I take strong exception against Orange being a ghastly color ! We put our national teams in that color and it is beautiful.
It is interesting that the Netherlands uses orange as its national colour (though its flag is now red/white/blue rather than orange/white/blue). The Principality of Orange in southern France, from which the royal House of Orange-Nassau came, had nothing whatever to do with oranges or the colour. The colour seems to have become associated with the family in the 16th century (Ton - please correct me if I am wrong!), and through William (I) of Orange's championship of the Protestant cause against Spain with Protestantism in general. Thus when William (III) of Orange became British King in 1688 and went on to defeat James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, orange became associated with the Protestant ascendancy in Ulster- hence the Orange Order "the Orangemen".
The coat of arms of the Principality of Orange included three oranges - but they were gold!
![Image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Blason_ville_fr_Orange_%28Vaucluse%29.svg/218px-Blason_ville_fr_Orange_%28Vaucluse%29.svg.png)