Maria Amalia of Nassau-Dillenburg

Maria Amalia was born at Dillenburg Castle in 1582 as a daughter of John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg and his second wife, Countess Palatine Kunigunde Jakobäa of Simmern.^[2]

At the age of 18, at August 22, 1600 in Dillenburg, she married her 30 year old cousin William I, Count of Solms-Braunfels (1570-1635).^[2] He was a son of Conrad of Solms-Braunfels and Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg, who was Maria Amalia's aunt. This marriage was brought forward on special request of Philipp Ludwig II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg.^[3]

After the death of Count Konrad of Solms-Braunfels in 1592, the county of Solms-Braunfels had been partitioned between itself, Solms-Greifenstein and Solms-Hungen. Since 1592 William I was Count of Solms-Greifenstein, with her marriage Maria Amalia became countess. Between 1602 and 1606 within 44 months she gave birth to three daughters and a son.^[4] In the next fourteen years she gave birth to another six children.

In 1606, after the death of her father John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, Maria Amalia received 2000 guilders as part of her inheritance.^[5] She came into sole possession of the Solmser Hof in Edingen, Hessen in 1629,^[6] which is today one of the cultural heritage monuments in Sinn (Hessen).

In 1619 a second daughter of John VI married a Solmser Count. On 8 February 1619 Juliana (1565-1630), daughter of John VI's first wife Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg, married Count John Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels.^[7]

From 1618 to 1648 the whole of Germany with the rest of Europe was caught up in the Thirty Years' War. In the plague year of 1635-1636^[8] both Maria Amalia, her husband William I, and their eldest son died.^[9]

In 1635 William II followed in his fathers footsteps and was ruler of Solms-Greifenstein until 1676. His son Wilhelm Moritz (1651–1720) reunited the county of Solms-Greifenstein and Solms-Braunfels, which he ruled until 1720. He was succeeded by his son Friedrich Wilhelm (1696–1761), who was appointed Reichsfürst in 1742.