30th of April our Queen Beatrix will retre

[PA5COR]

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands unexpectedly announced her abdication tonight in favour of her son, Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, who will become the first Dutch king since 1890.
Two days short of her 75th birthday, the much-loved Queen went on television to say that she was retiring from the throne on April 30 after nearly 33 years.

The 75-year-old queen, the head of the House of Orange-Nassau which has ruled the Netherlands since 1813, said she would abdicate in favour of her son the crown prince Willem-Alexander, 45.

Crown prince Willem-Alexander trained as a hydrological engineer and has been closely involved in development aid. His Argentine wife Maxima, born Maxima Zorreguieta, enjoys tremendous popularity, though their liaison was initially controversial due to the family’s ties to the former Argentine military regime.
The succession raises the issue of what will become of the national monarchist holiday, Queen’s Day, celebrated every April 30 on the birthday of Beatrix’s mother Juliana.
Since the 1960s the holiday has grown into a huge outdoor festival bringing hundreds of thousands of orange-clad visitors to Amsterdam. Beatrix decided to continue the celebration, but it is not clear what form it will take when the country is ruled by a king rather than a queen for the first time since the 1890.


Beatrix decided to retire in concert with the 200th anniversary of the year in which the Netherlands became a monarchy.
Previously the country had been a republic, at first as the United Provinces and later as the Napoleonic-allied Batavian Republic. The monarchy was instituted after the defeat of Napoleonic forces in 1812.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/w...cle3670781.ece

Prior to the Napoleonic wars, most of the semi-independent provinces of the Netherlands had been ruled by elected stadtholders, who were all drawn from the House of Orange-Nassau.
The House of Orange-Nassau came from Dillenburg, Germany, seat of the Dukes of Nassau. Their title 'Prince of Orange' was acquired through inheritance of the Principality of Orange in southern France, in 1544. William of Orange (also known as William the Silent) was the first Orange-Nassau stadtholder (ironically, appointed by Philip II of Spain). From 1568 to his death in 1584, he led the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain. His younger brother, John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, was the direct male line ancestor of the first King of the Netherlands.
The Netherlands remained, formally, a confederated republic, even when in 1747 the office of stadtholder was centralized (one stadtholder for all provinces) and became formally hereditary under the House of Orange-Nassau.
The first King of the Netherlands was actually French. In 1806, Emperor Napoleon installed his brother Louis Bonaparte as ruler of the Kingdom of Holland, a puppet state. The Kingdom of Holland was abolished in 1810.
The present monarchy was founded in 1813, when the French were driven out. Prince William V of Orange was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands (comprising certain northern provinces). The new monarchy was confirmed in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna as part of the re-arrangement of Europe after the fall of Napoleon, and its status as a kingdom was also confirmed.

[KK4AMI]

Prince of Orange? Oh, don't tell me the Netherlands is being run by the French! That is as bad as the British Royalty being of German descent.

[NQ6U]

You have to admire a country that has a prince in charge of their citrus.

[NA4BH]

He will now be formerly known as Prince

[VE7DCW]

He will now be formerly known as Prince

I could never figure out WTF Prince was up to that he was to be addressed by that silly symbol above !!


Mental illness runs in all circles no doubt! :rofl:

[N2RJ]

What are the royal family's powers? Do they have the power to dissolve parliament like the British do?

[X-Rated]

I will never forget the time I was sitting at a restaurant table in Amsterdam with my boss and a sales rep. The boss and the rep were having a grand time talking to each other making conversation. The boss got up and excused himself to another room and I wondered what we (Cor and I) would talk about. So to make small talk, I asked Cor, "Well, have you ever met the queen?" He got a scornful look on his face and asked, "Now why the F*#K would I want to do that?" I tried to think of something else to say and changed the subject.

A few months later, my company hired this other Cor guy as a full company salesman. I rode the train to work with my HR guy and he was discussing to me about the complexity of hiring people from foreign countries. Such as holidays. He said that Cor was demanding the Queen's birthday off as a holiday. So I told him about the little story above. I am sure he still got that holiday off.

[VE7DCW]

I'm now guessing the holiday in the Netherlands will no longer be called "Queen's day"?

[PA5COR]

Kings day from next year on.
This Queen has brought down the powers the Queen/King has considerably, she cannot dissolve the parliament though if the parliament falls she needs to consent to the dissolving of the goverment.
She has been very good in keeping relations with other countries in good shape, done a lot for our commerce and promote our trade, as well being very close to the public intervening indirectly if laws were proposed that could hurt the average man or woman in the street.

95% of the people love her to bits, as we do with the house of Orange since 1540's, a long history.

[N2RJ]

Thanks.

I'm not so sure I would be comfortable living under the rule of a royal family, as it is against my personal beliefs. But it sounds like it works out well for you.