Lives of the last four princesses of the royal house of Stuart

-~36 MARY, PRINCESS-ROYAL. [1649-50.
• to -the kindness of his sister and her consort for the
necessaries of life. The assassination of Dorislaus, one
of the deputies of the Commonwealth of England, added
to his troubles ; for although he was perfectly innocent of
any concern Avith that outrage, he was perfectly aware
that the States would no longer tolerate his presence at
the Hague. Indeed, the Prince of Orauge informed him
privately that he would be requested to withdraw. He
accordingly retired with his brother, the Duke of York, to
Jersey, the only portion of his dominions Avhich still
acknowledged his authority. *
The Prince of Orange lived on bad terms with his
ambitious mother, Amelia of Solms ; and she, who had
great credit with the States, set up an open opposition to
his measures, which both embarrassed and annoyed him.
She was excessively jealous of his royally-born consort, to
whom he was passionately attached, and who was accused
of being accustomed to say that "she, who was the
daughter of a King of Great Britain, and "granddaughter of
a King of France, considered it a degradation not to be a
'Queen." t
The Princess had been married many years, though now
only entering her nineteenth year, without giving an heir
to the house of Orange, when, in the year 1650, there was
for the first time a prospect of her becoming a mother.
She was then in very ill health, and oppressed with grief
for the tragical death of her royal father and the calami-
ties of her family. She was also rendered very uneasy by
a superstitious circumstance. An unknown person pre-
sented a paper to the Princess-dowager of Orange, her
consort's mother, who received it graciously, supposing it
had been a petition ; but on opening it she found it was a
* 'Burnet's History "of his own Time,' vol. v. pp. 52, 53.
| Raynal's ' History of the Stadtholderate.'