Princess Margriet of the Netherlands: Difference between revisions

Princess Margriet File:Prinses-margriet-okt-15-s.jpg Princess Margriet in 2015 Born (1943-01-19) 19 January 1943 (age 81) Ottawa Civic Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Extraterritorial) Spouse Pieter van Vollenhoven ​ ​ (m. 1967)​ Issue Prince Maurits Prince Bernhard Prince Pieter-Christiaan Prince Floris Names Margriet Francisca House Orange-Nassau Father Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld Mother Juliana of the Netherlands Religion Protestant Church in the Netherlands

Dutch royal family House of Orange-Nassau The King * The Queen * The Princess of Orange * Princess Alexia * Princess Ariane * Princess Beatrix * Princess Mabel Countess Luana Countess Zaria Prince Constantijn * Princess Laurentien * Countess Eloise Count Claus-Casimir Countess Leonore Extended family Princess Irene Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme Princess Annemarie de Bourbon de Parme Prince Hugo de Bourbon de Parme Princess Luisa de Bourbon de Parme Princess Cecilia de Bourbon de Parme Prince Carlos Enrique de Bourbon de Parme Princess Margarita de Bourbon de Parme Mr Tjalling ten Cate Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme Princess Viktória de Bourbon de Parme Princess Zita de Bourbon de Parme Princess Gloria de Bourbon de Parme Princess Carolina de Bourbon de Parme Mr Albert Brenninkmeijer Princess Margriet * Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven * Prince Maurits Princess Marilène Prince Bernhard Princess Annette Prince Pieter-Christiaan Princess Anita Prince Floris Princess Aimée Mr Bernardo Guillermo Mrs Eva Guillermo Mr Nicolás Guillermo Miss Juliana Guillermo * Member of the Dutch royal house v t e

Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (Margriet Francisca; born 19 January 1943) is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. As an aunt of the reigning monarch, King Willem-Alexander, she is a member of the Dutch Royal House and currently eighth and last in the line of succession to the Dutch throne.^[1]

Princess Margriet has often represented the monarch at official or semi-official events. Some of these functions have taken her back to Canada, the country where she was born de facto, and to events organised by the Dutch merchant navy of which she is a patron.

The Princess was born in The Ottawa Hospital,^[2] Ottawa, Ontario, as the family had been living in Canada since June 1940 after the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany. The maternity ward of Ottawa Civic Hospital in which Princess Margriet was born was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government.^[3][4] Making the maternity ward outside of the Canadian domain caused it to be unaffiliated with any jurisdiction and technically international territory. This was done to ensure that the newborn would derive her citizenship from her mother only, thus making her solely Dutch, which could be very important in the case that the child would have been a male, and as such, the heir of Princess Juliana.

It is a common misconception that the Canadian government declared the maternity ward to be Dutch territory. Since Dutch nationality law is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis it was not necessary to make the ward Dutch territory for the Princess to become a Dutch citizen. Since Canada followed the rule of jus soli, it was necessary for Canada to disclaim the territory temporarily so that the child would not become a Canadian citizen.

She was named after the marguerite, the flower worn during the war as a symbol of the resistance to Nazi Germany. (See also the book When Canada Was Home, the Story of Dutch Princess Margriet, by Albert VanderMey.)

Princess Margriet was christened at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, on 29 June 1943. Her godparents included Franklin D. Roosevelt (President of the United States), Mary of Teck (Queen dowager of the United Kingdom), Princess Märtha of Sweden (Crown Princess of Norway), and Martine Roell (lady-in-waiting to Princess Juliana in Canada).^[5]

It was not until August 1945, when the Netherlands had been liberated, that Princess Margriet first set foot on Dutch soil. Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard returned to Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, where the family had lived before the war.

It was while she was studying at Leiden University that Princess Margriet met her future husband, Pieter van Vollenhoven. Their engagement was announced on 10 March 1965, and they were married on 10 January 1967 in The Hague, in the St. James Church.^[6] It was decreed that any children from the marriage would be styled HH Prince/Princess of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven, titles that would not be held by their descendants. Together, they had four children: Princes Maurits (born 17 April 1968), Bernhard (born 25 December 1969), Pieter-Christiaan (born 22 March 1972), and Floris (born 10 April 1975).

The Princess and her husband took up residence in the right wing of Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn. In 1975 the family moved to their present home, Het Loo, which they had built on the Palace grounds.

Princess Margriet is particularly interested in health care and cultural causes. From 1987 to 2011 she was vice-president of the Netherlands Red Cross, who set up the Princess Margriet Fund in her honour. She is a member of the board of the International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

From 1984 to 2007, Princess Margriet was president of the European Cultural Foundation, who set up the Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity in acknowledgement of her work.

She is a member of the honorary board of the International Paralympic Committee. ^[7]

• 19 January 1943 – 10 January 1967: Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld^[8]
• 10 January 1967 – present: Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Mrs Van Vollenhoven

• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the House of Orange
• Royal Wedding Medal 1966 (10 March 1966)
• Queen Beatrix Investiture Medal (30 April 1980)
• Royal Wedding Medal 2002 (2 February 2002)
• King Willem-Alexander Investiture Medal (30 April 2013)

Here are her honours (according to this site, mark °) :

•  Belgium: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown °
•  Cameroon: Grand Cross of Order of Merit °
•  Chile: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit ° ^[9]
•  Germany: Grand Cross First class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany °
•  Finland: Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose^[10] °
•  France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour °
•  Italy: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic °^[11]
•  Ivory Coast: Grand Cross of the National Order °
•  Japan: Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown °
•  Jordan: Knight Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance^[12][13]
•  Luxembourg: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau^[14] °
•  Luxembourg: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown^[15] °
•  Luxembourg: Commemorative Medal of the marriage of TRH Prince Henri and Princess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg °
•  Norway: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav °
•  Mexico: Grand Cross of the Order of the Aztec Eagle °
•  Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Christ °
• Romania: Grand Cross of the Order of 23 August °
•  Senegal: Grand Cross of the National Order of the Lion °
•  Spain : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic °^[16][17]
•  Suriname: Grand Cross of the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star °
•  Venezuela: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Liberator °
•  Sweden: Member Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star °

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Margriet of the Netherlands.

• Royal House of the Netherlands (Dutch)
• CBC Archives – A look at Princess Margriet's birth in Ottawa (from 1992).