It simply regressed. If you listen to old interviews she speaks much more clearly than she does now. As she is more comfortable with the language now -she speaks fast, without thinking too long- it is easy for a stronger accent to take over. I am sure she understands much more now
These days she sometimes gets subtitled even. The same happened to Prince Claus and Prince Bernard, their German accents became stronger over time. As we age and perhaps become more confident in another language perhaps we become less precise while a bigger effort was made when younger and less fluent.
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I wonder if the complications that Wilhelmina’s and Juliana’s noble-born consorts brought to their marriages and/or the monarchy, compared to Margriet’s successful choice, influenced their eventual opinons.
I am not sure the complications would have been considered a result of them being noble born TBH. What was important for Wilhelmina was that Juliana´s marriage would be a love match first and foremost. Sadly it escalated to what it became. Though there is little doubt that she loved him, also later in life. While he also married for love, as Annejet van der Zijl states: love of his mother, whom he was now able to take care of. Despite his infidelities and escapades there was never a complete break and they did function as an unconventional married couple. Years later it is now easy to forget that he was a very charming man and at the time the general public liked him. Only now, two decades after his death, he is generally regarded in a much more negative way.
Alternatively, perhaps the feared and actual German occupations of the World Wars crystallized the importance of Dutch identity in their minds? Wilhelmina’s reign also saw the laws of succession to the throne amended to keep the German relatives off the Dutch throne, and then there were the anti-German protests at Beatrix’s wedding.
We were only occupied in WW2. But it was considered pivotal indeed. In London Wilhelmina created a post-war vision for the country. All unified, led by brave resistance fighters and not retreated in a protestant, or catholic, or liberal, or socialist corner but unified and with little class difference. Everything needed to change, starting with the court. Titled people had to be removed and resistance members should replave them. When she returned she moved into a semi-detached house in Scheveningen (The Hague) and was seen cycling in the streets. The ministers soon had to remind her politely that the people would prefer to see her in a palace and a limousine. Some say much to her relief as she missed especially her palace in the woods in Apeldoorn - sho always loathed Noordeinde which reminded her of her lonely childhood years, so much so that when the palace burnt down in 1948 she joked: 'You don't suppose I set the fire?'.
During the was she formulated plans for national renewal - impressions which in her mind had been confirmed by meetings with resistance members in London. In reality these resistance members were too overwhelmed to disagree with the Queen and simply agreed with her, often not fully understanding what point she was making. The return to ´normal´ greatly disappointed her after the war and that, plus exhaustion from tension in the war years, led to her abdication in 1948, which she initially already wanted to do in 1938. She had to be persuaded even to stay on until her golden jubilee and Juliana was a regent twice.
The wish to keep a German off the throne was not due to anti-German sentiments perse. They were not prevalent in that period at all and due to the Boer war the sentiment was perhaps more anti-English to some extend. But the root was a fear that a German prince would be influenced by the German emperor and that would mean that the country would be influenced into giving up neutrality and participate in a European war, which everybody felt was coming somewhere on the horizon.
Well illustrated. Wasn’t it common knowledge that untitled nobility created during the 19th century were, frankly, thick on the ground in Germany and certainly seen as parvenus unsuitable to marry into the German reigning families? A family of the German bourgeoisie with the Van Vollenhovens’ profile would perhaps have ended up ennobled as a “von”.
There are cases of especially the most prestigious patrician families in the Netherlands refusing to be ennobled. They found the lowly predicate of Jonkheer simply thick on the ground indeed and more an insult than an honour.
Interesting. I wonder how right their prognostications were in the short term. Observing what has happened in other monarchies, I think Marijnen and Luns were correct to contemplate that (1) parliamentary support does not always translate to popular support, and (2) even “commoner” members of the general public sometimes – arguably hypocritically – view some royals as “too common”.
It was unchartered territory at the time. In hindsight we can only say that Juliana was right and Luns was wrong.
Again, this is intriguing, especially as to how the foreign minister and the prince consort were close enough for the foreign minister to venture such personal criticisms. Rather funny that Laurentien’s father (who you mentioned is now seen as posher than posh) was perceived by Luns as one of the hippies.
The book says that it was Bernhard who raised the topic with Luns. Not that Bernhard or Juliana greatly appreciated the minister. They thought his ideas on Foreign policy were antiquated. For example he was greatly against the decolonization of New Guinnea, while Bernhard and his wife were in favour. Juliana was always greatly in favour of the decolonization of Indonesia 1 1/2 decade earlier [even Wilhelmina became in favour of it, influenced by the Americans] while Bernhard with his international network also in the US had a modern way of looking at it too.
Diplomats on the other hand were for a long time much more conservative on the matter. I wrote my thesis on diplomats in this period and found letters of ambasadors who -even in the sixties- were wailing how 'we simply gave everything away' while praising the Salazar regime of Portugal for trying to hold on to their colonies in Africa by force and ranting about a conspiracy of decolonized countries that had taken over the UN. Their thinking was outdated and completely counter-trend and stopped with the turn of generations at diplomatic posts in the late 60-ties when foreign policy became far more idealistic. It turned towards the idea that the Netherlands had to be a guiding nation -and to put it bluntly- whose enlightened and idealistic example would surely soon be followed elsewhere. This policy has become much more pragmatic in recent decades. Luns was very much an exponent of this rather old-school conservative diplomatic class of that time and had a hard time accepting that in international relations, after losing its colonies, the Netherlands had become 'like Denmark, a farm on the shores of the North Sea', as a diplomat at the time formulated it.
Whether it was 1962 or 1965, it seems Luns preferred Beatrix to marry an older man.
Interesting indeed, that as late as the 1960s, European royal courts and governments still cooperated with one another in old-fashioned marriage-making.
I wonder why Foreign Minister Luns and Queen Juliana preferred a British consort. Naturally a break with the historical pattern of German consorts would have been w after World War Two, but why British in particular?
Given the anti-German antipathy at the time, I would have thought Prince Richard zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg would have also been crossed off the list of potential matches. Especially as he owned a huge estate in Germany which he could not legally divest himself of.
I would say because it was the most obvious place to look at the time, due to the fact that there were simply a lot of protestant noblemen around who had no connections to Nazism. An English marriage would have been uncomplicated and very popular, considering the role of the UK in our liberation.
Unlike Claus, Prince Richard did not participate in the Wehrmacht as he was too young. And at least his mother was Swedish so I think it would have been met with less resistance.
The pattern of German marriages was not by choice perse but by necessity. For Juliana there was a great preference for 'anything but a German', due to the rise of Nazism and political complications. But the reality was that there were simply a lot of German princes. While other [Swedish] options never materialized that is where the focus went.
Over centuries the house of Orange was always considered very pro-British/ English. An English candidate would always be considered first. Sometimes to their disadvantage, during the various sea wars with the English, which tanked Orange popularity.
Stadholders Willem II, Willem III and Willem IV all married English princessses. Olaf van Nimwegens biography writes that Willem V wanted an English bride for himself as well. His preferred candidate Carolina Mathilda however was soon engaged to the King of Denmark. George III suggested his other sister Louise, who was sickly and died at 19 y/o and was not an option in The Hague. King George III suggested his kinswoman Augusta Dorothea of Brunswick as an alternative and said that a Prussian princess would be unacceptable. Frederick the Great however communicated -to The Hague and to Brunswick- that a Duchess of Brunswick would be unacceptable to him and always championed his favourite niece Wilhelmina of Prussia. A Danish princess was unacceptable to the city of Amsterdam, who wanted to maintain good relations with both Denmark as Sweden to ensure the very profitable trade in the Baltic Sea. In the end Willem decided not to go for the sickly Louise or a mere Duchess. Since he could not be married to Caroline Mathilde he went for Wilhelmina of Prussia. One of the many strong women who married into the family.
For King Willem I (initially prince Willem VI) for the first time a British bride was not contemplated. As Wilhelmina's brother Frederik William II and Prussian armies had restored the house of Orange in The Hague, during the chaotic years close to the French revolution in 1787. To strengthen the Hohenzollern connection they went for a Prussian princess. The eldest one, Frederica, was hoped to marry the Duke of York and they ended up with the second daughter, also a Wilhelmina. To balance this Prussian alliance, it was suggested to ask for the hand of one of George III's daughters for Prince Frederik (younger son of WIllem V). Willem V refused, thinking George III would regard it as an insult as Frederik was only the younger son. And he was afraid that a rival court would arise as he wrote to his wife: 'English princesses are very arrogant. Three royal highnesses in The Hague is a lot, and perhaps the wife of the younger son will want to take presidence over the wife of the elder'. As fate has it, after the family fled to London during the French invasion, Prince Frederik and George III's daughter Pss Mary fell in love. George III however wanted his elder daughters to marry first. Frederik sadly died in the army before any wedding could have taken place. Mary was allowed to go into mourning for him. Years later she would marry her cousin the Duke of Gloucester.
Willem II was engaged to Pss Charlotte of Wales. Neither of the two was very excited by the idea. The engagement was halted after Queen Caroline convinced her daughter not to accept the preferred candidate of her hated husband George IV. Charlotte was never very impressed by Willem and was happy she did not have to move to The Hague. After this his father hoped that a Habsburg marriage [to Archduchesses Leopoldine or Clementine, daughters of Franz II] could take place as it would cement the North and the South of his new Kingdom. But Willem II was utterly star-struck by the Russian Tsar, became on friendly turns with him and after he was offered Anna's hand in marriage The Hague could not refuse such an offer by what was then the most powerful man in Europe.
Willem III and his brother had also been introduced to Queen Victoria at a ball in London. Although she liked their father Willem II Victoria considered them both looking 'very ordinairy and absolutely unlovable'. While travelling through Germany to meet suitable princesses Willem (III) met Augusta of Cambridge. Although he liked her personality and thought she had a pretty face he was physically not attracted: she was too short and somewhat fat and 'looks like she is 24 y/o alrready' (she was 16). He feared that in a few years she would 'have the colossal proportions of her aunt the Princess of Hesse Homburg'. Other German princesses he met were also not considered pretty or tall enough. In reality he already had his heart set on one of his Wurttemberg cousins, whom he had known and seen often over the years. It would lead to the marriage with Queen Sophie, which was an absolute disaster. And he did so very much against the wishes of his mother Queen Anna, who -according to Sophie- always disliked her sister Queen Catherina Pavlovna of Wurttemberg and who by extention disliked her daughters too. For Willem's second marriage no English princess was considered, as everybody including the King knew it would not be acceptable [Queen Victoria never liked him]. After enquiries to marry one of his Weimar nieces were politely declined, his sister Grand Duchess Sophie of Weimar nodded him towards Waldeck, where the ambitious Princess Helena (of Nassau) had a lot of daughters and was eager for prestigious matches. I imagine they would think she would overlook the bad reputation and enormous age difference, which she did. Although his brother Hendrik married a Prussian princess this was not an option for Willem III who greatly disliked the Hohenzollerns and Prussia, one of the few things he had in common with his first wife Queen Sophie.
For Wilhelmina's half-brother (and WIllem III's and Sophie's eldest son) Crown Prince Willem, a British bride was the first and most desired wish of his parents and especially of the anglophile and liberal Sophie. Sadly he did not make a good impression on Queen Victoria and an anticipated enagement to Pss Alice never went ahead, though it was originally a plan of prince Albert. Later half-hearted enquires for Louise and Helena were always rebuffed from London.
In Wilhelmina's days an English candidate was out of the question due to the Boer wars, though one of the Teck princes was considered, but not accepted due to the war ánd due to Queen Emma's [German] distaste for a mesalliance with a member of the morganatic branch of the house of Wurttemberg.
Before the war an English prince would have been preferred for Juliana, but there simply were not (m)any princes around. The idea of a mere nobleman was still a bridge too far. Early on the press speculated about Viscount Trematon, son and heir of the Earl of Athlone and Wilhelmina's much liked first cousin Alice of Athlone. Sadly he died in a car crash when he was 21. Had he lived I doubt a marriage would ever have happened due to health concerns and Juliana being the sole heiress. It was important that she would have healthy offspring and a marriage to a second cousin who suffered from haemopholia would have been concerning in that regard.
I hope it’s not true that Queen Beatrix blocked a political appointment over a personal grudge, but I suppose we’ll never know for sure.
We will not know to what extend it played a role. But Beatrix would certainly not have been alone in her dislike. Luns was a hero for the conservatives but anybody progressive disliked him, and usually disliked him strongly. He was minister of foreign affairs for 19 years. When he left he was considered somebody with ideas that were out-of-date, oldfashioned and The Hague was happy to see the back of him. An atlantisist by heart, NATO was the perfect place for him afterwards.
