Date of Birth: 31 August 1880
House: Orange-Nassau
Spouse(s): Henry, son of Frederick Francis II, grand duke of Mekclenburg-Schwerin, and Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Predecessor: William III
Reign: 1890 – 1948
Brief: Born late in the life of King William III, Wilhelmina was kept close to her parents during her childhood. She became heir to the throne in 1884 when her brother died. When King William died in 1890, Queen Emma was proclaimed regent for her ten-year-old daughter. She took direct control of the government in 1898 and married three years later to a German prince. With her husband, Wilhelmina only produced a daughter, Juliana, in 1909. During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral but Wilhelmina was constantly on her guard, inspecting her troops in case they were called upon. The queen stopped a communist take-over of her government in 1917 simply through her charisma. After the war, she provided asylum for the deposed German emperor Wilhelm II. When World War II broke out and Germany invaded the Netherlands, the royal family fled to the United Kingdom, though the queen wished to remain in the Netherlands to increase morale for the resistance. During the war, she sent secret radio messages to her people in the Netherlands, overthrew her own government-in-exile which was trying to negotiate a separate peace with the Nazis, and addressed the US Congress. For her services, she was inducted into the British Order of the Garter, with Churchhill calling her "the only real man" among the many governments-in-exile in London. The queen returned home but abdicated to her daughter in 1948 due to failing health and disappointment over the return of pre-war politics to the Netherlands. She died fourteen years later at her palace in Het Loo.
Brief: Born late in the life of King William III, Wilhelmina was kept close to her parents during her childhood. She became heir to the throne in 1884 when her brother died. When King William died in 1890, Queen Emma was proclaimed regent for her ten-year-old daughter. She took direct control of the government in 1898 and married three years later to a German prince. With her husband, Wilhelmina only produced a daughter, Juliana, in 1909. During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral but Wilhelmina was constantly on her guard, inspecting her troops in case they were called upon. The queen stopped a communist take-over of her government in 1917 simply through her charisma. After the war, she provided asylum for the deposed German emperor Wilhelm II. When World War II broke out and Germany invaded the Netherlands, the royal family fled to the United Kingdom, though the queen wished to remain in the Netherlands to increase morale for the resistance. During the war, she sent secret radio messages to her people in the Netherlands, overthrew her own government-in-exile which was trying to negotiate a separate peace with the Nazis, and addressed the US Congress. For her services, she was inducted into the British Order of the Garter, with Churchhill calling her "the only real man" among the many governments-in-exile in London. The queen returned home but abdicated to her daughter in 1948 due to failing health and disappointment over the return of pre-war politics to the Netherlands. She died fourteen years later at her palace in Het Loo.
Date of Death: 28 November 1962
Successor: Juliana
Other Monarchs Who Died Today:
Successor: Juliana
Other Monarchs Who Died Today:
- St. Gregory III, pope of Rome (741)
- Owain, king of Gwynedd (1107)
- Naungdawgyi, king of Burma (1763)
- Mubarak al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait (1915)
- Constantine VI, patriarch of Constantinople (1930)
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