Wilhelmus van Nassouwe

Wilhelmus van Nassouwe ("William of Nassau") is the national anthem of the Netherlands. The name is often abbreviated to Het Wilhelmus.

The text was written somewhere between 1568 and 1572, in honour of William of Orange (also known as William of Nassau), during the Dutch revolt against the Spanish, the Eighty Years War. The author was probably Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde.

When The Netherlands became a kingdom in 1815, the song was not chosen as its national anthem, because it was too connected to the party that supported the House of Orange-Nassau. However its popularity never waned, and on May 10, 1932 it became the national anthem after all, replacing Hendrik Tollens' Wien Neêrlands bloed door d'aderen vloeit.

Wilhelmus van Nassouwe is the oldest anthem in the world. Although it was not recognized as the official national anthem until 1932, it was seen as the one and only real Dutch anthem by the people.

The complete text comprises fifteen stanzas. The anthem is an acrostic, which in this case means the first letters of the fifteen stanzas form the name 'Willem van Nassov' (van means 'of' as in 'John of Salisbury'; the letters u and v were orthographically interchangeable at the time, as was the ou/au diphthong representation).

All files available for download are backing tracks, it's not the original music. More info...