of the South.