William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (1487–1559), called "the rich", owned the counties of Nassau-Dillenburg, Nassau-Siegen, Nassau-Diez and Vianden. His eldest son William the Silent inherited the principality of Orange in Southern France from his cousin René of Chalon, as well as from his father the vast properties of the House of Nassau-Dillenburg in the Netherlands, which Engelbert I of Nassau had received by marriage in 1403. William the Silent originally served the Habsburgs as governor of the Spanish Netherlands, but later defected and became the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War and in 1581 resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces of which he became the stadtholder. He was the founder of the House of Orange-Nassau.