government having made terms with the bey of Algiers, he was allowed to set sail for Spain with his guns and ammunition. The bey Mahommed took possession of Oran in March 1792, and made it his residence instead of Mascara. On the fall of Algiers the bey (Hassan) placed himself under the protection of the conquerors, and shortly afterwards removed to the Levant. The French army entered the city on the 4th of January 1831, and took formal possession on the 17th of August. In 1832 a census of the town showed that it had but 3800 inhabitants, of whom more than two-thirds were Jews. Under French rule Oran has regained its ancient commercial activity and has become the second city in Algeria.
ORANGE, HOUSE OF. The small principality of Orange,
a district now included in the French department of Vaucluse,
traces back its history as an independent sovereignty to the time
of Charlemagne. William, surnamed le Cornet, who lived
towards the end of the 8th century, is said to have been the first
prince of Orange, but the succession is only certainly known
after the time of Gerald Adhemar (fl. 1086). In 1174 the
principality passed by marriage to Bertrand de Baux, and there
were nine princes of this line. By the marriage of John of
Chalons with Marie de Baux, the house of Chalons succeeded to
the sovereignty in 1393. The princes of Orange-Chalons were
(1) John I., 1393–1418, (2) Louis I., 1418–1463, (3) William VIII.,
1463–1475, (4) John II., (1475–1502, (5) Philibert , 1502–1530.
Philibert was a great warrior and statesman, who was held in
great esteem by the emperor Charles V. For his services in his
campaigns the emperor gave him considerable possessions in the
Netherlands in 1522, and Francis I. of France, who had occupied
Orange, was compelled, when a prisoner in Madrid, to restore
it to him. Philibert had no children, and he was succeeded by
his nephew Réné of Nassau-Chalons, son of Philibert’s sister
Claudia and Henry, count of Nassau, the confidential friend
and counsellor of Charles V. He too died without an heir
in 1544 at the siege of St Dizier, having devised all his titles
and possessions to his first cousin William, the eldest son of
William, count of Nassau-Dillenburg, who was the younger
brother of Rene’s father, and had inherited the German
possessions of the family.
William of Orange-Nassau was but eleven years old when he succeeded to the principality. He was brought up at the court of Charles V. and became famous in history as William the Silent, the founder of the Dutch Republic. On his assassination in 1584 he was succeeded by his eldest son Philip William, who had been kidnapped by Philip II. of Spain in his boyhood and brought up at Madrid. This prince never married, and on his death in 1618 his next brother, Maurice, stadtholder in the United Netherlands and one of the greatest generals of his time, became prince of Orange. Maurice died in 1625, also unmarried. Frederick Henry, the son of Louise de Coligny, William’s fourth wife, born just before his father’s murder, now succeeded to the princedom of Orange and to all his brothers’ dignities, posts and property in the Netherlands. Frederick Henry was both a great general and statesman. His only son, William, was married in 1641 to Mary, princess royal of England, he being fifteen and the princess nine years old at that date, and he succeeded to the title of prince of Orange on his father’s death in 1647. At the very outset of a promising career he suddenly succumbed to an attack of smallpox on the 6th of November 1650, his son William III. being born a week after his father’s death.
A revolution now took place in the system of government in the United Provinces, and the offices of stadtholder and captain-and admiral-general, held by four successive princes of Orange, were abolished. However, the counter revolution of 1672 called William III. to the head of affairs. At this time Louis XIV. conquered the principality of Orange and the territory was incorporated in France, the title alone being recognized by the treaty of Ryswick. William married his cousin Mary, the eldest daughter of James, duke of York, in 1677. In 1688 he landed in England, expelled his father-in-law, James II., from his throne, and reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1702. He left no children, and a dispute arose among various claimants to the title of prince of Orange. The king of Prussia claimed it as the descendant of the eldest daughter of Frederick Henry; John William Friso of Nassau-Dietz claimed it as the descendant of John, the brother of William the Silent, and also of the second daughter of Frederick Henry. The result was that at the peace of Utrecht in 1713, the king of Prussia abandoned the principality to the king of France in exchange for compensation elsewhere, and John William Friso gained the barren title and became William IV. prince of Orange. His sons William V. and William VI. succeeded him. William VI. in 1815 became William I. king of the Netherlands.
See Bastet, Histoire de la ville et de la principauté d’Orange (Orange 1856). (G. E.)
ORANGE, a town of Wellington and Bathurst counties. New South Wales, Australia, 192 m. by rail W.N.W. of Sydney. It lies in a fruit and wheat-growing district, in which gold, copper and silver also abound. It is the centre of trade with the western interior and has a number of flourishing industries. Orange also has a great reputation as a health resort. Its suburb, East Orange, in the county of Bathurst, is a separate municipality. Pop., including East Orange (1901), 6331.
ORANGE, a town of south-eastern France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Vaucluse, 18 m. N. of
Avignon on the railway from Lyons to Marseilles. Pop. (1906)
of the town, 6412; of the commune, 10,303. Orange is situated
at some distance from the left bank of the Rhone, in the midst of
meadows, orchards and mulberry plantations, watered by a
stream called the Meyne, and overlooked by the majestic summit
of Mount Ventoux, which lies 22 m. to the east. The district is
highly fertile, and the town deals largely in fruit, and millet-stalks
for brooms, as well as in wool, silk, honey and truffles.
Orange is interesting mainly from its Roman remains. The triumphal arch is not only far finer than any other in France, but ranks third in size and importance among those still extant in Europe. Measuring 72 ft. in height, 69 ft. in width, and 26 ft. in depth, it is composed of three arches supported by Corinthian columns. On three sides it is well preserved, and displays remarkable variety and elegance in its sculptured decorations. To judge from the traces of an inscription, the arch seems to have been erected in honour of Tiberius, perhaps to commemorate his victory over the Gallic chieftain Sacrovir in A.D. 21. It suffered from being used as a donjon in the middle ages. Another most imposing structure is the theatre, dating from the time of the emperor Hadrian and built against a hill from the summit of which a colossal figure of the Virgin commands the town. The facade, which is 121 ft. high, 340 ft. long and 13 ft. thick, is pierced by three square gates surmounted by a range of blind arches and a double row of projecting corbels, with holes in which the poles of the awning were placed. Of the seats occupied by the spectators, only the lower tiers remain. It was used as an out-work to the fortress built on the hill by Maurice of Nassau in 1622, and destroyed fifty years later by order of Louis XIV., whose troops in 1660 captured the town. Up to the beginning of the 19th century it was filled with hovels and stables; these were subsequently cleared out, and at the end of the century the building was restored, and now serves as a national theatre. In the neighbourhood of the theatre traces have been found of a hippodrome; and statues, bas-reliefs and ruins of an amphitheatre also serve to show the importance of the Roman town. Notre Dame, the old cathedral, originally erected by the prefect of Gaul, was ruined by the Barbarians, rebuilt in the 11th and 12th centuries, and damaged by the Protestants.
The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a communal college among its institutions; and it has tile and mosaic works and flour-mills, and manufactories of boots and shoes and brooms. There is trade in truffles, fruit, wine, &c.
Orange (Arausio), capital of the Cavari, was in 105 B.C. the scene of the defeat of a Roman army by the Cimbri and Teutones. It became after Caesar an important Roman colony. Its ramparts and fine buildings were partly destroyed by the
