Maria was born in
The Hague, the youngest daughter of
Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and her husband
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Her father was already in his late fifties when she was born and died when she was only four. She was also the aunt of the future
William III, via her older brother
William II. Since Spain was at war with Portugal and wanted to avoid an Anglo-Portuguese alliance, the Spanish government proposed Princess Maria of Orange-Nassau as a bride for
Charles II of England, instead of
Catherine of Braganza. However, Charles II dismissed the proposal and chose to establish an anti-Spanish alliance with Portugal and, therefore, he decided to marry Catherine and not Maria. The Orange family also began negotiations for her to marry Charles II of England, but he also refused. A year later marriage negotiations with
John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen began, but these also proved abortive. On 23 September 1666 in
Kleve she married
Louis Henry, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern (1640-1674), son of
Louis Philip and a grandson of Maria's aunt
Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau. Like her sisters' marriages, Maria's marriage was intended to draw the network of Calvinist princes closer together. Maria and Louis Henry were married eight years but the marriage proved childless and on her husband's death the Simmern-Kaiserslautern line died out. Maria kept up a correspondence with her two surviving sisters after her marriage. Like her sisters
Louise Henriette with the
Oranienburg,
Albertine Agnes with the
Oranienstein and
Henriette Catherine with
Oranienbaum, Maria built herself a new palace after her marriage - she completed hers in 1669 at
Bad Kreuznach and named it
Schloss Oranienhof. Maria died in 1688 at
Kreuznach after six days of
pneumonia and Schloss Oranienhof was destroyed by French troops in the
Nine Years' War a year later. ==Ancestry==