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The Netherlands - Monarchy

For much of the seventeenth century, the Netherlands’ highest military leader and titular head of state was the stadholder (literally, “city holder”). The office was reserved for princes of the House of Orange, whose family had long held hereditary title to the territory. William of Orange was succeeded as stadholder by his sons Maurits (ruled 1585–1625) and Frederick Henry (ruled 1625–1647), who created an impressive court at The Hague.

The stadholder’s power, however, was offset — sometimes overmatched — by that of the city governments, the provincial assemblies (states), and the national legislative body, the states-general. These civil institutions were controlled by regents, an elite of about two thousand drawn from the wealthy upper middle class of bankers and merchants, whose well-compensated offices could be passed to heirs. The aristocratic stadholders remained dependent on the regents of the statesgeneral in matters of taxation and politics, and their interests were often at odds. Between 1651 and 1672, a span called the “first stadholderless period,” the strongest authority in the Netherlands was the civil leader of Holland, the brilliant statesman Johan de Witt.

The first Constitution of the Netherlands after its reconstruction as a kingdom was given in 1816, and was revised in 1848 and in 1887. According to this charter the Netherlands form a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The royal succession is in the direct male line in the order of primogeniture : in default of male heirs, the female line ascends the throne. In default of a legal heir, the successor to the throne is designated by the Sovereign and a joint meeting of both the Houses of Parliament (each containing twice the usual number of members), and by this assembly alone if the case occurs after the Sovereign's death.

The royal family of the Netherlands, known as the House of Orange, descends from a German Count Walram, who lived in the eleventh century. Through the marriage of Count Engelbrecht, of the branch of Otto, Count of Nassau, with Jane of Polanen, in 1404, the family acquired the barony of Breda, and thereby became settled in the Netherlands. The alliance with another heiress, only sister of the childless Prince of Orange and Count of Chalons, brought to the house a rich province in the south of France ; and a third matrimonial union, that of Prince Willem III of Orange with a daughter of King James II, led to the transfer of the crown of Great Britain to that prince. Previous to this period, the members of the family had acquired great influence in the United Provinces of the Netherlands under the name of 'stadthouders,' or governors. The dignity was formally declared to be hereditary in 1747, in Willem IV; but his successor, Willem V, had to fly to England in 1795, at the invasion of the French republican army. The family did not return till November 1813, when the fate of the old United Provinces, released from French incorporation, was under discussion at the Congress of Vienna.

After various diplomatic negotiations, the Belgian provinces, subject before the French revolution to the House of Austria, were ordered by the Congress to be joined to the Northern Netherlands, and the whole to be erected into a kingdom, with the son of the last stadthouder, Willem V, as hereditary sovereign In consequence, the latter was proclaimed King of the Netherlands at the Hague on the 16th of March, 1815, and recognised as sovereign by all the Powers of Europe.

The union thus established between the northern and southern Netherlands was dissolved by the Belgian revolution of 1830, and their political relations were not readjusted until the signing of the treaty of London, April 19, 1839, which constituted Belgium an independent kingdom. King Willem I. abdicated in 1840, bequeathing the crown to his son Willem II., who, after a reign of nine years, left it to his heir, Willem III. This king reigned 41 years, and died in 1890; in default of male heirs, he was succeeded by his only daughter Wilhelmina.

By the end of the 19th Century the higher nobility, with a few exceptions, had disappeared. The rebellion against Spain in the latter half of the sixteenth century emanated originally from the nobility, but in the course of the struggle many of the noble families returned to the standard of the Spanish King and withdrew to the Southern provinces. Many families who remained true to the cause of liberty died out. Great lords, such as, for instance, the Dukes of Aremberg, or the Princes of Ligne in Belgium, are really no more to be found in Holland. Down to the revolution of 1795 the Dutch nobility enjoyed political privileges. They were called as a separate order to the provincial parliaments; but they had to share their power with the rulers of the towns, the so-called patricians. Thus the Dutch nobility soon lost that which the German still possessed in a high degree, the character of a separate caste. German noblemen marry, as a rule, only with daughters of noble families. Their quarterings are usually irreproachable.

In Holland the social wall of separation had almost fallen away. As early as the times of the Republic, the nobles married into the patrician governing families, without seeing any impediment to such alliances. There was, moreover, a homely tone in the social life of the highest classes in Holland which will be sought for in vain in Germany. In Holland there were no princely mansions with parks stretching further than the eye can reach, like Blenheim and Chatsworth, no feudal castles like those on the Rhine or in Silesia. Nobles who kept a retinue of footmen and a stable full of racehorses, and lived in the style of princes, were unknown in Holland.

Wilhelmina was the daughter of King William III and Queen Emma. She was ten years old when her father died. In 1898 she succeeded him to the throne. Until that time, her mother Queen Emma acted as regent. The accession of Emma and Wilhelmina enhanced the position of the monarchy, which had been considerably weakened during the reign of William III. By the time of her coronation in 1898 Wilhelmina's popularity was such that she was seen as a symbol of national unity. Her conduct while in exile in London during the Second World War added to her standing. Wilhelmina reigned for fifty years. In 1948 she abdicated in favour of her daughter Juliana. Following her abdication she was once again addressed as 'princess', in accordance with her wishes.

Queen Juliana (b. 1909) was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1937. In 1948 she succeeded her mother as queen. Juliana abdicated in favor of her eldest daughter Beatrix (b. 1938) in 1980. Queen Juliana reigned from 1948 to 1980. Dutch society went through major changes during this period, including the post-war reconstruction, student riots in the 1960s and the oil crisis in the mid-1970s. Queen Juliana earned the love of her people through her concern for social issues and her informal manner. In 1937 she married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterveld. The couple had four daughters: Beatrix (born 1938), Irene (born 1939), Margriet (born 1943, in Canadian exile) and Christina (born 1947). Both before and after the war, the family lived at Soestdijk Palace. Princess Juliana passed away on 20 March 2004, and her husband Prince Bernhard died some months later, on 1 December.

Princess Beatrix succeeded her mother in 1980, thereby becoming the fourth female head of state in succession. In 1966 she married the German diplomat Claus von Amsberg. Together they had three sons Willem-Alexander (born 1967), Friso (born 1968) and Constantijn (born 1969). Prince Claus passed away on 6 October 2002. Since 1980 the Queen has resided at Huis ten Bosch Palace, while working, with the Royal Household, at Noordeinde Palace. The Queen is assisted in the performance of her royal duties by other members of the Royal House.

Prince Willem-Alexander, as the eldest child of Queen Beatrix, was first in line of succession to the throne. Since his mother's investiture on 30 April 1980, he had borne the title Prince of Orange, which had been held by the heir to the throne since 1815. The Prince is married to Princess Máxima. They have three daughters, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands signed the official act of abdication at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam April 30, 2013, making her son Willem-Alexander the first King of the nation in 120 years. Beatrix abdicated after a 33 year reign. Willem-Alexander's Argentine-born wife, Maxima, is the new Queen. Thousands of spectators gathered in Amsterdam's Dam Square to see the new King and Queen step out on the balcony of the Royal Palace. Amsterdam was awash in orange, the royal color, with many people wearing inflatable orange crowns. April 30 or Queen's Day is always a day for partying in the Netherlands, but this year the city of Amsterdam puton a special show to celebrate Willem-Alexander's investiture.

Willem-Alexander earned his airline transport pilot licence in 2001. What is not widely known by the flying public in the Netherlands is that KLM’s flights might be piloted by the king. He revealed in 2017 his “double-life” as a commercial pilot since he occasionally flies as a guest pilot for KLM Cityhopper in order to keep in practice. Willem-Alexander once commented in an interview that had he not been born a prince of the Netherlands, his dream would have been to fly big passenger planes such as a Boeing 747. On the 30th April 2013, the prince of Orange succeeded his mother as the country’s king on the occasion of her abdication, becoming the country’s seventh monarch of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is the country’s first king in 123 years, since the Netherlands is the only country in the world to have had three successive queens regnant since 1890.