Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Categories: Dutch monarchs | Knights of the Garter | 1880 births | 1962 deaths | Queens regnant | World War II political leaders

For other uses, see Wilhelmina (disambiguation).

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Marie of Orange-Nassau) (August 31, 1880 – November 28, 1962), Princess of Orange-Nassau, was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948 and Queen Mother (with the title of Princess) from 1948 to 1962.

Early life

She was the daughter of King William III and his second wife Queen Emma. Her childhood was characterized by a close relationship with her parents, especially with her father who was already 63 years of age when she was born.

King William III died on November 23, 1890. Her mother Emma became Regent for the young Wilhelmina until her 18th birthday.

On August 31, 1898, Wilhelmina was crowned in the New Church in Amsterdam and in 1901 she married Prince Hendrik, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. A playboy and a drunkard who is reported to have had several illegitimate children, the marriage was an unhappy one. The birth of their only child, Juliana, on April 30, 1909, was considered something of a miracle.

Reign

Tactful, and careful to operate within the limitations of what was expected by the Dutch people and their elected representatives, a strong-willed Wilhelmina became a forceful personality who spoke and acted her mind. These qualities showed up early on in her reign when, at the age of 20, Queen Wilhelmina ordered a Dutch warship to South Africa and rescue Paul Kruger, the embattled President of the Transvaal. For this, Wilhelmina gained international stature and earned the respect and admiration of people all over the world.

Queen Wilhelmina also had a keen understanding of business matters and her investments would make her one of the wealthiest women in the world and the first woman to ever accumulate a net worth in excess of a billion dollars. Her investments extended to the United States and to the oil wells in the Indies. During her time, oil would become a major source of wealth, power, and war. She would invest in oil, the Dutch Royal Family is still reputed to be the single largest shareholder of Royal Dutch Shell.

World War I

Although she was able to keep her country neutral during the first great war, sizeable German investments in the Dutch economy combined with a large trading partnership in goods, forced England to blockade the Dutch ports in an attempt to weaken Germany.

Civil unrest, spurred by the Bolshevik revolt in Russia in 1917, gripped the Netherlands after the war. The popularity of the young Queen however helped restore confidence in the government.

Interbellum

During the twenties and thirties, the Netherlands began to emerge as an industrial powerhouse: engineers reclaimed vast amounts of land that had been underwater by building the Zuiderzee scheme. The death of her husband Prince Hendrik in 1934 brought an end to a difficult year that also saw the passing of Queen Emma.

The interbellum, and most notable the economic crisis of the '30s was also the period in which Wilhelmina's personal power reached her zenith; under the successive governments of prime minister Hendrik Colijn (ARP), a staunch monarchist, Wilhelmina was deeply involved in most questions of state.

In 1939 the fifth, and last, government of Hendrik Colijn was swept away by a vote of no confidence two days after its formation. It is widely accepted that Wilhelmina herself was behind the formation of this last government which was designed to be an extra-parlementarian or 'Royal' cabinet. The Queen was deeply sceptical towards the parliamentarian system and, covertly, tried to bypass it more than once.

World War II

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and Queen Wilhelmina and her family fled to England three days later. Queen Wilhelmina wanted to retreat to, as yet unoccupied, Zeeland to coordinate further resistance from the town of Breskens. She was however, together with her government, evacuated to England and the Dutch armed forces in the Netherlands, except those in Zeeland surrendered on May 14. In England, Queen Wilhelmina took charge of the Dutch government in exile, setting up a chain of command and immediately communicating a message to her people.

Like Winston Churchill, Queen Wilhelmina broadcast messages to the Dutch people over Radio Oranje. As always, the Queen pulled no punches, calling Adolf Hitler "the archenemy of mankind". Her late night broadcasts were eagerly awaited by her people who had to hide in order to listen to them illegally. During the war, the Queen was almost killed by a bomb that took the life of several of her guards and severely damaged her country home near South Mimms, England. In 1944 Queen Wilhelmina became only the second woman to be inducted into the Knights of the Garter.

Following the end of World War II, Queen Wilhelmina made the decision not to return to her palace but move into a mansion in The Hague, where she lived for eight months, and travelled through the countryside to motivate people, sometimes using a bicycle instead of a car. However, in 1947, while the country was recovering from World War II, the revolt in the oil-rich Dutch East Indies would see sharp criticism of the Queen by the Dutch economic elite. Her loss of popularity, the forced departure from the Indies under international pressure led to her abdication soon after.

Later years

On September 4, 1948, after a fifty-eight year reign, Wilhelmina abdicated in favour of her daughter Juliana. She was thenceforward styled Her Royal Highness Princess Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. After her reign, the influence of the Dutch monarchy began to decline but the country's love of their royal family would continue. No longer Queen, Wilhelmina retreated to the Het Loo Palace, making few public appearances until 1953 when the country was devastated by the North Sea flood of 1953. Once again she traveled about, this time the 73-year-old grandmother used a car instead of a bicycle, to encourage and motivate her people. Still working tirelessly on her investments, in the world of business, even at her advanced age she thrived, meeting and dealing with economic powerhouses at the time such as the American Mellons of Pennsylvania and the European Rothschilds.

During her last years she wrote her autobiography titled: Eenzaam, maar niet Alleen (Lonely but Not Alone).

Queen Wilhelmina died at the age of 82 on November 28, 1962 and is buried in the crypt of the Dutch Royal Family in the Nieuwe Kerk (Delft) (New Church) in Delft, the Netherlands.

Trivia

Prior to the outbreak of World War I, a young Wilhelmina visited the powerful Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany who boasted to the child-Queen of a tiny country that "my guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them." Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied: "Quite true, Your Majesty, your guards are seven feet tall. But when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep!" After the armistice ending World War I Wilhelm returned to the Netherlands, this time as a political refugee.

de:Wilhelmina (Niederlande) fr:Wilhelmine des Pays-Bas la:Vilelmina Nederlandiae Regina nl:Wilhelmina der Nederlanden ja:ヴィルヘルミナ (オランダ女王) pl:Wilhelmina (królowa Holandii) sv:Wilhelmina av Nederländerna