April 30, 1909 - March 20, 2004
Princess Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Princess van Oranje-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg was born at 6:50 in the morning at Palace Noordeinde in The Hague on April 30, 1909. The little princess was named after her ancestor Countess Juliana zu Stolberg (1506-1580), mother of Prince Willem of Orange. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and the former Duke Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin who called her their "Princess Sunshine". She was christened in the Willems Church in The Hague on June 5, 1909. The little princess is soon taken to official visits by her parents. Contacts with other children were not denied to her, but were mainly staged. In 1915 on advice of educational expert Ligthart Queen Wilhelmina founded a palace school in which Princess Juliana had her lessons together with three other children: Elisabeth van Hardenberg, Elise Bentinck and Miek de Jonge. After five years of primary school, Princess Juliana continued her education by receiving private lessons on gymnasium level.
On April 30, 1927 Princess Juliana came of age and from that moment she would be able to take over her mother's task if necessary. Two days after her 18th birthday the Princess was installed in the State Council. In the early spring of 1927 Princess Juliana decided that she wanted to study law in Leiden and finally, with support of her grandmother Queen Mother Emma and her father Prince Hendrik, her mother agreed. In September 1927 she moved into a house in Katwijk together with some friends. She also became a member of the Society for Female Students in Leiden, in which she was actively involved. She studied in Leiden for more than two years. The choice of subjects was varying. She had lessons of professors who prepared her for her future role, but she also followed subjects she found interesting herself like literature and religion. On January 31, 1930 she finished her studies and the University of Leiden decided to give her an honorary degree in literature and philosophy (she couldn't graduate as she didn't have a diploma of secondary school).
The Princess got her own secretariate at the Palace on the Kneuterdijk in The Hague. She more and more represented the Royal House at official events. The country was in crisis and in 1930 Princess Juliana became the honorary chairwoman of the Crisis Committee, which she stayed until the end in May 1936. She even worked at their office for a few months. In the early 1930s she also undertook some foreign travels among others to England. In 1934 a tragedy struck the royal family. On March 20 Queen Mother Emma died (coincidentally exactly 70 years before Princess Juliana died), and on July 3 also her father Prince Hendrik suddenly died. Princess Juliana Succeeded her father as president of the Dutch Red Cross, while she also took over many of the social slanted good works of her grandmother.
Now the royal family only existed of two persons, the survival of the dynasty was in danger There were already rumours since the time the princess was still very young. In 1922 Prince Rupert of Teck, son of the Earl and Countess of Athlone, already was mentioned as a good candidate, in November 1926 the name of Prince Charles of Belgium showed up in the press. Also Prince Carl of Sweden was regarded a huge candidate. Unexpectedly, on September 8, 1936, the engagement of Princess Juliana with Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld was announced. The couple had met during the Olympic Wintergames in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in February 1936. In May 1936 the Prince first came to the Netherlands, and in the Summer of 1936 they met in Switzerland. On January 7, 1937 - the anniversary of the wedding of King Willem III of the Netherlands and Princess Emma zu Waldeck und Pyrmont in 1879 - the couple married at the Grote or St Jacobs Church in The Hague.
The newly-wed couple went on a three-month honeymoon and when they finally returned they started to live at Palace Soestdijk. Their first daughter, Beatrix, was born on January 31, 1938. Princess Irene followed on August 5, 1939. The threat of the war overshadowed life and because of security reasons the princely couple mainly stayed in The Hague. On May 12, 1940, two days after the German occupation had started, Princess Juliana and her two daughters fled to England together with Mrs Roëll and her daughter Renée. After a month they travelled further to Canada, but before Princess Irene was christened at the chapel of Buckingham Palace. Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Bernhard stayed in London and travelled to the family in Ottawa, Canada, a few times. From Canada the Princess undertook several travels to Suriname and the Dutch Antilles. On January 19, 1943, Princess Margriet was born. Although the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, and Princess Juliana had already visited The Netherlands soon afterwards, she and her children only returned officially on August 2, 1945. During the first time after the war Princess Juliana helped in several aid projects for the Dutch people, and in the Spring of 1946 she and Prince Bernhard visited several countries that had meant a lot for the Netherlands during the German occupation. On February 18, 1947, the last daughter Christina (until 1963 Marijke) was born.
Princess Juliana was a regent for her mother from October 14 to December 1, 1947, and from May 14 to August 30, 1948. After the abdication of her mother, Queen Wilhelmina (who died in November 1962), on September 4, 1948 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam Princess Juliana officially became the new Queen of the Netherlands. She was inaugurated at the New Church in Amsterdam on September 6, 1948. In her speech she said: "Who am I that I may do this?" which clearly shows that she looked up to her new status. During the first years of her reign one of the biggest political issues was the Indonesian question. In 1949 she signed the sovereignty transfer of Indonesia. In 1975 also Suriname became an independent country. Queen Juliana was an advocate for international co-operation and European unificiation. Her interest in social problems also stayed obvious.
In 1948 Queen Juliana simplified the court protocol drastically and even insisted on being called Mrs. instead of Royal Highness, which was quite a revolution in court circles at that time. During all of her life Queen Juliana has continued disliking the protocol. She liked to go her own way and she wanted to decide herself who could inform her the best about something. She hated security people who wanted to keep members of the public away from her. She also didn't want to be carped at. In an interview in 1987 she said that if she hadn't been a Queen she had wanted to be a social worker.
During her reign a few affairs occured. Princess Marijke was born being almost blind. In 1956 via a friend of Prince Bernhard Queen Juliana meets prayer-healer Greet Hofmans, who is hired to try to heal Princess Marijke's eyes. In the affair that followed Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard were diametrically oppossed to each other as the Prince finds that Mrs Hofmans has too much influence on his wife and that she is not able to cure his daughter. The affair ended in a victory for Prince Bernhard. During the Lockheed affair in 1976 Queen Juliana firmly supported her husband Prince Bernhard and managed to curtail the consequences of the affair and to avoid a judicial inquiry into the case. Also the weddings of the four daughters of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard were somewhat conversial.
Queen Juliana abdicated at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam on April 30, 1980, after having announced her step back already on January 31, 1980. Standing on the balcony of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam she said to her people: "I herewith introduce you to Beatrix, your new Queen". The decision to abdicate had been a difficult one as the aversion against her job had been long gone. After the abdication Queen Juliana became Princess Juliana again. Queen Beatrix decided to keep April 30 as the day Queen's Day is celebrated, although in a different way. During the reign of Queen Juliana each year a flower march-past along the steps of Palace Soestdijk, since Queen Beatrix herself visits places in the country together with her family.
After her abdication Princess Juliana became an honorary chairwoman of the National Committee International Year of the Disabled 1981. She also kept on visiting institutions of social care. From the early 1990s Princess Juliana slowly took part in public events less. On May 30, 1998, Princess Juliana appeared in public for the last time, at the wedding of her grandson Prince Maurits with Marilène van den Broek. In a letter dated February 23, 1999, Princess Juliana let know that she wasn't able anymore to accept official invitations because of her old age. Afterwards only a few photos of her were published, mainly by gossip magazines. In 2001 in an interview on the occasion of his 90th birthday her husband Prince Bernhard revealed that after a fall in which she broke her hip his wife's memory had become worse and that the last time she had been really well had been at the vacation they spent with their children and grandchildren in Africa on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary in 1997.
Princess Juliana was the longest living person in the long history of the Oranje-Nassau dynasty. She is survived by her husband, her four daughters, 14 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren (while two more are on the way).
Thanks to Oscar for sharing his information with me