Queen Juliana (1909-2004) and Prince Bernhard (1911-2004)


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Prince Bernhard is mentioned in the book 'Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching' by John Hanks. Apparently he financed a secret and violent campaign against the poaching of Rhino's in Southern Africa in the 1980s. He sold two paintings from the royal collection to get the needed 1.5 million guilders. The paintings sold were 'The Holy Family' by Murillo (unclear which one) and 'The Rape of Europe' by Elisabetta Sirani.

Onthullingen over Bernhards geheime Afrika-operatie - Royalty Online

More on the operation: http://www.randomstruik.co.za/books/operation-lock-and-the-war-on-rhino-poaching/5782
 
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Prince Bernhard is mentioned in the book 'Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching' by John Hanks. Apparently he financed a secret and violent campaign against the poaching of Rhino's in Southern Africa in the 1980s. He sold two paintings from the royal collection to get the needed 1.5 million guilders. The paintings sold were 'The Holy Family' by Murillo (unclear which one) and 'The Rape of Europe' by Elisabetta Sirani.

Onthullingen over Bernhards geheime Afrika-operatie - Royalty Online

More on the operation: Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching - Africa - John Hanks, - 9781770227293

Bernhard and his collegue from the UK were known for this,as the author states.I first heard,and applauded it,and still do,in the 90's!

Not just in the war against poaching rhino's,but also for all other game in danger.Like the 65.000 elephants that were slaughtered (!!!) in Tanzania recently...In a so-called program to Protect the elephants...funded by the EU...Tanzania hushed up about in fear of loosing money from lala Europe!! For crying out loud!!They used it instead to slaughter them and sell ivory to China...No,really...I am ALL for a solution to the poaching problem like Bernhard & Co emphasized!!Like yesterday!!!Bravo!
 
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Historian Jolande Withuis made a documentary about Queen Juliana for the NOS. She discovered that at two different points Juliana wanted to divorce Bernhard. This did not happen, partly by political pressure.

MSN
 
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....and published a new biography about Juliana "Queen in a men's world"
https://geschiedenis-winkel.nl/juliana-jolande-withuis.html
google translated

Various media quote bits from the biography, the bits they quote probably say a lot about the royal tendencies of the particular medium ;)

AD http://www.ad.nl/dossier-nieuws/juliana-was-excentriek-en-extreem~af62ea43/
Volkskrant http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/-bernhard-wilde-juliana-niet-meer-zien-tijdens-laatste-levensjaren~a4402333/
Trouw http://m.trouw.nl/tr/m/nl/4512/Cultuur/article/detail/4402177/2016/10/26/Zelfverzekerde-Juliana-veranderde-in-een-zwevende-volgster.dhtml
HP de Tijd http://www.hpdetijd.nl/2016-10-26/5-opmerkelijke-onthullingen-uit-de-bernhard-biografie/
(google translated struggles with the cookies on these, if someone knows a way around that?)
 
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Jolande Withuis was pretty hard for both.

Bernhard was an unscrupuled rough golddigger and serial adulterer.

Juliana was a Queen which allowed her whole organization and even the royal function being under influence of "a sect" (Withuis' words).

In the end Withuis concluded that it was good that since 1983 the Constitution no longer gives unlimited freedom to the King "to organize his House". Since then is added "taking due account to the public interest" (read: the Government has a finger in the porridge).
 
She has kind words for Juliana though. And of course the 'sect' was only there for a few years while Bernhards philandering, corruption and heaven knows what else lasted for almost 7 decades. Apparently he 'groped' or sexually molested a 16 y/o girl in the palace, after which young ladies were always escorted by staff members to prevent it from happening again. It was a great tragedy that she was stuck with that man for so long. It is my belief that he was the very worst thing that happened to the house of Orange in the 20th century. The monarchy survived despite of him, not becaus eof him.

Indeed lots of juicy details in the book, so all newspapers picked something else to write about. It was known that Bernhard did not see Juliana much for the last years of their lives. Jutta Chorus stated in her book about Beatrix why. Itw as not known that he actually forbade his wife to visit him and that Princess Irene had a hard time convincing him to visit her death bed (he did, a day before she died).

But what a treat, the first proper biography of Queen Juliana. I am very much looking forward to reading it. The author stated it was fortunate that she was not allowed access to the royal archives (both queen Beatrix as a few years later King Willem-Alexander refused it). But due to the media attention lots of (children of) friends approached her with old letters and stories.
 
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The articles on Juliana and Bernhard have been trending in the newspapers for several days now. A new one from the Volkskrant with the title: 'Bernhard was an unsrupulous, stingy, egocentric man. What remains of Bernhards reputation?'

http://www.volkskrant.nl/opinie/-bernhard-was-een-gewetenloze-gierige-egocentrische-man~a4402910/

They interview the usual suspects, Pieter Broertjes & Jan Tromp, who published the last interview with the prince after he died. Dorine Hermans and -of course Gerard Aalders.

Hermans claims that Bernhards sons-in-law preferred to visit Soestdijk when Bernhard was not around. She also notes that there was no public attention for his 100th birthday in 2011.

Jan Bank seems rather sensible that we have to wait for a definate conclusion about Bernhard untill a biography has been made. Gerard Aalders unsurprisingly has the most acid view.
 
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I may understand that Prince Claus did not want to see Prince Bernhard that much
He had to cancel most of his Offcial Duities. Could it be the beginning od is Depressions ?
 
In the biography of queen Beatrix by Jutta Chorus it was said that one of the main issues were the experiences of prince Claus during the war. His public role did not make it easier of course.
 
The characters and personalities of Prince Bernhard and Prince Claus cold not clash more than they did indeed. They both were landjunkers and had a traditional tüchtige upbringing with strict norms. But there the similarities end.

Prince Bernhard went to a tough boarding school in Züllichau, East Prussia (now Sulechów in Poland) where boys were drilled with military precision. The questionable social norms on that school (it was in a time that aristocrats still could get away with a lot) did not help.

Prince Claus went to the Baltenschule in Misdroy, East Prussia, with mainly aristocrats. The school advertised in the Deutschen Adelsblatt for aristocrat pupils. The school of Prince Claus was equally conservative but not militaristic: the focus was on becoming well educated Christian gentlemen. Sports played a major role at this boarding school.

The path of these two landjunkers indeed crossed but I think there was no love lost between the two princes and they probably both looked with dédain upon each other.
 
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Members of the municipial counsil of the town of Waddinxveen want to withdraw the honorary citizenship of prince Bernhard. The prince received this in 1961. The reason given was the book of YYolande Withuis which showed the prince treated his wife badly etc.

Other members of the counsil reacted irritated. The mayyor said that he had no plans in that direction.

Prins Bernhard ereburgerschap van Waddinxveen afnemen zorgt voor irritatie - Omroep West
 
Members of the municipial counsil of the town of Waddinxveen want to withdraw the honorary citizenship of prince Bernhard. The prince received this in 1961. The reason given was the book of YYolande Withuis which showed the prince treated his wife badly etc.

Other members of the counsil reacted irritated. The mayyor said that he had no plans in that direction.

Prins Bernhard ereburgerschap van Waddinxveen afnemen zorgt voor irritatie - Omroep West

Good heavens, while his daughters are alive and one of them publicly stated not to recognize how Withuis described her parents, councillors are already waving an axe to slash a honorary citizenship of a man who passed away 12 years ago...
 
According to the Parool, the city of Amsterdam has received multiple requests to change the name of the Prins Bernhardplein (Prince Bernhard square) in Amsterdam-Oost since the prince died. But all of them were denied so far.
 
This weekend saw the funeral of Ferdinand, Fürst von Bismarck. At the funeral there was another link between the King and the Fürst von Bismarck, his late godfather: the mausoleum is located at Friedrichsruh, the Von Bismarck family estate, once established by one of his ancestors.

Friedrichsruh was one of the Von Lippe-Biesterfeld estates. This one was build by Friedrich zur Lippe-Biesterfeld (hence the name), a direct descendant of the King's grandfather:

0.
Friedrich Karl August, Graf und Edler Herr zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Sternberg und Schwalenberg (1706-1781) x Barbara Eleonore, Gräfin zu Solms-Baruth (1707-1744)

1.
Karl Ernst Casimir, Graf und Edler Herr zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Sternberg und Schwalenberg (1735-1810) x Ferdinande Henriette Dorothea, Gräfin zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg (1737-1779)

2.
Wilhelm Ernst, Graf und Edler Herr zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Sternberg und Schwalenberg (1777-1840) x Dorothea Christiana Modeste von Unruh (1781-1854)

3.
Julius Peter Hermann August, Graf und Edler Herr zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Sternberg und Schwalenberg (1812-1884) x Adelheid Clotilde Auguste, Gräfin zu Castell-Castell (1818–1900)

4.
Ernst Kasimir Friedrich Karl Eberhard, Graf und Edler Herr zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Sternberg und Schwalenberg, Regent von Lippe (1842-1904) x Karoline Friederike Cäcilie Klothilde, Gräfin von Wartensleben (1844-1905)

5.
Bernhard Kasimir Friedrich Gustav Heinrich Wilhelm Eduard, Prinz zur Lippe-Biesterfeld (1872-1934) x Armgard Kunigunde Alharda Agnes Oda von Sierstorpff-Cramm (1883 –1971)

6.
Bernhard Friedrich Eberhard Leopold Julius Kurt Carl Gottfried Peter, Prinz zur Lippe-Biesterfeld (1911-2004) x Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina, prinses der Nederlanden, prinses van Oranje-Nassau, hertogin van Mecklenburg (1909-2004)
 
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Last month the NPO aired a documentary about Prince Bernhard, made by its history programme 'Andere Tijden' (Other Times).

It may be interesting for some Dutch members:
https://www.npostart.nl/andere-tijden-special-bernhard-de-sprookjesprins/30-11-2019/VPWON_1301718

Although little is new it was interesting to watch and well made. His accent in Dutch seemed to have been better in 1936 than it was later in his life. There seem to be some new clips included in the documentary, from the private collection of the prince. Among them film footage from a private visit to relatives in Germany (Mecklenburg?) before the war. The prince and princess were transported in a limousine with the swastika flag. The same flag was also on the Piet Heijn while the couple sailed through German waters.

Between all the scandals it is sometimes easy to forget what great charm Prince Bernhard possessed. As she did before I think Annejet van der Zijl summarized the prince in a way that perhaps portrays him best: 'The Netherlands wanted a fairy tale prince so the prince started to tell fairy tales'.
 
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That's certainly a unique summarization of the late Prince Bernhard :previous:
 

This is another one of those 'I will never get to see this with actual subtitles, if at all'. :sad: It looks pretty good, though. I'd love to see the Juliana series, too!
 
I fear these series tend to be awful. The public broadcaster is devided in 15+ stations, which means that none of them has money to invest in a developing a decent television series. Consequently the series tend to be bad: bad plot, badly written, bad decor, incredible dialogues, etc. And sadly almost all tv-series about thee royal family are written by Tomas Ross. A staunch republican who made a carreer in writing and filming every nasty & far-fetched conspiracy theory about the RF.
 
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Be fair. You really cannot get much worse in terms of 'bad plot' than "ex-Nazi, faith healer scandal, million dollar bribe, never-ending affairs and predatory behavior and illegitimate children", can you? :flowers:

Aside from actual events making for a bad plot, I still think that pre-war Bernhard scene :previous: is excellent.

Nobody from the Netherlands who's seen it can review?
 
I did (many years ago); and I stand by Marengo's review. While there might be a several good scenes. In general, the various short royal-tv drama series are pretty uninspiring; this one is no exception imho.

There is indeed enough drama in his life, so that makes it really hard to choose - and would give little reason to completely fictionalize; nonetheless, they prefer to take a lot of liberty and mainly play on his playboy/shady-dealing prince image which while surely very much part of his character doesn't really try to tell something original or paint things in a different (but truthful) light.

Nonetheless, there are others who kind of liked it, I guess, since it got 7.7 on IMDB.
 
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Queen Juliana entertained the Dutch Royal Household at Christmas in 1954.

 
Queen Juliana entertained the Dutch Royal Household at Christmas in 1954.


The queen read from the gospel so I wouldn't call that entertaining, it was a Nativity 7 Carol Service ,I wonder what church was used?
 
The queen read from the gospel so I wouldn't call that entertaining, it was a Nativity 7 Carol Service ,I wonder what church was used?

The voiceover mentions at the beginning (just before P.Bernhard is speaking) that it is at Soestdijk Palace.
 
The voiceover mentions at the beginning (just before P.Bernhard is speaking) that it is at Soestdijk Palace.

And I just noticed that Princess Beatrix also did a reading at the Christmas Service.
 
It seems to be Soestdijk palace indeed - which does not have a chapel or a church. The members of the RF would poor the cups of hot chocolate milk for the staff themselves, something which was abolished by Queen Beatrix. The video is recorded at the peak of the Hofmans crisis. Bernhard and Juliana were barely talking at this time.

Someone bought a scrapbook with lots of unseen pictures of prince Bernhard, royal invitations and menus. It was apparently made by one of his close aids. He disclosed it today in Twitter (and the news was picked up by the Dutch media).

I noticed it on twitter yesterday and today. It contains the programs and menus of -among others- the state visit of QEII to the Netherlands in the 1950s.
 
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