What is Prince of Orange?
[[File:Blason ville fr Orange (Vaucluse).svg|200px|thumb|[[Coat of arms]] of the Principality of Orange.]] {{See also|Princess of Orange}} '''Prince of Orange''' is a [[Titles of European royal heirs|title]] of [[nobility]]. The title is used by members of the [[House of Orange-Nassau]], as [[heir]]s to the crown of the [[Netherlands]]. It also used by members of the [[Hohenzollern|House of Hohenzollern]]. At the moment, the title is used by [[Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange|Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]] (Orange-Nassau), [[Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia]] (Hohenzollern) and Guy, Marquis de Mailly-Neslé, Prince d'Orange. ==The history of the title== [[Image:Nason, Pieter (attributed to) - Four generations Princes of Orange - William I, Maurice and Frederick Henry, William II and William III - 1662-1666.jpg|thumb|225px|Four generations Princes of Orange - William I, Maurice and Frederick Henry, William II, William III ''(Willem van Honthorst, 1662)'']] The title was at first related to a self-ruling state called the [[Principality of Orange]]. It lies in the south of what we now call France. The land was the property of the [[house of Orange]] and from 1544 of the [[house of Orange-Nassau]]. The last of the original princes, [[René of Châlon|René of Nassau]], left the principality to his cousin [[William I of Orange|William the Silent]] after he died. William the Silent was not related to the original house of Orange, but was the legal heir. In a war in 1673, [[Louis XIV of France]] took over the lands of the principality and added them to his own royal domain. This was part of the war against the [[stadtholder]] [[William III of England|William III of Orange]]. Louis XIV then gave the principality to Louis of Mailly-Nesles, marquis of Nesles (1689–1764), a very remote relation of the original princes of Orange{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}. His descendant still claims the title today. In 1714, Louis XIV allowed Prince Louis Armand of Bourbon-Conti to use the land of the Principali