Early Modern Noblemen and the Use of Paper Communication Media: The Media-Politics of the ‘Lesser’ Nassau (c. 1570–1620)

Abstract

William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Revolt and one of the most famous members of the family of Orange-Nassau, is known as a ‘propagan- dist’, producing various printed and handwritten media during the Revolt. However, besides the prestigious princes of Orange, the lineage of William of Orange also included other family, the German counts of Nassau. These less prestigious relatives, the ‘lesser’ Nassau, assisted their princely kin in various ways, but received little attention in the scholarship on the lineage. Therefore, this article sketches the relations between the ‘lesser’ Nassau and the princes of Orange, and deals with the media-politics of the ‘lesser’ Nassau, understood as their attempts to reproduce, present and communi- cate their social status to different publics in different contexts by the use of paper communication media.