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It didn’t happen too often that one child would inherit two thrones at a young age. If it happened, it happened across a lifetime if one dynasty was left without more senior heirs.
Max had been born as his father’s successor as the Prince of Orange and grew up in The Hague with his 2-years younger sister Amalia Victoria. It was a peaceful life, as he was born long after the Disastrous Year and a few wars that had happened in the early 1670s. He was educated in military strategy and given a strictly Calvinist upbringing just like his father.
Then, the Glorious Revolution happened in 1688. It started in April, and was already finished on 5 November 1688 when Stadtholder William II of Orange-Nassau landed at Brixham with his army. Any and all support for the reigning King dissolved on the spot, and James II had to leave. The former King was eventually allowed to sail to France by the new King, who would be crowned on 11 April.
It was in that moment that the young Prince of Orange also became Prince of Wales, Crown Prince of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was only 8 years old.
Because he had become the heir to 2 thrones and reigning dynasties, British and Dutch representatives were frantically seeking potential brides for the young Prince. Amongst their finds were Landgravine Sophie Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess Sophie Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princess Johanna of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Margravine Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach, and Margravine Albertine Frederica of Baden-Durlach.
All of the Princesses found were Protestant, either Lutheran or Calvinist. The Anglican people were likely to be satisfied with any of those ladies becoming the future Queen of England.
However, there was a long series of Jacobite risings in Ireland and Scotland in places with Catholic minorities during the early 1690s, and the Massacre of Glencoe damaged the reputation of the reigning Royal couple, especially King William III, in the eyes of the Scots.
Those events and the death of his mother Mary on 28 December 1694 from smallpox forced the young Crown Prince’s hand. He was forced to marry sooner rather than later, and eventually contracted a marriage with his 2nd cousin Charlotte Louise Marie d’Orléans.
The French Princess, unlike her Catholic predecessors Mary of Modena, Catherine of Braganza, and Henrietta Maria of France, did convert to the Anglican religion pre-marriage in a move to appease the majority of people living in the Kingdom. It made her distinctively more popular with Members of Parliament.
The wedding took place in Saint James’s Palace on 23 March 1697, both were just 16 years old.
The marriage started out like any other arranged marriage, purely contracted to provide heirs to a reigning dynasty. Yet the couple grew increasingly closer with the birth of each child, they would eventually have 3 sons and 5 daughters together.
As the youngest child of Duke Philippe I of Orléans and a daughter of the Bourbon dynasty, Charlotte was dynastically insignificant. She would never be able to inherit anything, and any marriage she contracted was unlikely to make gains for France as she was not a daughter of the King but his niece.
Her father had initially opposed a marriage to a Protestant Prince, but was reminded of the fact that he himself had married a woman who had been born Protestant. Thus, the wedding went ahead.
For a long time, Charlotte didn’t believe she would be happy with her husband Maximilian. She’d heard he was a stoic brute, only interested in war. She had not expected him to have a gentle side.
Yes, Max was a stoic Calvinist. Yes, he repressed the Jacobite uprisings with immediate military actions. Yes, he could come across as a brute and leave you frightened after he was done yelling. But he would never slap someone, even if a minister deserved a slap in the face.
The French Princess did come to warm up to her husband while pregnant with their first child. She knew she would have to stand by him when their time to rule came around, they would have to be able to work together as a pair, rule together as King and Queen consort of the British Isles while also maintaining their position as Prince and Princess consort of Orange.
Max would eventually succeed his father on 8 March 1702 who died as a result of pneumonia.
By that time, the Royal couple had produced 2 daughters who were both eligible for the British throne but not to inherit the Stadtholder titles in the Dutch Republic. Both were still only 21 years of age, and they still had many years ahead of us.
The Orléans dynast gained in status, just like her mother had wanted, but she had found happiness in her marriage. That was not something that could be said for every marriage, as the marriage of her first cousin the Grand Dauphin proved.
She herself would not seek out politically advantageous marriages for her daughters, as she wanted them to live a life without dynastic burden unless they themselves chose such a match. For her sons, however, she would seek out Princesses who had something to offer to Great Britain or to the Republic. Her sons stood to inherit the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland as well as the position of Stadtholder, they were the ones who were continuing the fairly young dynasty of Orange-Nassau.
Queen Charlotte of Great Britain would eventually succeed in that task when her oldest son, the heir to all of her husband’s realms, married Princess Charlotte Amalie of Denmark, the only daughter of King Frederick IV of Denmark and his wife Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.
Her younger sons Arthur and Charles married minor German Princesses.
Arthur married Princess Charlotte Wilhelmine Juliane of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, daughter of Duke Johann Wilhelm III of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife Margravine Christine Juliane of Baden-Durlach. And Charles married Princess Anne of Hanover, the daughter of Duke George II of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his wife Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.
All three of the Royal couple’s sons had children, securing an uncontested line of succession even if the Jacobite supporters were still fighting for the Catholic Pretenders who were now living in Italy.