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The House of Nassau between France and Independence, 1795–1814: Lesser Powers, Strategies of Conflict Resolution, Dynastic Networks

ABSTRACT The historical agency of the small- and medium-sized historical actors, the so-called Lesser Powers, remains much neglected in the historiography of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. The reason for this is that hitherto historians have failed to develop a historical perspective that does justice to the particularities of Lesser Power agency. This article explores the historical agency of two Lesser Powers, Nassau and the Netherlands, in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, though with a particular emphasis on the era of the reconstruction of the post-Napoleonic international order, the years 1812–15. By viewing the agency of these historical actors through the prism of the dynastic network of the House of Nassau, rather than through the prism of its component parts, the Walramian Nassaus of Weilburg, Usingen and Saarbrücken and the Ottonian Nassaus, commonly referred to as the House of Orange-Nassau, the ruling dynasty of the Dutch Republic, this article offers a new approach to researching Lesser Power strategies of international conflict resolution, thereby hopefully contributing to the creation of a much-needed historical narrative of Lesser Powers.