Maurits (1567-1625), Prince of Orange, Lying in State, 1625

Prince Maurice died in The Hague on 23 April 1625, aged 57. Rumour said he had been poisoned, but an autopsy found an abscess on his liver. His body was embalmed and laid in state in a red robe trimmed with fur, and it stayed above ground for months. The funeral in Delft took place only on 20 September. Van de Venne recorded him on a sheet of copper about 12 centimetres wide, smaller than a postcard. The prince lies with his eyes closed under a lace-trimmed cap, a ruff around a sunken face, with heavy red curtains hanging about the bed. When the little copper was sold in Haarlem in 1786, the sale catalogue called it William the First on his lying-in-state, taking the son for his father.