Frederick William II, Prince of Nassau-Siegen

Prince Frederick William II of Nassau-Siegen (11 November 1706 – 2 March 1734), , official titles: Fürst zu Nassau, Graf zu Katzenelnbogen, Vianden, Diez, Limburg und Bronkhorst, Herr zu Beilstein, Stirum, Wisch, Borculo, Lichtenvoorde und Wildenborch, Erbbannerherr des Herzogtums Geldern und der Grafschaft Zutphen, was since 1722 Fürst of Nassau-Siegen, a part of the County of Nassau. He descended from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau. He was the last male representative of his lineage, with him the Protestant line of the House of Nassau-Siegen became extinct.

Biography The Nassauischer Hof, later called Untere Schloss, seen from the west, ca. 1720. Attempt at reconstruction, ink drawing, Wilhelm Scheiner, 1922. Frederick William was born in the in Siegen on 11 November 1706 as the only son of Fürst Frederick William Adolf of Nassau-Siegen and his first wife Landgravine Elisabeth Juliana Francisca of Hesse-Homburg. He was baptised in Siegen on 18 November. His mother died just one year after his birth.

In October 1712, Frederick William Adolf and William Hyacinth, the Catholic Fürst of Nassau-Siegen, reached an agreement about their share in the city of Siegen. William Hyacinth ceded the Catholic land to Frederick William Adolf in exchange for an annual pension of 12,000 Reichsthalers. There was even an intention to marry off Frederick William, the Reformed Hereditary Prince, to Maria Anna Josepha, William Hyacinth's underage daughter. All this was done not in the least to get rid of the troublesome foreign administration. Since April 1707, the Catholic part of the Principality of Nassau-Siegen had, by order of the Aulic Council, been under the administration of the cathedral chapter in Cologne, due to the maladministration of William Hyacinth (because the Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, was in imperial ban at the time, the cathedral chapter governed the Archdiocese of Cologne).

On the death of his father in 1722, Frederick William succeeded his father as the territorial lord of the Protestant part of the Principality of Nassau-Siegen and co-ruler of the city of Siegen. He possessed the district of Siegen (with the exception of seven villages) and the districts of Hilchenbach and Freudenberg. He shared the city of Siegen with his second cousin, William Hyacinth, the Catholic Fürst of Nassau-Siegen. Frederick William also succeeded his father as count of Bronkhorst, lord of , , and , and hereditary knight banneret of the Duchy of Guelders and the County of Zutphen. Finally, Frederick William succeeded his father in a part of the Principality of Nassau-Hadamar. to Countess Sophie Polyxena Concordia of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (Berlin, – , Siegen, ("See Dek (1970), confirmed by the parish registers, notifications and an article in the Dillenburgische Intelligenz Nachrichten, LI.) Stück, Sonnabends, den 22 Decembris 1781: «Den 15ten dieses des Abends». Vorsterman van Oyen (1882) states she died in 1783." Charlotte Sophia Louise (Siegen, 6 June 1729 – Burgsteinfurt, 2 April 1759), married in Siegen on 30 September 1748 to Count Charles Peter Ernest of Bentheim-Steinfurt (Burgsteinfurt, 30 August 1729 – Burgsteinfurt, 30 June 1780). Frederica Wilhelmine Polyxena (Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 3 April 1730 – Wittgenstein Castle, Laasphe, 18 November 1733). Mary Eleonore Concordia (Siegen, 2 March 1731 – Kamen, 20 April 1759). She died of smallpox in the house of the preacher Theodore Diederich Henrich Wever in Kamen. Frederica Augusta Sophia (Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 1 June 1732 – Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 23 March 1733). Anne Charlotte Augusta (Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 19 June 1734 – Untere Schloss, Siegen, 9 June 1759).

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