that Siegen was split. John VIII received the part of the county south of the river Sieg and the original castle in Siegen (which after 1695 was called the "Upper Castle"). John VIII was the founder of the Catholic line of Nassau-Siegen. John Maurice, who remained Protestant, was a soldier. He received the part of the county north of the Sieg. He was the founder of the Protestant line of Nassau-Siegen and he converted the former Franciscan monastery into a new residence, called the "Lower Castle", which was reconstructed after having burnt down at large parts in 1695. John Maurice spent most of his time away from Siegen, since he was governor of Dutch Brazil and later of the Prussian province of Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg. In 1668, he was appointed first field-marshal of the Dutch States Army, and in 1673, he was charged by the Stadtholder William III to command the forces in Friesland and Groningen, and to defend the eastern frontier of the provinces, again against Van Galen. In 1675, his health compelled him to give up active military service, and he spent his last years in his beloved Cleves, where he died in December 1679. Between 1638 and 1674, his brother George Frederick ruled the Protestant part of the country. In 1652, John Francis Desideratus of the Catholic line was elevated to Imperial Prince. Count Henry of the Protestant line married Mary Magdalene of Limburg-Stirum, who brought the Lordship of Wisch in the County of Zutphen into the marriage. In 1652, John Maurice of the Protestant line was also elevated to Imperial Prince. In 1734, the Protestant line died out with the death of Frederick William II. Protestant Nassau-Siegen was annexed by Christian of Nassau-Dillenburg and William IV of Nassau-Diez. When William Hyacinth, the last ruler of the Catholic line, died in 1743, Nassau-Siegen had died out in the male line, and the territory fell to Prince William IV of the Orange-Nassau-Dietz line, who thereby reunited all the lands of the Ottonian line of the House of Nassau. Overview of Nassau coats of arms Background and Origins The ancestral coat of arms of the Ottonian line of the house of Nassau is shown below. Their distant cousins of the Walramian line added a red coronet to distinguish them. There is no documentation on how and why these arms came to be. As a symbol of nobility, the