Archives

The Royal Archives contain the personal archives of the members of the House of Nassau and Orange-Nassau, from the 13th century to the present day. The archives for the period before 1795 are fragmentary. From 1814 onward the archives are more complete. The archives of the secretariats are also part of the collection.

One of the archive’s oldest documents is the Primo Divisio of 1255.  With this contract the brothers Walram and Otto von Nassau divided up the Nassau estates, using the Lahn river as the boundary.

The archive also includes topographical and thematic maps and a manuscript collection. The manuscript collection was started in the 19th century and consists mainly of manuscripts from royal houses, artists, soldiers and scholars from the time of the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War (16th and 17th centuries). There is also a series of 18th and 19th-century manuscripts.

Together, the archives form an important source on the history of the House of Orange-Nassau. An overview of the entire archive was published in the guide Particuliere Archieven in Nederland (Private archives in the Netherlands) in 1992.