Wilhelm Heinrich (Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken)

Wilhelm Heinrich is the second son of Prince Wilhelm Heinrich Nassau-Uzingensky and Princess Charlotte Amalia Nassau-Dillenburg . Wilhelm Heinrich's father died a few weeks before his birth. His mother was appointed guardian of William Henry, providing him with a diverse education and Calvinist upbringing. In 1730 and 1731, William Henry and his brother Karl studied at the University of Strasbourg and took private lessons. Supposedly studied at the University of Geneva for some time. The grand tour brought Wilhelm Henry to France to the court of Louis XV , who in 1737 appointed him commander of the French cavalry regiment, formed exclusively from Alsatian Germans.

After the death of his mother in 1738 until 1741, his guardian was the elder brother Karl. Upon reaching adulthood, the brothers divided the possessions: Karl remained on the right bank of the Rhine in Nassau-Uisingen, and Wilhelm Heinrich received Saarbrücken on the left bank. Under his rule in the smallest state in the Holy Roman Empire in 12 square meters. miles lived 22 thousand people. Soon after coming to power, Prince William Henry, along with his German regiment in the French service, took part in the battles of the War of Austrian Succession . While in Frankfurt in 1742 to celebrate the coronation of Emperor Charles VII , Prince Wilhelm Henry sold his regiment to Landgrave IX of Hesse-Darmstadt and also met his future wife, Princess Sofia Erbach.

In 1744, Prince William Henry was appointed a camp marshal and commander of the new French cavalry regiment from Nassau-Saarbrücken and then fought in the War of Austrian Succession under the command of Count Moritz of Saxony . He took part in the French campaign in Flanders . In 1745, Prince William Henry led the new Nassau-Saarbrücken infantry regiment, which he then transferred to his brother Karl in 1758. At the end of the war in 1748, Prince William Henry received the rank of lieutenant general.

Nassau-Saarbrücken maintained close ties with France’s great neighbor. The prince often visited Paris, where he received military honors contrary to the traditions of that time. In 1759, during the Seven Years' War, Prince William Henry was awarded the large cross of the French Order of Military Merit .

The prince carried out reforms of administration and justice in his possessions, separating them from each other and pursued a cameralist economic policy. He introduced single taxation and modern accounting according to the Austrian model. When it began to apply modern methods in agriculture, spread potato growing and pest control. The prince also paid attention to the development of coal and foundry. Coal mines were nationalized, and metallurgical production was leased. Thus, by the middle of the XVIII century, Prince William Henry managed to create a pre-industrial basis for the subsequent intensive development of the Saar region. Despite the increase in taxes and rental income, the Nassau-Saarbrücken budget was not filled due to high construction costs.

Having come to power in Saarbrücken, Prince Wilhelm Heinrich with his family and several other noble families moved from Uzingen to Saarbrücken and with all the zeal set about his accomplishment. The city that suffered during the Thirty Years and the French-Spanish War, thanks to Prince Wilhelm Henry and his architect Joachim Friedrich Stengel, was rebuilt and turned into a baroque residence. The heir to Wilhelm Heinrich Ludwig got an empty treasury.

On February 28, 1742, Prince Wilhelm Henry married in Erbach the Princess Sophia (1725-1795), daughter of Count George Wilhelm of Erbach. The spouses were born:

• Sophia of Augustus (1743-1745)
• Ludwig (1745-1794), Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken
• Frederick Augustus (1748-1750)
• Anna Carolina (1751–1824), married to Duke Frederick Heinrich Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, then to Duke Frederick Karl Braunschweig-Bevernsky
• Wilhelmina Henrietta (1752-1829), married to the Marquis Louis Armand de Selye

• Winfried Dotzauer: Fürst Wilhelm Heinrich von Nassau Saarbrücken, in: Richard van Dülmen / / Reinhard Klimmt (Hg.): Saarländische Geschichte. Eine Anthologie, St. Ingbert 1995, S. 87-94
• Michael Jung: Zwischen Ackerbau und Fürstenhof. Saarbrücker und St. Johanner Bürgertum im 18. Jahrhundert, St. Ingbert 1994
• Klaus Ries: Obrigkeit und Untertanen. Stadt- und Landproteste in Nassau-Saarbrücken im Zeitalter des Reformabsolutismus, Saarbrücken 1997
• Müller-Blattau, Wendelin: Zarte Liebe fesselt mich. Das Liederbuch der Fürstin Sophie Erdmuthe von Nassau-Saarbrücken. Teiledition mit Nachdichtungen von Ludwig Harig. Saarbrücken, 2001. S. 111, separates Faksimilebändchen. ISBN 978-3-923877-39-3

• The grave of Prince Wilhelm Henry in the palace church of Saarbrücken (German)
• Biography (German)