Je maintiendrai
Je maintiendrai ( French I will preserve / maintain ) is the motto of the Netherlands , which is also used in the country's coat of arms . It is also the motto of the Luxembourg Order of Resistance .
history
The motto was from the time of the governor William I the motto of the House of Orange-Nassau .
It originally belonged to the Principality of Orange in France, which has had a coat of arms with this motto since it was first created. The last Prince of Orange from the House of Chalon was Philibert de Chalon , who died childless in 1530. His heir was his nephew Renatus von Nassau , son of Count Heinrich III. von Nassau and Philibert's sister Claudia von Chalon. Renatus inherited the Principality of Orange on the condition that he would accept the name and coat of arms of Chalon. He is therefore known as Renatus of Chalon and adopted the Chalon coat of arms, with the motto “ Je maintiendray Châlons ”.
When Renatus himself died in 1544 without leaving any legitimate children, his nephew Wilhelm von Nassau was his heir, the son of his uncle Wilhelm “the rich” and Juliana von Stolberg . The heir came to be known as William of Orange. William of Orange adopted his own coat of arms and changed Renatus 'slogan to " Je maintiendray Nassau "'. His successors left out the word "Nassau".
In a letter from January 1565, William of Orange gave the following explanation of his motto:
Je maintiendrai la vertu et noblesse .
Je maintiendrai de mon nom la haultesse .
Je maintiendrai l'honneur, la foy, la loy
de Dieu, du Roy, de mes amys et moy.
in German:
I will preserve virtue and nobility .
I will keep my name highness .
I will keep the honor, the faith, the law
of God, King, my friends and me.
When Wilhelm I was elected King of the United Netherlands on August 24, 1815, he added the motto “ Je maintiendrai ” to the coat of arms of the kingdom, which is also the coat of arms of the king . After the separation from Belgium in 1830, the coat of arms remained in the Kingdom of the Netherlands .
