1.
Queen 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
2.
Inauguration of the Dutch monarch
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The King is required to swear allegiance to the Constitution to faithfully discharge his duties. In contrast with many other European monarchic customs, in the Netherlands new monarchs are not crowned, the Dutch crown and other regalia have never been physically bestowed. The Netherlands historically and traditionally consists of mainly Catholics in the south and this is opposite of, for example, British customs, in which the monarch is crowned by the senior bishop of the Church of England. As the Dutch king is a King of the Netherlands rather than a King of the Dutch, Inauguration is strictly ceremonial as the successor to the throne instantly becomes the new monarch at the moment the former monarch dies or abdicates. The last Dutch monarch to rule until his death was William III in 1890 and his successor was his daughter, Wilhelmina, however, she was not inaugurated until her coming of age in 1898. Her mother Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont was regent from 1890 to 1898, Wilhelmina passed the throne to her daughter Juliana in 1948. Previous monarchs have so far abdicated their thrones, the monarch, the heir to the throne, the royal family and the cabinet led by the prime minister meet in the Royal Palace of Amsterdam in the State Hall. The monarch signs the instrument of abdication, which is signed by the heir, members of the royal family. As soon as the instrument is signed, the new inauguration is complete, the previous monarch then steps on the balcony of the palace, where the new monarch is introduced to the waiting public outside. After the signature, the new monarch proceeds from the palace to the Nieuwe Kerk, where the States General of the Netherlands and the cabinet along with guests of honour have assembled. Inside the church, symbols of the dignity and authority of the monarch, the crown symbolises sovereignty and dignity, the sceptre authority and the orb the territory of the Kingdom. The other two regalia – the sword of state and the standard of the bearing the coat of arms of the Netherlands – are carried by two senior military officers. Surrounding the royal regalia is a copy of the Dutch Constitution, the chamberlain announces the arrival of the new monarch, who takes the seat on the throne opposite the regalia. The monarch reads a speech from the throne and solemnly swears to uphold the constitution and this is followed by the exclamation of three huzzahs from the public led by the King of Arms. The head of the calls out each member of the States General. They either swear with the hand raised and state, Zo waarlijk helpe mij God Almachtig. After the homage ceremony, the monarch then exits the church, the ceremony is then followed by an official reception at the palace. Since the inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina in 1898, the Dutch government issues for each inauguration a limited number of commemoration medals
3.
William III of the Netherlands
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William III was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death in 1890. He was also the Duke of Limburg from 1849 until the abolition of the duchy in 1866, William was the son of King William II and Anna Pavlovna of Russia. On the abdication of his grandfather William I in 1840, he became the Prince of Orange, on the death of his father in 1849, he succeeded as King of the Netherlands. William married his cousin Sophie of Württemberg in 1839 and they had three sons, William, Maurice, and Alexander, all of whom predeceased him. After Sophies death in 1877 he married Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1879 and they had one daughter Wilhelmina, William was born on 19 February 1817 in the Palace of the Nation in Brussels, which was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. He was the eldest son of the future king William II of the Netherlands and he had three brothers, one of whom died in infancy, and one sister. In 1827, at the age of ten, he was made a colonel in the Royal Netherlands Army. In the 1830s, he served as lieutenant in the Grenadiers Regiment, in 1834, he was made honorary commander of the Grenadiers Regiment of Kiev nr.5 in the Imperial Russian Army. He married his first cousin, Sophie, daughter of King William I of Württemberg and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia and this marriage was unhappy and was characterized by struggles about their children. Sophie was an intellectual, hating everything leaning toward dictatorship. William was simpler, more conservative, and loved the military and he prohibited intellectual exercise at home, for which action Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who corresponded with Princess Sophie, called him an uneducated farmer. Another cause of tension was his capriciousness, he could rage against someone one day. William loathed the 1848 constitutional changes initiated by his father and Johan Rudolf Thorbecke and his father saw them as key to the monarchys survival in changing times. Sophie, who was a liberal, also shared this view, William himself saw them as useless limitations of royal power, and would have preferred to govern as an enlightened despot in the mold of his grandfather, William I. He considered relinquishing his right to the throne to his younger brother Henry and his mother convinced him to cancel this action. The Dutch constitution provided no way to relinquish ones claim to the throne, on 17 March 1849 his father died and William succeeded to the throne of the Netherlands. He was at that moment a guest of the Duchess of Cleveland in Raby Castle, representatives of the Dutch government traveled to London to meet their new king in London. William was reluctant to return, but he was convinced to do so, upon arrival the new Queen welcomed her spouse with the question did you accept
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.
Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont
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Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia of Waldeck and Pyrmont was Queen of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg by marriage to King-Grand Duke William III. An immensely popular member of the Dutch Royal Family, Queen Emma served as regent for her daughter, Queen Wilhelmina, during the latters minority from 1890 until 1898. Emma was born a Princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont on 2 August 1858 in Arolsen Castle in Arolsen and she was the fourth daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and Princess Helena of Nassau. Her brother, Friedrich, was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and her sister, Helena, was the wife of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, a son of Queen Victoria. Her maternal grandfather was William, Duke of Nassau, a grandson of Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, Princess Emma married the elderly King William III in Arolsen on 7 January 1879, two years after the death of his first wife, Sophie of Württemberg. The aging, licentious King, once described as the greatest debauchee of the age, is supposed to have previously rejected by Princess Thyra of Denmark. Emmas elder sister Pauline was the Kings obvious first target, but Emma was the one who stepped in with the words, with William, Emma had her only child, the future Queen Wilhelmina, on 31 August 1880. The King also had three sons from his first marriage, William, Maurice, and Alexander, all of whom died before him without any legitimate offspring, three days before William died on 23 November 1890, Emma became regent for her incapacitated husband. She continued her regency into the reign of his successor, their daughter, Wilhelmina. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the crown of which could not be inherited by a woman at that time, passed to Adolf, Duke of Nassau, who happened to be Queen Emmas maternal uncle. The Queen Dowager died in The Hague on 20 March 1934, of complications from bronchitis at the age of 75, and was buried in Delft
6.
Noordeinde Palace
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Noordeinde Palace is one of the three official palaces of the Dutch royal family. Located in The Hague in the province of South Holland, it has used as the working palace for King Willem-Alexander since 2013. The palace originated as a farmhouse, which was converted into a spacious residence by the steward of the States of Holland. The original farmhouses cellars can still be seen in the palace basement, from 1566 to 1591, the palace had a different owner. After that it was leased, and in 1595, purchased by the States of Holland for Louise de Coligny, the widow of William of Orange, in recognition of William’s service to the nation, the States presented the building to his family in 1609. Frederik Hendrik substantially enlarged the house, which was known as the Oude Hof. He began by buying the surrounding plots of land, the architects Pieter Post and Jacob van Campen, who built Huis ten Bosch Palace in 1645, were among those involved in the alterations. The alterations included lengthening the building and adding wings on either side. After Frederik Hendrik died in 1647, his widow, Amalia van Solms, following her death in 1675, the house was more or less empty for many years. After the death of the Stadholder-King William III in 1702, it passed to King Frederick I of Prussia, in 1740 Voltaire stayed in one of the apartments while he negotiated with Dutch publisher Jan van Duren about the Anti-Machiavel. In 1754, King Frederick the Great of Prussia sold his land-holdings in the Netherlands to Stadholder William V, the son of Stadholder William V, who would become King Willem I, took up residence at the Oude Hof in 1792. But when the French invaded the Netherlands in 1795, during the French Revolutionary Wars, he, the Oude Hof became the property of the Batavian Republic and hence state property, the status it has today. The gardens of the palace are open to the public, in 1813, after the fall of Napoleon, Prince Willem returned to the Netherlands, where he was proclaimed Sovereign Prince. The Constitution of the time decreed that the State must provide a summer, initially there were plans to build a new winter residence, but in the end it was decided to make extensive alterations to the Oude Hof. King Willem I moved into Noordeinde Palace in 1817, living there until his abdication in 1840 and his successor, King Willem II, never resided there. Like his grandfather, King Willem III used Noordeinde as his home, though he preferred to live at his summer residence. In 1876, he had the stables built in the gardens behind Noordeinde Palace. Even after King Willem III married Queen Emma, the family continued to use Noordeinde as their winter home
7.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
8.
Het Loo Palace
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Het Loo Palace is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was built between 1684 and 1686 for stadtholder-king William III and Mary II of England, the garden was designed by Claude Desgotz. The palace was a residence of the House of Orange-Nassau from the 17th century until the death of Queen Wilhelmina in 1962, the building was renovated between 1976 and 1982. Since 1984, the palace is a museum open for the general public, showing interiors with original furniture, objects. The building is a rijksmonument and is among the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites, in 2013, the museum had 410,000 visitors, which makes it the 8th most visited museum in the Netherlands. The Dutch Baroque architecture of Het Loo takes pains to minimize the grand stretch of its construction, so emphatic at Versailles, Het Loo is not a palace but, as the title of its engraved portrait states, a Lust-hof. Nevertheless, it is situated entre cour et jardin as Versailles and its imitators, the volumes of the palace are rhythmically broken in their massing. The private Great Garden is situated in the back and this Dutch Baroque garden, often mislabeled the Versailles of Holland, actually serves to show more differences than similarities. It is still within the general Baroque formula established by André Le Nôtre, perfect symmetry, axial layout with radiating gravel walks, parterres with fountains, basins, the garden as it appears in the engraving was designed by Le Nôtres nephew, Claude Desgotz. Throughout his military and diplomatic career, William of Orange was the continental antagonist of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtres main axis at Versailles, continued by the canal, runs up to the horizon. Daniel Marot and Desgotzs Het Loo garden does not dominate the landscape as Louis German imitators do, though in his idealized plan, at its far end a shaded crosswalk of trees disguised the central vista. The orange trees set out in boxes and wintered in an Orangery. Outside the garden there are a few straight scenic avenues, for following the hunt in a carriage, few of the green rooms cut into the woodlands in imitation of the cabinets de verdure of Versailles that are shown in the engraving actually got executed at Het Loo. The patron of the Sun Kings garden was Apollo, peter the Great would opt for Samson, springing the jaws of Swedens heraldic lion. In the 18th century, William III’s baroque garden as seen in the engraving was replaced by a park in the English taste. In 1960 Queen Wilhelmina declared that when she died the palace would go to the State and she did, however, request that it would be returned to her family if the Dutch were to abolish the monarchy. The palace became property of the Dutch state in 1962 when Wilhelmina died at Het Loo Palace, after a thorough restoration it now houses a national museum and library devoted to the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch history. Het Loo also houses the Museum van de Kanselarij der Nederlandse Orden, books and other material concerning decorations, the lost gardens of Het Loo were fully restored beginning in 1970 and completed in time to celebrate the buildings 1984 tercentenary
9.
Apeldoorn
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Apeldoorn is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including villages like Beekbergen, Loenen, the western half of the municipality lies on the Veluwe ridge, the eastern half lies in the IJssel valley. John Berends of the CDA is the mayor of Apeldoorn, the oldest known reference to Apeldoorn, then called Appoldro, dates from the 8th century. The settlement came into being at the point where the old road from Amersfoort to Deventer crossed that from Arnhem to Zwolle, a 1740 map refers to it as Appeldoorn. Close by is the favourite country-seat of the family of the Netherlands called the palace het Nieuwe Loo. It was originally a lodge of the dukes of Gelderland. The younger sister of Princess Beatrix, Princess Margriet, lives nearby the palace Het Loo, Apeldoorn was a relatively insignificant place until the major building projects of the 19th century and those of the period following World War II. The Protestant church was restored after a fire in 1890, the Roman Catholic Mariakerk is a national monument. Apeldoorn possesses large paper-mills, many offices, a company, some hospitals. With over 95,000 people working in the municipality, Apeldoorn is one of the most important employment centres in the eastern Netherlands, Apenheul is a zoo which hosts a number of different types of apes and monkeys, some of which are free to walk around the visitors. It is situated at the edge of Apeldoorn and can easily be reached by local bus 2,3 and 5. There is also an amusement park situated in Apeldoorn, called the Koningin Juliana Toren and it is situated nearby the Apenheul and lies on the road to Hoog Soeren. It is called the Koningin Juliana Toren because of the tower, the local hospital is the Gelre Hospital Lukas, offering secondary health care to Apeldoorn and the surrounding towns. Apeldoorn railway station is, among national and international services, the terminus for the Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij. The southwestern corner of the municipality is part of the Hoge Veluwe National Park and it is the final Battle Honour of The Royal Canadian Regiment who took part in the towns liberation in World War II. Paleis Het Loo reflects the historical ties between the House of Orange-Nassau and the Netherlands, in November 1684 Prince William III of Orange, then Stadtholder of Gelderland, purchased Het Loo with the intentions of building a palatial hunting lodge somewhere on the property. On April 5,1685 the first contract was tendered and in September of the year the stonework of the middle section of what came to be known as Het Loo was completed. In 1686, the year given on the facade of the building, the wings, originally linked by colonnades to the corps de logis were added, the walls were built and the gardens were laid out
10.
Nieuwe Kerk (Delft)
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The Nieuwe Kerk is a Protestant church in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. The building is located on Delft Market Square, opposite to the City Hall, in 1584, William the Silent was entombed here in a mausoleum designed by Hendrick and Pieter de Keyser. Since then members of the House of Orange-Nassau have been entombed in the royal crypt, the latest are Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard in 2004. The private royal family crypt is not open to the public, the church tower is the second highest in the Netherlands, after the Domtoren in Utrecht. The New Church, formerly the church of St. Ursula, is the place of the princes of Orange. The tower was built 1396-1496 by Jacob van der Borch, who built the Dom in Utrecht during the years 1444-1475. The monument for Hugo de Groot was made in 1781, the mechanical clock has 18 bells by Francois Hemony from 1659 and 30 modern bells. In the church there is a bell from 1662 by Francois Hemony with a diameter of 104 centimeters. In the tower there are also no longer in use, including 13 from 1659 by Francois Hemony,3 from 1678 by Pieter Hemony,3 from 1750 from Joris de Mery. The Kirk appears in the golden Age painting by Carel Fabritius, A View of Delft
11.
Delft
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Delft is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, to the north of Rotterdam, the city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the Delf, which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court, from a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century received its charter. The towns association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange, nicknamed William the Silent, at the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years War. By then Delft was one of the cities of Holland. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled, after the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584, by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk, starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day. The Delft Explosion, also known in history as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, over a hundred people were killed and thousands were wounded. About 30 tonnes of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarissen convent in the Doelenkwartier district, cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Luckily, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague, Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing the devastation. Historical buildings and other sights of interest include, Oude Kerk, buried here, Piet Hein, Johannes Vermeer, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. Nieuwe Kerk, constructed between 1381 and 1496 and it contains the Dutch royal familys burial vault, which between funerals is sealed with a 5,000 kg cover stone. A statue of Hugo Grotius made by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886 and this is the only remaining gate of the old city walls. The Gemeenlandshuis Delfland, or Huyterhuis, built in 1505, which has housed the Delfland regional water authority since 1645, the Vermeer Centre in the rebuilt Guild house of St. Luke. Windmill De Roos, a mill built c.1760. Restored to working order in 2013, another windmill that formerly stood in Delft, Het Fortuyn, was dismantled in 1917 and re-erected at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Gelderland in 1920. Delft is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century, the city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, the painter Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft
12.
Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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Prince Henry of the Netherlands, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was prince consort of the Netherlands as the husband of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. He was the longest serving consort of the Netherlands, heinrich Wladimir Albrecht Ernst of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was born on 19 April 1876 in Schwerin. He was the youngest son of Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and he was created Prince of the Netherlands on 6 February 1901, and married Queen Wilhelmina on 7 February 1901, in The Hague. Although the queen was devoted to her spouse at the time of their marriage and they had one child, Juliana, in whose favor Wilhelmina abdicated on 4 September 1948. He was the 279th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword in Portugal and he died, at the age of 58, on 3 July 1934 in The Hague, Netherlands. He successfully merged the two Dutch Boy Scout organisations Nederlandse Padvinders Organisatie and the Nederlandse Padvinders Bond on 11 December 1915 to form De Nederlandse Padvinders and he became the Royal Commissioner of that organisation and he asked Jean Jacques Rambonnet to become chairman in 1920. Mein Abbo-Wenneker, gave birth to a total of six children, Abbo, but strongly rumored to have been fathered by Prince Henry. By then a widow, Mein in 1918 gave birth to Prince Henry’s acknowledged son, in 1919, Mein married Lieutenant Jan Derk Lier Winch, a former aide-de-camp to Prince Henry. This, plus an allowance to the Lt from the state of one thousand guilders, was in return for his commitment to the three children of HRH. ”The male parent of the remaining three children was not verified as being either Prince Henry or Lt. Lier Winch. It is rumored that, overall, Prince Henry fathered between three and ten children, but firm proof remains elusive
13.
Queen Juliana
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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
14.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
15.
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
16.
Dutch Reformed Church
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The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation until 1930. It was the foremost Protestant denomination, and—since 1892—one of the two major Reformed denominations along with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and it spread to the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and various other world regions through the Dutch colonization. The allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church was a common feature among Dutch immigrant communities around the world and it developed during the Protestant Reformation, being shaped theologically by John Calvin, but also other major Reformed theologians. At the time of the merger, the Church had 2 million members organised in 1,350 congregations, a minority of members of the Church chose not to participate in the merger and instead formed the Restored Reformed Church. The Reformation was a time of violence and persecution by the established Catholic Church and governments. The first Synod of 23 Dutch Reformed leaders was held in October 1571 in the German city of Emden, the Synod of Emden is generally considered to be the founding of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands. The Synod both affirmed the actions of the earlier Synod of Wesel, as well as established presbyterian church government for the Dutch Reformed Church, the first Synod to be located in the Dutch Republic was held in Dordrecht in 1578. This synodical meeting is not to be confused with the better known Second Synod of Dort of 1618, large groups of Marranos settled in Emden and converted to Christianity. Mostly all Marranos, many Jewish groups converted to Christianity around 1649 to the Nederduitsche, Niederdeutsche church later on Dutch Reformed Church, in the latter meeting, the Church fathers expelled Arminians and added the Canons of Dort to the Confessions. The Canons of Dort, together with the previously adopted Belgic Confession, most conflicts and splits in the Church arose because of disagreement over the substance and interpretation of these doctrinal documents. The government of the Dutch Republic, which had instigated the Arminians expulsion, no Synod was held in the Netherlands until after the end of the Republic in 1795. Before the demise of the Dutch Republic in 1795, the Dutch Reformed Church enjoyed the status of public or privileged church, though it was never formally adopted as the state religion, the law demanded that every public official should be a communicant member. Consequently, the Church had close relations with the Dutch government, a privilege of members of the Dutch Reformed Church was that they could have their businesses open on Sundays, otherwise considered a religious day and not one for business. The 17th and early 18th centuries were the age of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie, led primarily by Gisbertus Voetius and Wilhelmus à Brakel, in the 19th century, theological liberalism led to splits in the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1834, the minister Hendrik de Cock of the town of Ulrum was told by leaders that he could not preach against certain colleagues. He and his congregation seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church, in time, the Afscheiding led to the departure of 120 congregations from the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1886, another separation, the Doleantie, occurred, led by Dutch Reformed businessman, theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper. The Dutch Reformed Church remained the largest church body in the Netherlands until the middle of the 20th century, the rapid secularisation of the Netherlands in the 1960s dramatically reduced participation in the mainstream Protestant church
17.
Regent
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A regent is a person appointed to administer a state because the monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regency, a regent or regency council may be formed ad hoc or in accordance with a constitutional rule. Regent is sometimes a formal title, if the formally appointed regent is unavailable or cannot serve on a temporary basis, a Regent ad interim may be appointed to fill the gap. In a monarchy, a regent usually governs due to one of these reasons and this was the case in the Kingdom of Finland and the Kingdom of Hungary, where the royal line was considered extinct in the aftermath of World War I. In Iceland, the regent represented the King of Denmark as sovereign of Iceland until the country became a republic in 1944, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, kings were elective, which often led to a fairly long interregnum. In the interim, it was the Roman Catholic Primate who served as the regent, in the small republic of San Marino, the two Captains Regent, or Capitani Reggenti, are elected semi-annually as joint heads of state and of government. Famous regency periods include that of the Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, giving rise to terms such as Regency era. Strictly this period lasted from 1811 to 1820, when his father George III was insane, as of 1 December 2016, Liechtenstein is the only country with an active regency. The term regent may refer to lower than the ruler of a country. The term may be used in the governance of organisations, typically as an equivalent of director, some university managers in North America are called regents and a management board for a college or university may be titled the Board of Regents. The term regent is used for members of governing bodies of institutions such as the national banks of France. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, in the Dutch East Indies, a regent was a native prince allowed to rule de facto colonized state as a regentschap. Consequently, in the state of Indonesia, the term regent is used in English to mean a bupati. Again in Belgium and France, Regent is the title of a teacher in a lower secondary school. In the Philippines, specifically, the University of Santo Tomas, the Father Regent and they also form the Council of Regents that serves as the highest administrative council of the university. In the Society of Jesus, a regent is a training to be a Jesuit. A regent in the Jesuits is often assigned to teach in a school or some other academic institution as part of the formation toward final vows, list of regents Viceroy, an individual who, in a colony or province, exercised the power of a monarch on his behalf
18.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
19.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
20.
Dutch Empire
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The Dutch Empire comprised the overseas colonies, enclaves, and outposts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies and subsequently, the Dutch Republic and the modern Netherlands. This was reflective of the fact that the network of the Dutch Empire was commercial exchange as opposed to sovereignty over a homogeneous landmass. The companies brief domination of global commerce contributed greatly to a commercial revolution, in their search for new trade passages between Asia and Europe Dutch navigators explored and charted vast regions such as New Zealand, Tasmania, and parts of the eastern coast of North America. Shortly after reaching its zenith, the Dutch Empire began to decline as a result of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, in which it lost many of its colonial possessions and trade monopolies to the British Empire. Nevertheless, some portions of the empire survived until the advent of global decolonisation following World War II, namely the East Indies, three former colonial territories—Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten—are retained as constituent countries within the Netherlands. In 1566, a Protestant Dutch revolt broke out against rule by Roman Catholic Spain, led by William of Orange, independence was declared in the 1581 Act of Abjuration. The revolt resulted in the establishment of an de facto independent Protestant republic in the north by Treaty of Antwerp, the coastal provinces of Holland and Zeeland had for centuries prior to Spanish rule been important hubs of the European maritime trade network. Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France, Scotland, Germany, England, efficient access to capital enabled the Dutch in the 1580s to extend their trade routes beyond northern Europe to new markets in the Mediterranean and the Levant. In the 1590s, Dutch ships began to trade with Brazil and the Dutch Gold Coast of Africa, and towards the Indian Ocean, by attacking Portuguese overseas possessions, the Dutch forced Spain to divert financial and military resources away from its attempt to quell Dutch independence. Thus began the several decade-long Dutch-Portuguese War, in 1594, the Compagnie van Verre was founded in Amsterdam, with the aim of sending two fleets to the spice islands of Maluku. The first fleet sailed in 1596 and returned in 1597 with a cargo of pepper, the second voyage, returned its investors a 400% profit. The success of these led to the founding of a number of companies competing for the trade. The competition was counterproductive to the interests as it threatened to drive up the price of spices at their source in Indonesia whilst driving them down in Europe. As a result of the caused by inter-company rivalry, the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602. The directors of the company, the Heeren XVII, were given the authority to establish fortresses and strongholds, to sign treaties. The company itself was founded as a joint stock company, similarly to its English rival that had founded two years earlier, the English East India Company. The Spanish-Dutch War was for the Dutch part of their struggle for independence and religious freedom, the Netherlands became part of the domains of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty when Emperor Charles V divided the holdings of the Habsburg Empire following his abdication in 1555. From 1517, the port of Lisbon in Portugal was the main European market for products from India that was attended by other nations to purchase their needs
21.
Dutch resistance
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Dutch resistance developed relatively slowly, but the event of the February strike and its cause, the random police harassment and deportation of over 400 Jews, greatly stimulated resistance. The first to organize themselves were the Dutch communists, who set up a cell-system immediately, some other very amateurish groups also emerged, notably De Geuzen, set-up by Bernardus IJzerdraat and also some military-styled groups started, such as the Order Service. Most had great trouble surviving betrayal in the first two years of the war, Dutch counterintelligence, domestic sabotage, and communications networks eventually provided key support to Allied forces, beginning in 1944 and continuing until the Netherlands was fully liberated. Some 75% of the Jewish population perished in the Holocaust, most of them murdered in Nazi death camps, the Columbia Guide to the Holocaust estimates that 215–500 Dutch Romanis were killed by the Nazis, with the higher figure estimated as almost the entire pre-war population of Dutch Romanis. The Dutch themselves, especially their official war historian Dr. Loe de Jong, non-compliance with German rules, wishes or commands or German condoned Dutch rule, was also not considered resistance. Public protests of individuals, political parties, newspapers or the churches were not considered to be resistance. Only active resistance in the form of spying, sabotage or with arms was what the Dutch considered resistance, nevertheless, thousands of members of all the non-resisting categories were arrested by the Germans and often subsequently jailed for months, tortured, sent to concentration camps or killed. Up until the 21st century, the tendency existed in Dutch historical research and publications, slowly, this has started to change, also because of the emphasis the RIOD has been putting on individual heroism since 2005. The strikers, who numbered in the tens of thousands, are not considered resistance participants, the Dutch generally prefer to use the term illegaliteit for all those activities that were illegal, contrary, underground or unarmed. Prior to the German invasion, the Netherlands had adhered to a policy of strict neutrality, the country had narrow bonds with Germany, and less so with the British. The Dutch had not engaged in war with any European nation since 1830, during World War I, the Dutch were not invaded by Germany and anti-German sentiment was not as strong after that war as it was in other European countries. The German ex-Kaiser had fled to the Netherlands in 1918 and lived there in exile, the German invasion therefore came as a great shock to many Dutch people. Nevertheless, the country had ordered general mobilisation in September 1939, by November 1938, during the Kristallnacht, many Dutch people received a foretaste of things to come, German synagogues could be seen burning, even from the Netherlands. An anti-fascist movement started to gain popularity – as did the fascist movement, the sinking of the passenger liner SS Simon Bolivar in November 1939, with 84 dead, especially shocked the nation. It was not the only vessel, on 10 May 1940, German troops started their surprise attack on the Netherlands without a declaration of war. The day before, small groups of German troops wearing Dutch uniforms had entered the country, many of them wore Dutch helmets, some made of cardboard as there were not enough originals. Also the first large-scale paratroop attack in history failed, the Dutch recapturing the three German-occupied airfields near the Hague within the day, remarkable was the existence of privately owned anti-aircraft guns. The Dutch army owned only one tank, kornwerderzand, with a bunker-complex that defended the eastern end of the Afsluitdijk connecting Friesland to North Holland and was held until the capitulation
22.
Alexander, Prince of Orange
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Alexander, Prince of Orange, was heir apparent to his father King William III of the Netherlands from 11 June 1879 until his death. For a span of 116 years, from the birth of Alexander until the birth of the present king Willem-Alexander, Prince Alexander of the Netherlands was born in The Hague on 25 August 1851. He was the child of King William III and Queen Sophie. Unlike his brother William, the prince, he was disciplined, intellectual. After Prince Williams death on 11 June 1879, he became apparent to the Dutch throne. Alexander held the position of heir apparent until his own death, at age 32, although he never married, negotiations were held for him to marry, firstly Princess Thyra of Denmark, and supposedly secondly the Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal. He was buried in the new royal burial vault in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on 17 July 1884, after his death, his half-sister, the future Queen Wilhelmina, became heiress presumptive to the Dutch throne. Prince Alexander was Grand Master of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands and his Royal Highness Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau His Royal Highness The Prince of Orange Biography of Alexander of the Netherlands
23.
Prince Frederick of the Netherlands
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Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, was the second son of William I of the Netherlands and his wife, Wilhelmine of Prussia. The prince grew up at the court of his grandfather Frederick William II of Prussia, one of his tutors was Carl von Clausewitz. Aged 16, the fought in the Battle of Leipzig. The prince first entered the Netherlands in December 1813, as he spoke no Dutch, the prince was sent to Leiden University to get a further education. He was also educated by Karl Ludwig von Phull in The Hague, based on a house treaty, Frederick was to inherit the familys German possessions upon his fathers death. After the treaty of Vienna these were no longer in the possession of the family and he instead was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. In 1816, Frederick relinquished this claim in exchange for land in the Netherlands, as a further compensation he received a yearly amount of 190,000 Dutch guilder. This made him the wealthiest member of the House of Orange-Nassau, with the money he bought a large estate in Germany, which made him the largest land owner from the Netherlands. In 1826 Frederick was appointed Commissary-general of the Department of War, in this office, Frederick reorganized the army on a Prussian model. Frederick founded the academy in Breda and reequipped the army with modern weapons. In 1829 Frederick was a candidate for the Greek throne, but he declined because he did not want to be king of a country whose language, when the Belgian Revolution broke out in 1830, Frederick commanded the troops sent to Brussels to suppress the rebellion there. Frederick led these troops in several days of fighting in Brussels, Frederick also took part in his brothers 1831 Ten Days Campaign in Belgium. When his father abdicated in 1840, Frederick withdrew from life to his estates at Wassenaar. The park had been out from 1815 onwards at the behest of Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. In July 2004, Muskau Park was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, upon the death of his elder brother in 1849, the country was left with a large debt. Frederick managed to pay off a million guilder to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, the new King William III of the Netherlands did not want to inherent the kingship from his father, but Frederick managed to convince him to take up the position, offering to assist him. William III recalled Frederick and made him Inspector-General of the army, Frederick held that office until 1868, when he resigned because of the lack of support for his plans to modernize the army. Frederick managed to prevent a divorce between King William III and Queen Sophie of Württemberg by establishing a legal separation and he retired to Muskau Castle which was remodeled in Renaissance revival style between 1863 and 1866
24.
Salic law
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Salic law, or Salian Law, was the ancient Salian Frankish civil law code compiled around AD500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The best known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs, the Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of manuscripts dating from the 6th to 8th centuries and three emendations as late as the 9th century have survived, Salic law provided written codification of both civil law, such as the statutes governing inheritance, and criminal law, such as the punishment for murder. The original edition of the code was commissioned by the first king of all the Franks, Clovis I, Salic Law therefore reflects ancient usages and practices. In order to more effectively, it was desirable that monarchs. The name of the code comes from the circumstance that Clovis was a Merovingian king ruling only the Salian Franks before his unification of Francia. The law must have applied to the Ripuarian Franks as well, however, containing only 65 titles, it may not have included any special Ripuarian laws. For the next 300 years the code was copied by hand and was amended as required to add newly enacted laws, revise laws that had been amended, and delete laws that had been repealed. More so than printing, hand copying is an act by an individual copyist with ideas. Each of the several dozen surviving manuscripts features a set of errors, corrections, content. The laws are called titles as each one has its own name, generally preceded by de, of, different sections of titles acquired individual names revealing something about their provenances. Some of these dozens of names have adopted for specific reference, often given the same designation as the overall work. The recension of Hendrik Kern organizes all of the manuscripts into five families according to similarity and relative chronological sequence, judged by content and dateable material in the text. Family I is the oldest, containing four manuscripts dated to the 8th and 9th centuries, in addition they feature the Malbergse Glossen, Malberg Glosses, marginal glosses stating the native court word for some Latin words. These are named from native malbergo, language of the court, kerns Family II, represented by two manuscripts, is the same as Family I, except it contains interpolations or numerous additions which point to a later period. Family III is split into two divisions, the first, comprising three manuscripts, dated to the 8th–9th centuries, presents an expanded text of 99 or 100 titles. The second, four manuscripts, not only drops the glosses, a statement gives the provenance, in the 13th year of the reign of our most glorious king of the Franks, Pipin. Some of the documents were composed after the reign of Pepin the Short, but it is considered to be an emendation initiated by Pepin
25.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
26.
Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam
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The Nieuwe Kerk is a 15th-century church in Amsterdam, located on Dam Square, next to the Royal Palace. The Nieuwe Kerk is no used for church services but is used as an exhibition space. It is also used for organ recitals, there is a café in one of the buildings attached to the church that has an entrance to the church. There is a store inside the entrance that sells postcards, books. The investitures of Queen Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix also took place there, the Nieuwe Kerk is a burial site for Dutch naval heroes, including Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, Commodore Jan van Galen, and Jan van Speyk. The poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel is also buried in the church, after the Oude Kerk grew too small for the expanding population of the town, the bishop of Utrecht in 1408 gave permission to build a second parish church, the Nieuwe Kerk. This new church was consecrated to St. Mary and St. Catharine, the church was damaged by the city fires of 1421 and 1452 and burned down almost entirely in 1645, after which it was rebuilt in Gothic style. It underwent major renovation in 1892–1914, which added many neo-Gothic details, the second renovation proved expensive for the Dutch Reformed Church, forcing the church to be closed most of the time in order to save money on maintenance. To keep the open, ownership was transferred in 1979 to a newly formed cultural foundation called the Nationale Stichting De Nieuwe Kerk
27.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
28.
William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
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Wilhelm Ernst Karl Alexander Friedrich Heinrich Bernhard Albert Georg Hermann was the last Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. He was born in Weimar, the eldest son of Karl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, heir to the Grand Duke and he succeeded his grandfather Karl Alexander as Grand Duke on 5 January 1901, as his father had predeceased him. His heir was a distant cousin, Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, hermanns younger brother subsequently served as heir presumptive to the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach until the birth of William Ernests eldest son. Wilhelm Ernst created the new Weimar town center under the direction of Hans Olde, Henry van de Velde, also, he also had the University of Jena rebuilt by Theodor Fischer, and also reconstructed Weimars theatres. The improvements to the city included a statue of his predecessor Charles Alexander. It was placed in a designed by Brütt. The placement of the setting was designed to distinguish the old town from the built area. A preservation law for the old town barred it to the art nouveau-style which was used in the new area, according to the Dutch constitution, Wilhelm Ernst was in the line for the throne of the Netherlands after Queen Wilhelmina. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Dutch feared the possibility of German influence or even annexation of the Netherlands, in order to prevent this, some lawyers tried to change the constitution to exclude Wilhelm Ernst from the succession. Another proposal, however, was this, if Wilhelmina would die childless, the birth of Wilhelminas daughter Juliana in 1909 lessened the chance for any member of the house of Wettin to inherit the Dutch throne. With the amendment to the constitution of 1922, which restricted the right of succession to the offspring of Wilhelmina, on 9 November 1918 Wilhelm Ernst - along with the rest of the German monarchs following the defeat of Germany in World War I - was forced to abdicate. His throne and all his lands were relinquished and he fled with his family to the estate in Silesia. Despite all his work for Weimar during his government, Wilhelm Ernst was a hated ruler and this was for his private life, where he was known to be a sadist, the day of his abdication, he was called the most unpopular prince in all Germany. He died in Heinrichau in Silesia, in Bückeburg on 30 April 1903 Wilhelm Ernst married firstly with Princess Caroline Reuss of Greiz, a daughter of Prince Heinrich XXII Reuss of Greiz. This marriage was childless and ended in 1905 with the death of Caroline under mysterious circumstances, the official cause of death was pneumonia following influenza, other sources have suggested suicide. In Meiningen on 21 January 1910, Wilhelm Ernst married secondly with Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, daughter of Prince Friedrich Johann of Saxe-Meinigen
29.
Princess Marie Alexandrine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
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Princess Marie Alexandrine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the eldest daughter and second child of Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife Princess Sophie of the Netherlands. Through her mother, Marie was second-in-line to the Dutch throne after her nephew William Ernest, the birth of Juliana subsequently changed the succession. As a young girl, Marie and her cousin Princess Pauline were considered as possible brides for Albert Edward, nothing came of this however, as his mother Queen Victoria believed Maries teeth to be almost black, both girls were considered nice, but delicate and not pretty. The prince later married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, on 6 February 1876 in Weimar, Marie married Prince Heinrich VII Reuss of Köstritz. Wilhelmina married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1901, but the marriage remained childless until the birth of Princess Juliana in 1909, the succession issue became particularly important after Queen Wilhelmina suffered from an attack of typhoid in the early 1900s. Due to this fact, the heir to the Dutch throne would have become his aunt Marie followed by her eldest son Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz, Queen Wilhelmina suffered multiple miscarriages during her marriage, increasing speculation of the succession. The birth of Princess Juliana in 1909 put everyones fears to rest, Princess Marie died on 6 May 1922 in Trebschen. List of heirs to the Dutch throne
30.
HNLMS Gelderland (1898)
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HNLMS Gelderland was a Holland-class cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. During its career in the Dutch Navy it was most notable for being the ship Queen Wilhelmina sent to South Africa to rescue Paul Kruger during the Second Boer War, the ship was taken over by the Germans during World War II and renamed Niobe. She was sunk in Kotka harbour in Finland on 16 July 1944, the ship was built at the Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord in Rotterdam and launched on 28 September 1898. The ship was commissioned on 15 July 1900, on 22 November that year she arrived in Marseille with Paul Kruger who she had picked up in Lourenço Marques by order of the Dutch Government. After dropping Kruger off she left for the Dutch East Indies, during this trip while entering the harbor of Port Said she collided with the British steamer Peterson. The collision required the ship to be repaired at Suez, on 6 January 1901 she could resume her journey and arrived three days later on 9 January in Surabaya. On 6 July 1904 Gelderland and Utrecht both ran aground near Aroes Lampoejang, South Sumatra because of incomplete maps, the ships were repaired in Surabaya and Singapore respectively. On 17 June 1905 Gelderland and her sisters Noordbrabant and Utrecht returned to the Netherlands, the journey involved stops in Tanjung Priok Mahé, Perim, Port Said, Algiers and Tangier arriving at Den Helder on 30 August that year. In 1908 Gelderland, together with her sisters Friesland and Jacob van Heemskerck, was sent to patrol the Venezuelan coast during the second Castro crisis, on 17 June 1911 Gelderland left Rotterdam for England. On board was Prince Henry of the Netherlands who traveled to the United Kingdom to attend the coronation of George V, for the last part of the journey Gelderland was escorted by four British torpedo boats. Gelderland was sent to Constantinople on 11 November 1912 because of rising political tension, a landing party of 100 men was put ashore and took position in the legations section of the city on 18 November 1912. She was relieved by Kortenaer on 30 May 1913, while patrolling along the Dutch coast an explosion occurred on 14 March 1917, killing one man and severely wounding nine others. After returning to port the ship was out of service for maintenance. After World War I she served as a training ship in the Dutch navy. The ship was seized by the Germans during their invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 and she was in use between 1940 and 1944 first as a cruiser, then as a training ship, and finally as an anti-aircraft cruiser. During the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive of 1944 the Soviets tried to finish the Continuation War with the Finns, at the same time, the Soviet Union had put much emphasis on finding and sinking the Finnish coastal defence ship Väinämöinen. Soviet aerial reconnaissance identified a ship in Kotka harbour and the decision was taken to attack, with 132 bombers and fighters. The ship was, however, Niobe, and the aircraft were met with fierce resistance, an A-20 Havoc bomber was shot down, but the ship was hit and sank
31.
Paul Kruger
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Stephanus Johannes Paulus Paul Kruger was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Born near the edge of the Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek as a child during the late 1830s. He had almost no education apart from the Bible and, through his interpretations of scripture, in 1863 he was elected Commandant-General, a post he held for a decade before he resigned soon after the election of President Thomas François Burgers. Kruger was appointed Vice-President in 1877, shortly before the South African Republic was annexed by Britain as the Transvaal, Kruger served until 1883 as a member of an executive triumvirate, then was elected President. In 1884 he headed a deputation that brokered the London Convention. Kruger left for Europe as the war turned against the Boers in 1900 and spent the rest of his life in exile, refusing to return home following the British victory. After he died in Switzerland at the age of 78 in 1904, his body was returned to South Africa for a state funeral, the family was of Dutch-speaking Afrikaner or Boer background, of German, French Huguenot and Dutch stock. His paternal ancestors had been in South Africa since 1713, when Jacob Krüger, from Berlin and his mothers family, the Steyns, had lived in South Africa since 1668 and were relatively affluent and cultured by Cape standards. Krugers great-great-uncle Hermanus Steyn had been President of the self-declared Republic of Swellendam that revolted against Company rule in 1795, Bulhoek, Krugers birthplace, was the Steyn family farm and had been Elsies home since early childhood, her father Douw Gerbrand Steyn had settled there in 1809. The Krugers and Steyns were acquainted and Casper occasionally visited Bulhoek as a young man and he and Elsie married in Cradock in 1820, when he was 18 and she was 14. A girl, Sophia, and a boy, Douw Gerbrand, were born before Pauls arrival in 1825 and his mother died when he was eight, Casper soon remarried and had more children with his second wife, Heiletje. Beyond reading and writing, which he learned from relatives, Krugers only education was three months under a tutor, Tielman Roos, and Calvinist religious instruction from his father. In adulthood Kruger would claim to have never read any book apart from the Bible, in 1835 Casper Kruger, his father and his brothers Gert and Theuns moved their families east and set up farms near the Caledon River, on the Cape Colonys far north-eastern frontier. The Cape had been under British sovereignty since 1814, when the Netherlands ceded it to Britain with the Convention of London and they had given little thought to the idea of leaving the Cape. A group of emigrants under Hendrik Potgieter passed through the Krugers Caledon encampments in early 1836, Potgieter envisioned a Boer republic with himself in a prominent role, he sufficiently impressed the Krugers that they joined his party of Voortrekkers. Krugers father continued to give the religious education in the Boer fashion during the trek, having them recite or write down biblical passages from memory each day after lunch. At stops along the journey classrooms were improvised from reeds and grass, the Voortrekkers faced competition for the area they were entering from Mzilikazi and his Ndebele people, a recent offshoot from the Zulu Kingdom to the south-east. Kruger and the small children assisted in tasks such as bullet-casting while the women and larger boys helped the fighting men
32.
South African Republic
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The territory of the ZAR became known after this war as the Transvaal Colony. Constitutionally the name of the country was Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, many people also called the ZAR Transvaal, in reference to the area over the Vaal River including the British press and the press in Europe. In fact the name Transvaal was later so often used later the British objected to the use of the real name. The British pointed out that the Convention of Pretoria of 3 August 1881 referred to the Transvaal Territory and that the Transvaal and the South African Republic did not have the same boundaries. However, in the London Convention dated 27 February 1884, a subsequent treaty between Britain and the ZAR, Britain acquiesced and reverted to the use of the true name and this proclamation was issued during the Second Boer War and whilst the ZAR was still an independent country. On 20 May 1903 an Inter Colonial Council was established, to manage the colonies of the British Government, the name Transvaal was finally changed in 1994, when the ANC government broke up the Transvaal area and renamed the core to Gauteng. In paleolithic times, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years ago, hominids lived within the area of the ZAR. The earliest hominid bones, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years old, were discovered at Sterkfontein in 1994, in 1938 Paranthropus robustus bones were found at Kromdraai, and during 1947 several more examples of Australopithecus africanus were uncovered in Sterkfontein. The capital was established at Potchefstroom and later moved to Pretoria, the parliament was called the Volksraad and had 24 members. The South African Republic became fully independent on the 27 February 1884 when the London Convention was signed, the country independently also entered into various agreements with other foreign countries after that date. On 3 November 1884 the country signed a Postal convention with the government of the Cape Colony, on the November 1859 the independent Republic of Lijdenburg merged with the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. On 9 May 1887, burghers from the territories of Stellaland, on 25 July 1895 the burghers that took part in the battle at Zoutpansberg, were granted citizenship of the ZAR. The constitution of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek has been referred to as interesting for its time. It contained provisions for the division between the leadership and office bearers in government administration. The legal system consisted of higher and lower courts and had adopted a jury system, the laws were enforced by the South African Republic Police which were divided into Mounted Police and Foot Police. Also established was a Municipal Government, Witwatersrand District court and the High Court of Transvaal, initially the State and Church were not separated in the constitution of the ZAR, citizens of the ZAR had to be members of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1858 these clauses were altered in the constitution to allow for the Volksraad to approve other Dutch Christian churches. The Reformed Church was approved by the Volksraad in 1858, which had the effect of allowing Paul Kruger, the Bible itself was also often used to interpret the intention of legal documents
33.
Orange Free State
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It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province. In the northern part of the territory a Voortrekker Republic was established at Winburg in 1837 and this state was in federation with the Republic of Potchefstroom which later formed part of the South African Republic. The new republic incorporated the Orange River Sovereignty and included the traditions of the Winburg-Potchefstroom Republic and it ceased to exist as an independent Boer republic on 31 May 1902 with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Boer War. Following a period of rule by the British, it joined the Union of South Africa in 1910 as the Orange Free State Province, along with the Cape Province, Natal. In 1961, the Union of South Africa became the Republic of South Africa. The republics name derives partly from the Orange River, which in turn was named in honour of the Dutch ruling royal family, the official language in the Orange Free State was Dutch. Europeans first visited the north of the Orange River towards the close of the 18th century. At that time, the population was sparse, early in the 19th century Griquas established themselves north of the Orange. Between 1817 and 1831, the country was devastated by the chief Mzilikazi and his Matabele in the known as the Mfecane. Up to this time the few Europeans who had crossed the Orange had come mainly as hunters or as missionaries and they were followed in 1836 by the first parties of the Great Trek. These emigrants left the Cape Colony for various reasons, but all shared the desire to escape from British authority. When Boer families first reached the area discovered that it had been devastated by a section of the Zulu tribe under Mzilikazi and his people. The Matebele had swept the country, destroying the fields, carrying off the cattle, the Boers soon came into collision with Mzilikazis raiding parties, which attacked Boer hunters who crossed the Vaal River. Reprisals followed, and in November 1837 the Boers decisively defeated Mzilikazi, in the meantime another party of Cape Dutch emigrants had settled at Thaba Nchu, where the Wesleyans had a mission station for the Barolong. The emigrants were treated with kindness by Moroka II, the chief of that tribe. In December 1836 the emigrants beyond the Orange drew up in general assembly an elementary form of government. After the defeat of Mzilikazi the town of Winburg was founded, a Volksraad elected, the emigrants already numbered some 500 men, besides women and children and many servants. Dissensions speedily arose among the emigrants, whose numbers were added to
34.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
35.
Boer
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Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer. As used in South Africa, it was used to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century. For a long time the Dutch East India Company controlled this area, in addition the term was applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State, Transvaal, and to a lesser extent Natal. They left the Cape primarily to escape British rule and get away from the constant border wars between the British imperial government and the tribes on the eastern frontier. The Dutch East India Company had been formed in the Dutch Republic in 1602, in 1648 one of their ships was stranded in Table Bay, and the shipwrecked crew had to forage for themselves on shore for several months. The result was that in 1652, a Dutch expedition led by surgeon Jan van Riebeek constructed a fort, landing at Table Bay, Van Riebeek took control over Cape Town, the settlement developed during the previous 10 years. In 1671 the Dutch first purchased land from the native Khoikhoi beyond the limits of the built by Van Riebeek. They formed a class of a class of vrijlieden, also known as vrijburgers, a large number of vrijburgers became independent farmers and applied for grants of land, as well as loans of seed and tools, from the Company administration. Political refugees from the wars in France, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they were settled at Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Franschhoek. The influence of small body of immigrants on the character of the Dutch settlers was marked. The Company in 1701 directed that only Dutch should be taught in the schools and this resulted in the Huguenots assimilating by the middle of the 18th century, with a loss to the community in the use and knowledge of French. The little settlement gradually spread eastwards, and in 1754 the country as far as Algoa Bay was included in the colony, at this time the European colonists numbered eight to ten thousand. They possessed numerous slaves, grew wheat in sufficient quantity to make it a commodity crop for export, but their chief wealth was in cattle. Through the latter half of the 17th and the whole of the 18th century, the administration of the Dutch East India Company was extremely despotic. Its policies were not directed at development of the colony, the effect of this tyranny was inevitable, it drove men to desperation. They fled from oppression, and even before 1700 trekking began, in 1789, so strong had feeling amongst the burghers become that delegates were sent from the Cape to interview the authorities at Amsterdam. After this deputation, some reforms were granted. It was largely to escape oppression that the farmers trekked farther and farther from the seat of government, the company, to control the emigrants, established a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745 and another at Graaff Reinet in 1786
36.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
37.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
38.
Levee
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A levee, dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines, the word levee, from the French word levée, is used in American English. It originated in New Orleans a few years after the founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The name derives from the trait of the ridges being raised higher than both the channel and the surrounding floodplains. The modern word dike or dyke most likely derives from the Dutch word dijk, the 126 kilometres long Westfriese Omringdijk was completed by 1250, and was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler Tacitus even mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land, the word dijk originally indicated both the trench and the bank. It is closely related to the English verb to dig, in Anglo-Saxon, the word dic already existed and was pronounced as dick in northern England and as ditch in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the lie in digging a trench. This practice has meant that the name may be given to either the excavation or the bank, thus Offas Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, and in the United States, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a dike as in Rippingale Running Dike. The Weir Dike is a dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen. In the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, a dyke may be a ditch or a narrow artificial channel off a river or broad for access or mooring, some longer dykes being named. In parts of Britain, particularly Scotland, a dyke may be a field wall, Levees can be mainly found along the sea, where dunes are not strong enough, along rivers for protection against high-floods, along lakes or along polders. Furthermore, levees have been built for the purpose of empoldering, the latter can be a controlled inundation by the military or a measure to prevent inundation of a larger area surrounded by levees. Levees have also built as field boundaries and as military defences. More on this type of levee can be found in the article on dry-stone walls, Levees can be permanent earthworks or emergency constructions built hastily in a flood emergency. When such a bank is added on top of an existing levee it is known as a cradge
39.
Allies of World War I
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The Allies of World War I were the countries that opposed the Central Powers in the First World War. The members of the original Triple Entente of 1907 were the French Republic, the British Empire, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania were affiliated members of the Entente. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres defines the Principal Allied Powers as the British Empire, French Republic, Italy, the Allied Powers comprised, together with the Principal Allied Powers, Armenia, Belgium, Greece, Hejaz, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Slovene state and Czechoslovakia. The U. S. declaration of war on Germany, on 6th April 1917 was on the grounds that Germany had violated its neutrality by attacking international shipping and it declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. The U. S. entered the war as a power, rather than as a formal ally of France. Although the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria severed relations with the United States, the Dominion governments did control recruiting, and removed personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit. From early 1917, the War Cabinet was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, in April 1918, operational control of all Entente forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Ferdinand Foch of France. The Austrian Empire followed with an attack on the Serbian ally Montenegro on 8 August, on the Western Front, the two neutral States of Belgium and Luxembourg were immediately occupied by German troops as part of the German Schlieffen Plan. On 23 August Japan joined the Entente, which then counted seven members, the entrance of the British Empire brought Nepal into the war. In 1916, Montenegro capitulated and left the Entente, and two nations joined, Portugal and Romania, on 6 April 1917, the United States entered the war. Liberia, Siam and Greece also became allies and this was followed by Romanian cessation of hostilities, however the Balkan State declared war on Central Powers again on 10 November 1918. In response to the Germans invasion of neutral Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, gibraltar, Cyprus and Malta were British dependencies in Europe. The UK held several colonies, protectorates, and semi-autonomous dependencies at the time of World War I, in Eastern Africa the East Africa Protectorate, Nyasaland, both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Uganda Protectorate, were involved in conflict with German forces in German East Africa. In Western Africa, the colonies of Gold Coast and Nigeria were involved in actions against German forces from Togoland. In Southwestern Africa, the dominion of South Africa was involved in military actions against German forces in German South-West Africa. Canada and Newfoundland were two autonomous dominions during the war that made major contributions to the British war effort. Other British dependent territories in the Americas included, British Honduras, the Falkland Islands, British Guiana, and Jamaica. The UK held large possessions in Asia, including the Indian Empire which was an assortment of British imperial authorities in the territory now defined as India, Bangladesh, Burma, australia and New Zealand were two autonomous dominions of the UK in Oceania during the war
40.
Zaltbommel
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Zaltbommel is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. Zaltbommel was expanded to its current size on 1 January 1999, by a merger of the municipalities of Brakel, Kerkwijk and Zaltbommel. The municipality is situated in the heart of the Netherlands, close to the A2 Motorway, the line from Utrecht to s‑Hertogenbosch. Dutch Topographic map of Zaltbommel, Sept.2014 The municipality, the town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as Bomela in the year 850. Zaltbommel received city rights in 1231 and these were renewed in 1316
41.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
42.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
listen); Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948.
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Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross and Grand Master of the Military William Order[22][23][24][25][26]
Belgium:
Brazil: Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
Czechoslovakia: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Lion
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant[37][38][39]
Ethiopia: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Solomon
Finland: Collar with Star of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Guatemala: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
Luxembourg:
Norway: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav[40]
Peru: Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Poland: Knight of the Order of the White Eagle[41]
Romanian Royal Family: Grand Collar of the Order of Carol I
Spanish Royal Family:
Sweden: Member of the Order of the Seraphim
United Kingdom:
