came from Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, was pleased to have Henry at his court as a Dutch envoy. In 1649 Henry undertook another journey to the Nordic countries, the purpose of which also remains unknown. This journey earned him the high honour of the Danish Order of the Elephant. The later famous scientist and inventor Christiaan Huygens, whose knowledge of the law in the ‘Deensche saecke’ (‘Danish affairs’) would be of use to Henry, accompanied him as a secretary. Huygens gave interesting accounts of Henry’s experiences at the Danish royal court. The Danish-Norwegian Queen Sophia Amalia took on the sponsorship of Henry’s daughter Sophia Amalia, born in 1650. On behalf of the House of Nassau, Henry and his brothers John Maurice and George Frederick were witnesses at the marriage of Count William Frederick of Nassau-Diez, the stadtholder of Friesland, and Countess Albertine Agnes of Nassau in Kleve on 2 May 1652. Succession dispute for the County of Nassau-Siegen The third will and testament of Count John VII ‘the Middle’ of 1621 bequeathed John Maurice and his younger brothers from their father’s second marriage the district of Freudenberg, some villages in the Haingericht and a third part of the administration of the city of Siegen. For the eldest son from the first marriage, John ‘the Younger’, only one third of the county was provided for in this will. On 6 August 1621, he was informed of this, with a precise statement of the reasons that had led his father to take this step. On 9 May 1623, i.e. not until two years later, John ‘the Younger’ protested against this with a letter from Frankfurt to the councillors of Siegen. In the meantime he had not been idle and had not hesitated to denounce his father to the Emperor. At the time of his letter of protest he was certainly already aware of the Poenale mandatum cassatorium, which Emperor Ferdinand II officially issued some time later, on 27 June 1623, informing John ‘the Middle’ that at the time of making his third will as a fellow combatant of the outlawed ‘Winter King’ he was not entitled to make a will. He had to revoke it and answer to an imperial court within two months. It seems that John ‘the Younger’ then shrank from having the imperial decree delivered to his seriously ill father. John ‘the Middle’ died at Siegen Castle on