It was announced today that the Queen has given permission for historian Cees Fasseur to have access to the personal written archives of Juliana & Bernhard.
Fasseur is writing a book about the conflict that took place within the Palace from 1948 to 1957. It was during this period that Juliana developed a close relationship with the faith healer Greet Hofmans. Juliana had hoped that Ms. Hofmans could heal her daughter Christina's eye ailment. Stories were leaked to the press that Ms. Hofmans had become a Rasputin-like figure and the palace was divided into two camps: those who supported Juliana and those who supported Bernhard and his wish to have Ms. Hofmans break ties with the RF. The affair caused a crisis within the royal couple's marriage and also within the Monarchy (rumours of abdication and divorce were discussed by the press).
From my photobucket (thanks for the advice you gave a while ago Alexandria): my favourite picture of Juliana. Sadly not to big and with all the other things around it. I remember getting this paper on a sunday, the day after she died, and being amazed how one picture could say so many words (in the bigger version the sparkle in the eyes is noticable) about a person. The headline says simply: 'Goodbye sweet Juliana', which struck me as rather nice.
From my photobucket (thanks for the advice you gave a while ago Alexandria): my favourite picture of Juliana. Sadly not to big and with all the other things around it. I remember getting this paper on a sunday, the day after she died, and being amazed how one picture could say so many words (in the bigger version the sparkle in the eyes is noticable) about a person. The headline says simply: 'Goodbye sweet Juliana', which struck me as rather nice.
This is indeed a wonderful picture of Juliana Marengo!
I have not been following the Dutch royals for very long (less than 8 years) and am only starting to learn much about them, but I have loved all the wonderful anecdotes about how unpretentious and down to earth Queen Juliana could be.
Around the time of her passing, there were many wonderful stories shared about how personable the Queen was, such as how one time she showed up for a royal engagement and commented on how wherever she went there always seemed to be the smell of freshly painted walls much to her bemusement, or how she liked to just "pop in" for tea with Dutch residents.
I think the Dutch were very fortunate to have such a special Queen.
We were very fortunate with Juliana indeed! For the dutch, Juliana almost couldn't do anything wrong from the day she was born untill the day she died. She has always been the publics darling, especially because she seemed 'one of us' (which she could mix with so much glamour that would put Maxima in the shadows). Anyway, here a lovely picture (from my photobucket!) of Juliana, Bernhard and their two eldest daughters, probably taken in Canada during the war, apparently they love polishing furniture in over there in Ottawa :P.
btw, the flight from The Netherlands to England was quite eventfull. The Crownprincess, her 2 daughters and her husband were transported in a money-van of th dutch bank, to the harbour. Juliana was sitting on her knees, with 2 big boxes containing the family jewels, while Berhard and his companions were armed and got into a fight with a german airplane.
Thanks Warren! Juliana certainly knew how to play with her jewelrybox(es). A shame we never see the peacock rubies anymore these days (Juliana is wearing the necklace on the 2nd picture). Notice as well that on the 2nd picture, her enthronement, she is wearing red, white and blue :).
Now, here the entire group:
And from my photobucket (but originally from www.hetgeheugenvannederland.nl), a nice poem about the engagement of Princess Juliana and Prince Carl of Sweden!!!
Location: Somewhere in the middle of the River Po Valley, Italy
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Queen Juliana was very popular in Italy too. Once I saw a picture of her washing her laundry while she was spending the summmer holidays at Argentario (TuscanY)
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