Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962)


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Queen Wilhelmina inspecting the militairy and attending a militairy parade, flanked by general Henri Winkelman, just before WWII started here:

YouTube - Hand In Hand, Kameraden! (Marche militaire néerlandaise/ Dutch military march)

The army on horses and bicycle's, they had one tank which was on a militairy exposition in Berlin at the time of the invasion. Queen Wilhelmina was very frustrated by the state of the army, and for over a decade pressed for more budget for tthe defence department, in vain.
 
Helena can you please find information in regards to a knighthood presented by Queen Wilhelmina to a Dutch Gold Miner Piet Janssen.
thanks and kind regards
 
I don't think that Queen Wilhelmina's reign anybody was ennobled. She did present orders, like knight of the Dutch Lion and such, but it will be hard to trace. Your best option might be to contact the ministery of general affairs.

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Does anybody remember if prof. Fasseur is very detailed about how Wilhelmina reacted when kaiser Wilhelm II entered the Netherlands in 1918 and asked for asylum. I don't have the books with me, so I can't check but during a lecture my professor said that the Kaiser came here due to Queen Wilhelmina. I know that has been a popular opinion but isn't it a fasle one?
 
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On this day,november 23rd 1890,King Willem III died and 10 year young Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of The Netherlands
and its Colonies,Suriname,The Antilles and the East-Indies,present day Indonesia.Mother Emma was Regent untill september
1898 shorly after the young Queen turned had 18.
 
November 28th 1962,in the early hours of the day Queen Wilhelmina died peacefully in her sleep at Het Loo Palace.
 
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This week a new book by Prof. Cees Fasseur about Queen Wilhelmina was published. The title is: 'A lady of Iron'. He mainly focusses on her political activities. The books title was chosen as 'Wilhelmina was known and respected among her ministers for her iron will and intellect'.

Nieuw boek Fasseur over Wilhelmina: Een dame van ijzer - Koninklijk huis - Reformatorisch Dagblad

Later this month the letters from Queen Wilhelmina to her former nanny Miss Saxon Winter will be published too.

In November also a specila exposition at palace 't Loo will be opened, showing the queen's dresses, pictures, film images etc.

On 28 November it will be 50 years since the Queen passed away.
 
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The book sounds interesting,I wonder if it will get an English version (I'm assuming its in Dutch) .
 
:dutchstandard:

Today,november 28th,is the 50th anniversary of the death of Queen Wilhelmina.

Her granddaughter Princess Margriet opened an exhibition on the life of the Queen after her abdication at Het Loo Palace yesterday.

PPE Agency

courtesy PPE
 
:dutchstandard:

Today,november 28th,is the 50th anniversary of the death of Queen Wilhelmina.

Her granddaughter Princess Margriet opened an exhibition on the life of the Queen after her abdication at Het Loo Palace yesterday.

PPE Agency

courtesy PPE

I really like the photo of Wilhelmina seated and surrounded by her dogs,such a lovely photo!
 
From my collection,and pics made by me.

Allegory on occasion of the Enthronement of Queen Wilhelmina,1898


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From my collection.

Picture of the painting made in 1926 on occasion of the Silver Wedding anniversary of Queen Qilhelmina and Prince Hendrik.


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Wilhelmina_en_Blackie.jpg


via image storage

Queen Wilhelmina with her dog Blackie.
 
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Queen Wilhelmina received the Golden Carriage at her 1898 investure as a tribute from the citizens of Amsterdam.
Queen Wilhelmina did not want to receive gifts on the day of her enthronement on September 6th, 1898.
So she took receipt of the Golden Carriage on September 7th, 1898. :coach:

A Tribute to Queen Wilhelmina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4UmOyhoKKc

From a November 20, 1905 newspaper article:

A German heir for the Netherlands?
Queen Wilhelmina's subjects "have abandoned all hope" that she will ever give birth to an heir, reports the Marquis de Fontenoy in her latest dispatch. The Dutch government plans to revise the constitution to permit a change in the laws of succession.
As the succession stands now should the queen die without issue the throne will go to her cousin, the reigning Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
The Grand Duke's aunt, Princess Marie Alexandrine is second in line to the throne.
 
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The historian Sytse van der Zee uncovered a plot while writing the biography of Q. Wilhelmina's confidante Francois van 't Sant (who cleaned up the mess that Prince Hendrik made). Apparently Van 't Sant, former war-Prime Minister Gerbrandy, 'soldier of Orange' Erik Hazelhoff-Roelzema and others were planning to overthrow the government in a coup, kill the leader of the socialist party and establish a right wing government. The goal of this coup was to keep the Dutch East Indies -now Indonesia- Dutch, the date set was 27 april 1947.

Van der Zee found a copy of a letter from Van 't Sant to Q. Wilhelmina informing her about the plans for a coup. The conspirators hoped that the queen would either support them or would stay neutral.

It is unknown what the Queen did. What is known is that shortly afterwards the plot was uncovered as the military intelligence service was tipped. Van der Zee says that Q. Wilhelmina may have been a difficult person, but she was also a democrat. She kicked against the constitution every now and then, but she found this far too drastic.

I am surprised that Bernhard was not involved. Although it is known that he actively lobbied to grant independance to Dutch New Guinnee, which happened in 1961. Note that Hazelhoff-Roelzema was an aide of Q. Wilhelmina at the end of the war, a friend of prince Bernhard, the godfather of prince Pieter-Christiaan and he was 'king of the arms' at the inauguration of Q. Beatrix. Recently the king and queen of Belgium and their children visited a musical about Hazelhoff-Roelzema. King Willem-Alexander did the same with his daughters IIRC.

'Soldaat van Oranje plande staatsgreep' | NOS
 
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A coup d'état is never recommendable but I can imagine groups of Dutchmen fighting against the défaitisme: "Ach, we have lost our East-Indies..." and want to keep that immense territory tied to the Netherlands. The historian Cees Fasseur seems not so convinced about the aspect to kill the foreman of the Dutch Labour Party: he found no substantial backing for that claim in the book.
 
I did not read the book yet so I can not say if mr. Fasseur is right or not. But it is a bit rich coming from him, as in his book about the marriage crisis of Juliana and Bernhard he drops a lot of statements and claims that are often not backed by facts. Since Fasseur wrote a biography of PM Gerbrandy last year, he may be irritated that he did not find this scoop himself. Of course he may very well be correct despite of that.

I suppose that some regret in saying goodbye to the Indies was understandable but we should be happy they did not succeed. I doubt the allies would have allowed such unstability and dictatorship in a freshly liberated ally so shortly after WWII. Also we were saved from a bloodier conflict in Indonesia, a conflict that may have postponed decolonization a decade or two but a conflict that would have been lost in the end. Denying reality may be a nice hobby for some but it is not very sensible in the real world.

I don't recall Q.Wilhelmina being very involved in the police actions in the Dutch Indies first or the decolonization afterwards. I suppose that in this period she was already tired, disillusioned and longing for an abdication. There were one or two regencies of Juliana before Wilhelmina abdicated in August 1948.

It seems an interesting book btw. Francois van 't Sant is such a vague figure around the RF. Although Prof. Lou de Jong cleared up some things about him in 1979 (and revealed the existance of a half brother of Juliana in the process) there is still this mysterious air around him. Was he a traitor in the war or not, did he blackmail the Van Vredenburgh family or even the royal family? How far did he go to help Wilhelmina in sweeping Hendriks secrets under the carpet? Was he a victim? etc. I recall that in a tv series about Q. Wilhelmina they portrayed Van 't Sant as being rather resentful towards Q. Wilhelmina who dropped him in 1944 after pressure from Churchill, Anthony Eden an PM Gerbrandy.
 
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The figure François van 't Sant made me think about Jonkheer Regnerus van Andringa de Kempenaer, an ill-chosen advisor of King Willem II whom became an intrigant. The biography of King Willem II tells a lot about this man. He was involved in shoving the King's male amant Petrus Janssen under the carpet but then used this explosive knowledge to blackmail the King. He was befriended with Jonkheer Adrien van Bevervoorde, a nobleman fallen to poverty and radicalized, and used his "media"-outings to pressure the King.

Like Van Andringa de Kempenaer also Van 't Sant have done great things to clear up some royal mess. But by doing so they themselves became almost out of control for the royals they once were so helpful to... Morale of the story: "Royals have no friends" (dixit Queen Sofía of Spain).
 
As has become a "new" tradition by the Royal House Archives,early this year,i.e. on tuesday january 5th,the RHA will publish letters by the late Queen Wilhelmina written during the WWII years while in excile in London and concerning her plans for The Netherlands after the war,a.o.

All in all,I think it will be a more then very interesting read!:)
 
According to Wiki When the Queen was visiting the White House in 1942 she was scared to fainting when she heard knocking on her door and opened it up to find the apparition of Lincoln stand there.

Does anyone have more insight into this creepy story?
 
:previous: an article (in dutch) that mentions this story:
Cookies op Trouw.nl
Apparently she wasn't the first guest to the White House who was visited by ghost-Lincoln...
 
I believe the Queen took some medicine during the war which made her hallucinate. I do not remember what exactly. Perhaps that explains the ghost. Fasseur did not want to write this down in his biography of the Queen, possibly out of respect for Queen Beatrix. However, he hinted at it in a television programme (Pauw en Witteman IIRC). He said it was partly an explanation for some of her speeches in the war.
 
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I know Churchill said he saw him and even had words with Abe so I can't discount the story... I don't see either him or The Queen making up stuff like this.
 
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