wilhelmina
Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Queen Wilhelmina – Becoming Queen

Princess Wilhelmina has last seen her father on 25 September 1890. She wrote in her memoirs, “Although during the last few months his suffering was such that I could no longer visit him, this period left a deep mark on my life. The atmosphere at The Loo was dominated by his illness. Everything became strained. [read more]

Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Queen Wilhelmina – The first miscarriage

With Wilhelmina’s marriage to Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 7 February 1901, she and her mother both fervently prayed for healthy children to continue their line. Tragically, Wilhelmina would go on to suffer five miscarriages and only one healthy child was born to Wilhelmina and Henry. At the end of August 1901, the first signs of [read more]

prinsjesdag
Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Queen Wilhelmina – Her first speech from the throne

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands’ first official act after all the inauguration celebrations was her speech from the throne on Prinsjesdag (Literal translation: Little Prince’s Day) on 20 September 1898. During Queen Wilhelmina’s minority, her mother had handled the speech from the throne. Queen Wilhelmina had attended the 1897 speech from the throne with her [read more]

wilhelmina
Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

The Inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina

Just six days after her 18th birthday, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands walked from the Royal Palace in Amsterdam to the adjacent New Church to have her inauguration as Queen of the Netherlands. She had succeeded her father as a girl of 10, and for eight years, her mother had served as regent – now [read more]

emma wilhelmina
Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Queen Wilhelmina – Happy Princess’s day!

These days the Netherlands celebrates King’s Day but the traditional birthday celebrations for the monarch actually began (again) with Queen Wilhelmina, when she was just a Princess. Princess Wilhelmina’s father King William III was not quite the popular monarch he perhaps hoped to be, but his adorable four-year-old daughter and future Queen was very popular. [read more]