Amalia will need to attend the visit for that I imagine, and I am not sure that she will. In fact I would be rather surprised if she did. One can wonder what is the value of her receiving an order at all, a 20 y/o girl, for merely attending a state banquet [same goes for Constantijn and Laurentien, were they to receive an order]. It feels rather like an operetta in this day and age.
Bernhard and Claus were spouses; so, they aren't a point of reference for Willem-Alexander. It's indeed interesting that apparently, Juliana did not get the Golden Fleece but Carlos III (she doesn't seem to have Isabella la Católica). Of course, for most of her reign there was no reigning royal house in Spain but she did receive them just before her abdication... I wonder whether that might have been taking into account into not granting her the Golden Fleece?!
I am not sure they already awarded the Golden Fleece to women at that time. That is perhaps an explanation why Prince Hendrik did and his wife Queen Wilhelmina did not receive the Golden Fleece. Though the prince did visit Spain while Wilhelmina did not.
So what did the prince receive the GF for? He received it during an [incognito] visit to Spain in March 1924. Despite the incognito he was received ont he station of Madrid -where he travelled after disembarking in Barcelona- by King Alphonso XIII himself.
The King escorted him to the Ritz hotel. During a visit to the palace in the afternoon the Prince received the GF, after which he attended a bull fight. In the evening he received the Dutch special envoy Mr. Maurits van Vollenhoven and his wife Christina de Borbón y Madan, daughter of the duke of Durcal.
During this visit King Alphonso also awarded the following orders: grand cross of Isabella the Catholic to the official envoy Jhr. Mr. Snouck van Hurgronje. The adjudants of the prince, Jhr. von Mühlen and Jhr. Laman Trip, received the star of the military order of merit. The next days the prince visited various museums in Madrid and Toledo. The visit ended by a gala dinner in the Ritz, organized by yet another envoy Jhr. Melvill and attended by the King and Queen, and a visit to the Opera.
I found a letter in a Dutch newspaper at the time (Amstelbode) where a reference was made to the research of former Minister of War and military historian Lieutenant General Frederik Sabron, who claimed that the reinstated Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, covering nearly all of the Burgandian lands, had as much right to reinstate the Golden Fleece as the Austrian and Spanish monarchs had. Thank goodness King Willem I thought otherwise.
Source: Delpher
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Supposedly Queen Beatrix was the first female knight of the Golden Fleece in 1985. As all our Kings [Wilhelmina 'via' her husband] received the GF I imagine that Juliana or Bernhard may have received it had they made a return state visit ot Spain.
I believe the Austrian GF has never been awarded to an Orange-Nassau since the order split after the accession of Philip V. For that order the recipient needs to be a catholic.
