1.
Soestdijk Palace
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Soestdijk Palace is a former palace of the Dutch Royal Family. It consists of a block and two wings. Although named after the village of Soestdijk, which is largely in the municipality of Soest and it was the home for over six decades of Queen Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernhard until their deaths in 2004. In the middle of the century the Country house on the Zoestdijk was built for Cornelis de Graeff. After the rampjaar his son Jacob de Graeff sold it to Stadhouder William III, William left the Netherlands in 1688 to reside in London as William III of England. During the French invasion in 1795, the palace was seized as a spoil of war, when Louis Bonaparte became King of Holland, he took possession of it and had it extended and refurnished. It was presented to William II of the Netherlands in 1815 in recognition of his services at the Battle of Waterloo, from 1816 to 1821, the palace was significantly expanded by adding two wings, the northern or Baarn wing, and the southern or Soest wing. In 1842 its contents were enriched by the addition of the furnishings of his former palace in Brussels. Soestdijk became the property of the State of the Netherlands in 1971, though it was used by Princess Juliana, Soestdijk Palace then remained empty and unused for over a year before its opening to the public. Since spring 2006, it has been possible to visit, pending a decision about its future use, a forest, the Baarnse Bos, is adjacent to the palace. It was developed as a French landscape garden between 1733 and 1758, media related to Soestdijk Palace at Wikimedia Commons Paleis Soestdijk The Royal Women of Soestdijk Palace
2.
House of Orange-Nassau
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Several members of the house served during this war and after as governor or stadtholder during the Dutch Republic. However, in 1815, after a period as a republic. The dynasty was established as a result of the marriage of Henry III of Nassau-Breda from Germany and their son René inherited in 1530 the independent and sovereign Principality of Orange from his mothers brother, Philibert of Châlon. As the first Nassau to be the Prince of Orange, René could have used Orange-Nassau as his new family name, however, his uncle, in his will, had stipulated that René should continue the use of the name Châlon-Orange. History knows him therefore as René of Châlon, after the death of René in 1544 his cousin William of Nassau-Dillenburg inherited all his lands. This William I of Orange, in English better known as William the Silent, the Castle of Nassau was founded around 1100 by Count Dudo-Henry of Laurenburg, the founder of the House of Nassau. In 1120, Dudo-Henrys sons and successors, Counts Robert I and Arnold I of Laurenburg and they renovated and extended the castle complex in 1124. The first man to be called the count of Nassau was Robert I of Nassau, the Nassau family married into the family of the neighboring Counts of Arnstein. His sons Walram and Otto split the Nassau possessions, the descendants of Walram became known as the Walram Line, which became Dukes of Nassau, and in 1890, the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg. This line also included Adolph of Nassau, who was elected King of the Romans in 1292, the descendants of Otto became known as the Ottonian Line, which inherited parts of Nassau County, and properties in France and the Netherlands. The House of Orange-Nassau stems from the younger Ottonian Line, the first of this line to establish himself in the Netherlands was John I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, who married Margareta of the Marck. The real founder of the Nassau fortunes in the Netherlands was Johns son and he became counsellor to the Burgundian Dukes of Brabant, first to Anton of Burgundy, and later to his son Jan IV of Brabant. He also would later serve Philip the Good, in 1403 he married the Dutch noblewoman Johanna van Polanen, and so inherited lands in the Netherlands, with the Barony of Breda as the core of the Dutch possessions and the family fortune. A nobles power was based on his ownership of vast tracts of land. It also helped that much of the lands that the House of Orange and Nassau controlled sat under one of the commercial and mercantile centers of the world (see below under Lands and Titles. The importance of the Nassaus grew throughout the 15th and 16th centuries as they became councilors, generals, Engelbert II of Nassau served Charles the Bold and Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, who had married Charless daughter Mary of Burgundy. In 1496 he was appointed stadtholder of Flanders and by 1498 he had been named President of the Grand Conseil, in 1501, Maximilian named him Lieutenant-General of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. From that point forward, Engelbert was the representative of the Habsburg Empire to the region
3.
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
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Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld was the consort of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and father of her four children, including the former Queen of the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix. During World War II the German-born prince was part of the London-based Allied war planning councils and he was a Dutch General and Supreme Commander of the Dutch Armed forces, involved in negotiating the terms of surrender of the German Army in the Netherlands. For proven bravery, leadership and loyalty during his efforts he was appointed a Commander of the Military William Order. After the War he was also made Honorary Air Marshal of the RAF by Queen Elizabeth II, in 1969, Bernhard was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bernhard helped found the World Wildlife Fund, becoming its first President in 1961, in 1954, he was a co-founder of the international Bilderberg Group, which has met annually since then to discuss corporate globalization and other issues concerning Europe and North America. He was forced to step down from both groups after being involved in the Lockheed Bribery Scandal. Because his parents marriage did not properly conform with the laws of the House of Lippe, it was deemed morganatic. He and his brother could only succeed to the Lippian throne if the entire reigning House became extinct, in 1916, the Reigning Prince of Lippe, Leopold IV, raised Bernhard and his mother to Prince / Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld thereby retroactively according his parents marriage regal status. The suffix Biesterfeld was revived to mark the beginning of a new line of the House of Lippe. After World War I, Bernhards family lost their German Principality and he received his early education at home. When he was twelve, he was sent to board at the Gymnasium in Züllichau and several years later to board at a Gymnasium in Berlin, Bernhard suffered from poor health as a boy. Doctors predicted that he would not live very long and this prediction might have been the key to Bernhards reckless driving and the risks that he took in the Second World War and thereafter. The prince wrecked several cars and planes in his lifetime, Bernhard studied Law at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and in Berlin, where he acquired a taste for fast cars, horse riding, and big-game hunting safaris. He was nearly killed in an accident and an airplane crash. While at university, Bernhard joined the Nazi Party and he also enrolled in the Sturmabteilung, which he left in 1934 when he graduated. The Prince later denied that he had belonged to SA, to the Reiter-SS, and to the NSKK, nevertheless, while he was not a fierce champion of democracy, the Prince was never known to hold any radical political views or express any racist sentiments. The Prince eventually went to work for the German chemical giant IG Farben, then the worlds fourth-largest company and he lodged with the exiled Russian nobleman Count Pavel Kotzbue and his wife the American-born Allene Tew. After training, Bernhard became secretary to the board of directors at the Paris office in 1935, Bernhard met then-Princess Juliana at the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen
4.
Juliana of the Netherlands
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Juliana was Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry. From birth she was heir presumptive to the Dutch throne, in 1937, she married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld with whom she had four children, Beatrix, Irene, Margriet, and Christina. She reigned for nearly 32 years and her reign saw the decolonization of Dutch East Indies and Suriname and their independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon her death at the age of 94, she was the former reigning monarch in the world. Juliana was born in The Hague on 30 April 1909, the daughter of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Prince Henry. She was the first Dutch royal baby since Wilhelmina herself was born in 1880, Wilhelmina had suffered two miscarriages and one stillbirth, raising the prospect that the House of Orange-Nassau would die with her. In all likelihood, this would have meant that the Dutch throne would have passed to Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz, Julianas birth thus assured the royal familys survival. Her mother suffered two miscarriages after her birth, leaving Juliana as the royal couples only child. Juliana spent her childhood at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, and at Noordeinde Palace and these children were Baroness Elise Bentinck, Baroness Elisabeth van Hardenbroek and Jonkvrouwe Miek de Jonge. As the Dutch constitution specified that Princess Juliana should be ready to succeed to the throne by the age of eighteen, after five years of primary education, the Princess received her secondary education from private tutors. On 30 April 1927, Princess Juliana celebrated her eighteenth birthday, under the constitution, she had officially come of age and was entitled to assume the royal prerogative, if necessary. Two days later her mother installed her in the Raad van State, in the same year, the Princess enrolled as a student at the University of Leiden. In her first years at university, she attended lectures in sociology, jurisprudence, economics, history of religion, parliamentary history, and constitutional law. In the course of her studies she attended lectures on the cultures of Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, international affairs, international law, history. She graduated from the university in 1930 with a degree in international law. In the 1930s, Queen Wilhelmina began a search for a husband for her daughter. At the time, the House of Orange was one of the most strictly religious royal families in the world, princes from the United Kingdom and Sweden were vetted but either declined or were rejected by the princess
5.
Calvinism
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Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the tradition which it denotes has always been diverse. The movement was first called Calvinism by Lutherans who opposed it, early influential Reformed theologians include Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B, Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, and Gordon Clark were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I, sproul, Timothy J. Keller, John Piper, David Wells, and Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of polity, most are presbyterian or congregationalist. Calvinism is largely represented by Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions, the biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 80 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship, Calvinism is named after John Calvin. It was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552 and it was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name what they perceived to be heresy after its founder. Nevertheless, the term first came out of Lutheran circles, Calvin denounced the designation himself, They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism. It is not hard to guess where such a deadly hatred comes from that they hold against me, despite its negative connotation, this designation became increasingly popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later. Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvins own words—renewed accordingly with the order of gospel. Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two groups, Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition, some have also argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the presence of Christ in the Lords supper. Each of these also understood salvation to be by grace alone. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther
6.
Monarchy of the Netherlands
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The monarchy of the Netherlands is constitutional and as such, the role and position of the monarch are defined and limited by the constitution of the Netherlands. William became the leader of the Dutch Revolt and the independent Dutch Republic, as stadtholder, he was followed by several of his descendants. In 1747, the function of stadtholder became a position in all Provinces of the thus crowned Dutch Republic. The last stadtholder was William V and his son William I, became the first king. The cycle of monarchs is described in the first section of Chapter 2 of the constitution, the monarchy of the Netherlands passes by right of succession to the heirs of William I. The heir is determined through two mechanisms, absolute cognatic primogeniture and proximity of blood, the Netherlands established absolute cognatic primogeniture instead of male preference primogeniture by law in 1983. Proximity of blood limits accession to the throne to a person who is related to the current monarch within three degrees of kinship. For example, the grandchildren of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, have no succession rights because their kinship with Beatrix when she was queen was of the fourth degree. Also, succession is limited to heirs, precluding a claim to the throne by children born out of wedlock. A special case arises if the king dies while his wife is pregnant, so, if the old king dies while his wife is pregnant with their first child, the unborn child is immediately considered born and immediately becomes the new king. If the pregnancy ends in stillbirth, his or her reign is expunged, If the monarch is a minor, a regent is appointed and serves until the monarch comes of age. There are also a number of cases within the constitution. First, if there is no heir when the monarch dies the States-General may appoint a successor upon the suggestion of the government and this suggestion may be made before the death of the reigning monarch, even by the monarch himself. Second, some people are excluded from the line of succession and they are, Any heir who marries without the permission of the States-General loses the right of succession. A person who is or has become truly undesirable or unfit as monarch can be removed from the line of succession by an act of the States-General and this clause has never been executed and is considered an emergency exit. An example would be an heir apparent who commits treason or suffers a serious accident, as with most monarchies, the Netherlands cannot be without a monarch — the constitution of the Netherlands does not recognize a situation in which there is no monarch. This is because there must be a head of state in order for the government to function, for this reason the new monarch assumes his role the moment the previous monarch ceases to hold the throne. The only exception is if there is no heir at all, the monarch is expected to execute his duties and responsibilities for the good of the nation
7.
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
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Willem-Alexander is the King of the Netherlands. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht and is the oldest child of Beatrix of the Netherlands and he became Prince of Orange as heir apparent upon his mothers accession on 30 April 1980, and succeeded her following her abdication on 30 April 2013. He went to primary and secondary schools, served in the Royal Netherlands Navy. He married Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in 2002 and they have three daughters, Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, Princess Alexia, and Princess Ariane, Willem-Alexander is interested in sports and international water management issues. At the age of 49, he is currently the second youngest monarch in Europe after Felipe VI of Spain, Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand was born on 27 April 1967 in the University Hospital Utrecht, Now is University Medical Center Utrecht in Utrecht, Netherlands. He is the first child of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus, and he was the first male Dutch royal baby since the birth of Prince Alexander in 1851, and the first immediate male heir since Alexanders death in 1884. From birth, Willem-Alexander has held the titles Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau and he was baptised as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church on 2 September 1967 in Saint Jacobs Church in The Hague. He had two brothers, Prince Friso and Prince Constantijn. He lived with his family at the castle Drakensteyn in the hamlet Lage Vuursche near Baarn from his birth until 1981 and his mother Beatrix became Queen of the Netherlands in 1980, after his grandmother Juliana abdicated. He then received the title of Prince of Orange as heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander attended Nieuwe Baarnse Elementary School in Baarn from 1973 to 1979. After his military service from 1985 to 1987, Willem-Alexander studied History at Leiden University from 1987 onwards and his final thesis was on the Dutch response to Frances decision under President Charles de Gaulle to leave the NATOs integrated command structure. Willem-Alexander speaks English, Spanish and German in addition to his native Dutch, between secondary school and his university education, Willem-Alexander performed military service in the Royal Netherlands Navy from August 1985 until January 1987. He received his training at the Royal Netherlands Naval College and the frigates HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, in 1988 he received additional training at the ship HNLMS Van Kinsbergen and became a lieutenant. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Navy, Willem-Alexander was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1995, Commander in 1997, Captain at Sea in 2001, and Commodore in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Army, he was made a Major in 1995, and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1997, Colonel in 2001, and Brigadier General in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he was made Squadron Leader in 1995, as a reservist for the Royal Marechaussee, he was made Brigadier General in 2005. Before his investiture as king in 2013, Willem-Alexander was honorably discharged from the armed forces, the government declared that the head of state cannot be a serving member of the armed forces, since the government itself holds supreme command over the armed forces. As king, Willem-Alexander may choose to wear a uniform with royal insignia
8.
Beatrix of the Netherlands
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Beatrix reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, after a reign of exactly 33 years. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, upon her mothers accession in 1948, she became heir presumptive. Beatrix attended a primary school in Canada during World War II. In 1961, she received her law degree from Leiden University, in 1966, Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat, with whom she had three children. When her mother abdicated on 30 April 1980, Beatrix succeeded her as queen, on Koninginnedag,30 April 2013, Beatrix abdicated in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, and resumed the title of princess. At the time of her abdication, Beatrix was the oldest reigning monarch of the Netherlands, Beatrix was born Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, on 31 January 1938 at the Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, Netherlands. She is the first child of Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, Beatrix was baptized on 12 May 1938 in the Great Church in The Hague. Beatrixs middle names are the first names of her grandmother, the then reigning Queen Wilhelmina. When Beatrix was one old, in 1939, her younger sister Princess Irene was born. World War II broke out in the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, on 13 May, the Dutch Royal Family evacuated to London, United Kingdom. One month later, Beatrix went to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with her mother Juliana and her sister Irene, while her father Bernhard, the family lived at the Stornoway residence. With bodyguards and ladies in waiting, the family summered at Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, while on Bigwin Island, the constitution of the Netherlands was stored in the cast iron safe of Bigwin Inns Rotunda building. In order to them with a greater sense of security, culinary chefs. Upon their departure, the musicians of the Bigwin Inn Orchestra assembled dockside, and at every public performance afterward through to the end of World War II. In the years following the shuttering and neglect of the island resort, the second sister of Beatrix, Princess Margriet, was born in Ottawa in 1943. During their exile in Canada, Beatrix attended nursery and Rockcliffe Park Public School, on 5 May 1945, the German troops in the Netherlands surrendered. The family returned to the Netherlands on 2 August 1945, Beatrix went to the progressive primary school De Werkplaats in Bilthoven. Her third sister Princess Christina was born in 1947, in April 1950, Princess Beatrix entered the Incrementum, a part of Baarnsch Lyceum, where, in 1956, she passed her school-graduation examinations in the subjects of arts and classics
9.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion[10][11]
Luxembourg: Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown[13]
Nepalese Royal Family: Member 1st Class of the Order of the Three Divine Powers[14]
Media related to Princess Christina of the Netherlands at Wikimedia Commons