Here we are with the last part of this series, William’s fourth wife Louise de Coligny.

Louise de Coligny was born on 23 September 1555 to Huguenot parents Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and Charlotte de Laval.

This high born young lady was wed in 1572 at the age of 16 to Charles de Téligny, who was 20 years her senior. The marriage lasted only a few months because Charles was killed on August 24, 1572 on the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, together with Louise’s father Gaspard de Coligny. Many huguenots were killed that night, ordered by Catherine de’ Medici, who was plotting with catholic French nobles against the protestants.

After this, Louise appeared to disappear from society and lived a very quiet life. Not much is known of this time. Rumour had it that the marriage produced a daughter, Marguerite de Téligny, but her existence was never confirmed. I am mentioning it here, because I believe it is a great name for a persona!

Because of her 1st husband’s murder, Louise herself was not safe and she spent time on the run, moving to Basel and Bern in Switzerland. She returned to France in 1582, where she met William of Orange who didn’t waste much time and proposed to the 26 year old noble lady. William himself was 49 years old at the time.

The people in the Low Lands weren’t too happy with a French noble lady. William had lost most of his popularity in those days, because he had enlisted the Duke of Anjou to take care of state politics when William was away, but the duke turned out to be very unreliable. New French blood was therefore quite unwelcome.

Nine months after the 1583 marriage, Louise had her son Frederick Henry in January 1584 and a few short months later, she witnessed her husband’s assassination at the hands of Balthasar Gérard, a French rebel. Balthasar was a devout catholic and loathed William’s protestant ideas.

Because this marriage was so short, I haven’t been able to find any letters between William and Louise. There are a handful of examples of later dates, in which Louise negotiates profitable and strategic marriages for her stepdaughters, the daughters of William and his third wife, Charlotte de Bourbon.