could some post some facts or history about the queen?
well Josephine, I could post a lot...I have read the recent bio of Wilhelmina by prof. Fasseur (it is huge)...and to me she is one of the most interesting and great oranjes. So what is it you want to know?
she is the only daughter of her father, King Willem III. From his first (unhappy) marriage to his cousin Sophie of Wurttemberg he got 3 sons, who all died without issue & marriage. After the death of Sophie the King decided to marry again, to Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont (after his sister, the garnd-duchess of Saxe-Weimar, discretely told him that her daughters were out of the question, but there were some very sweet Princesses in Arolsen), sister of the duchess of Albany. He was old enough to be her father, the age-difference was over 40 years! Anyway, this marriage proved to be a happy union 9for the king at least), Emma knew how to handle him. In 1880 a girl was born. After the deaths of her uncle prince hendrik & her great uncle, prince frederik and her half-brother, in 1884 she became the heir to the throne. Her father simply adored her (which he did not do with his sons....they loathed their father)...but in 1890 the old king died. Emma became regent till Wilhelmina came of age. Emma knew she had to do something to make the monarchy popular again, and what is more adorable for the public than a wise widow and her innocent daughter? ..so she toured the country & abolished french ass court-language & introduced dutch etc etc...and the monarchy became strong & popular again.
Wilhelmina had a VERY strict upbrining. She was all alone in a class room, did not know any people of her age....only her dolls. After her 12th? birthday Emma decided that Wilhelmina was to old for dolls & she locked them up...Wilhelmina cried for a long time as they were her only 'friends'. She was tutored by mr. gediking & mrs Saxon-Winter...a lady to which she remained affectionate all her life long...she even visited her old nanny in england in the 20-ties or 30-ties. BTW this mrs Saxo-Winter is the same one who was later hired by Elisabeth of Roumania for her cousins, Missy's children. But after a while Missy got her fired because she thought her far to strict.
In 1898 Wilhelmina came of age and was inhaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands. At the wedding of her cousin Pauline of Wurttemberg 98daughter of Emma's eldest sister) it became clear that SHE was to be married soon as well. An english prince was out of the question, as the Boer-war was going on &^england put the Afrikaners, who were from dutch background, in concentrationcamps etc.
The Kaiser is quoted as saying 'nur ein deutscher darf sie bekommen'...and a german it was...after she turned down Friedrich-Wilhelm (I believe this was his name) of Prussia (related to her by her great-aunt , the rebel-princess Marianne of the Netherlands who married Albrecht of Prussia) she chose Duke Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was unaffected by courtlife.....well....the marriage was good in the first years, but turned out to be a disaster. The Prince had nothing to do & was bored, made children everywhere etcx. On top of it all, Wilhelmina did not get any children!@!!! The country was becoming desperate & a couple of Princes of Reuss visited the Netherlands to 'get aquinted'....they would be the next in the line of the throne. On top of it all, Wilhelmina miscarried a couple of times, many say that Prince Hendriks sexual diseases were the cause of this. The coutry was relieved & thanked God (literally) when in 1909 Princess Juliana was born. Mother and daughter had a special relationship....W simply adored her daughter.
In 1914 the world was in for WWI......during the years of her goverment W had several fights with (prime)-ministers about the costs of the army etc. W thought that the army was neglected & kept on stressing the importance of it all again & again. After WWI things between Hendrik & Wilhelmina got worse. President Roosevelt (Teddy) of the US who visited the couple at Palace het Loo told a story about a red Queen Wilhelmina who was stamping on the floor while she was angry with her (dumb) husband for not hearing what she said. .....The queen (and her husband) eventually found each other in their religion...but that was just before Hendrik died...
In 1934 both Queen Emma & Prince Hendrik died, and the dutch royal family exsisted out of to women only, Wilhelmina & Juliana. It became evident that Juliana had to marry as soon as possible (especially after Wilhelmina knew about the tragic accident of Queen Astrid, W like Leopold & Astrid very much!)...well....the drama's of finding a husband for Juliana.....it almost seems like a comedy if you read it............and the dutrch ambassadors had night mairs.....the durch ambassador in England even had to remain in bed for a few days after Juliana visited the Kent-wedding & he hoped to link her with Karl of Sweden. Juliana behaved hostile towards him & showed more interest in Paul & Peter of Greece...Paul was out of the question as he was a crownprince & Peter because his great grandfather had a casino in Monte-Carlo & was greek-catholic. The ambassadot blamed Queen Maud for the failing union between Juliana & Karl btw & saw it as a greek-danish-norwegian conspiracy against the Bernadottes....well even more theories were heard...the belgians would have liked J to marry Karel of Sweden so discouraged Astrids brother Karl as well, etc etc.....after a long search, which lasted for years..Juliana met a certain Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld during her winter-holiday in Switzerland...and got married!
When W celebrated her 40th aneversary of her reign she told her daughter she wanted to retire...Bernhard & Juliana could prevent that for they fought that the unstable situation in Europe was not the right time for a change of reign in the Netherlands (and they were just building a family). Already in the early 30-ties Wilhelmina showed her ministers the dangers of Mr. Hitler & the Nazi's...but they would not listen.....The Netherlands was in war from 1940-1945. W went to england and became the symbol of the nation & spoke to her people through the radio. Winston Churchill called her the only man in the dutch goverment. ....afterb returning she wanted a new netherlands, more united & was dissapointed. She retired in 1948 and declared that she was dead from no w on & reprimanded everybody who dared to call her queen. She lived quietly, wrote her memoirs (lonely but not alone) and busied herself with painting & religion. In 1962 she died ...with the honoury name, mother of the fatherland or mother of the resistance!...a great queen!!!!
