It was raised to a countship in 1492, and passed by marriage to the family of Orange-Nassau.
In 1791 he married Frederica Wilhelmina, daughter of Frederick William II., king of Prussia, thus cementing very closely the relations between the houses of Orange-Nassau and Hohenzollern.
St Maartensdyk on the adjoining island of Tolen was formerly the seat of a lordship which belonged successively to the families of Van Borssele, Burren and Orange-Nassau.
Six of the seven states forming the confederation of the United Netherlands took as their stadtholder William of Orange-Nassau, called "the Silent," and his descendants during three generations.
Though the stadtholders of the house of Orange-Nassau were of princely rank and intermarried with the royal families of Europe, they were not sovereign princes.
