#House of Orange Nassau

[royalbloopers]

[roehenstart]

Willem Frederik of Orange-Nassau, later King Willem I of the Netherlands (1772-1843). Unknown artist.

[andiatas]

Queen Lovisa of Sweden as a princess, copy of original by Nicaise de Keyser (oil on canvas, original 1850)

The future Queen Lovisa is depicted on a terrace with roses and ivy. She wears a white dress with delicate lace.

The portrait is regarded as being highly flattering, and as a future queen she had all the qualities the royal court was looking for. She was a Protestant and politically suitable, and came from a wealthy family.

The painting was produced by an unknown copyist, based on an original by the Belgian painter Nicaise de Keyser.

The portrait can be seen in the Bernadotte Gallery at the Royal Palace of Stockholm.

Photo: royalpalaces.se

[w-m-pitt]

Long Live our King-Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, By the Grace of God, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg, Marquis of Veere and Flushing, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Vianden, Diez, Spiegelberg, Buren, Leerdam and Culemborg, Burgrave of Antwerp, Baron of Breda, Diest, Beilstein, the town of Grave and the lands of Cuyk, IJsselstein, Cranendonk, Eindhoven, Liesveld, Herstal, Warneton, Arlay and Nozeroy, Hereditary and Free Lord of Ameland, Lord of Borculo, Bredevoort, Lichtenvoorde, Het Loo, Geertruidenberg, Clundert, Zevenbergen, Hooge and Lage Zwaluwe, Naaldwijk, Polanen, St Maartensdijk, Soest, Baarn, Ter Eem, Willemstad, Steenbergen, Montfort, St Vith, Bütgenbach, Dasburg, Niervaart, Turnhout and Besançon! 🇳🇱

[dreamconsumer]

King William III and HM Queen Emma of the Netherlands.

[royalbloopers]

Wait for it….

King Willem-Alexander: “What is a scrub?”

Princess Amalia: “You live with four women in the house and you don't know what a scrub is?”

🎥 Rick Evers

[venicepearl]

Louise Henriette of Nassau (7 December 1627 – 18 June 1667) was a Countess of Nassau, granddaughter of William I, Prince of Orange, "William the Silent", and an Electress of Brandenburg.

[classic-art-favourites]

Willem II, Prince of Orange and His Bride Mary Stuart by Anthony van Dyck, 1641.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Gerard van Honthorst (Dutch, 1592-1656) Allegory of the marriage of William Frederick of Orange-Nassau and Amalia von Solms, n.d.

[royalty-nobility]

Portrait of Maria of Orange (1642-1688), with Hendrik van Nassau-Zuylestein (d. 1673) and a Servant

Artist: Jan Mijtens (Dutch, 1614-1670)

Date: c. 1665

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Description

This is Princess Maria of Orange with her nephew Hendrik to the left and a second boy to the right. His name is unknown. He was one of the black servants at the court and was presumably brought to the Dutch Republic as a young boy by the WIC – as a present for the princess.

Maria was the seventh and youngest daughter of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik and Amalia van Solms. Mijtens portrayed her shortly before her marriage. The wedding was celebrated in Cleves, at the residence of her favourite uncle Johan Maurits.

[krasivaa]

Hi! Top 3 fav tiaras? Luving u ssm by the way ♡♡

Hii lovely!! Thank you so much for your precious compliment and the question🩵

I love literally everything royalty-related, including tiaras, of course-but here are some of my favorites.

Yusupov lover’s knot tiara

In the second picture, you can see Princess Tatiana Alexandrovna Yusupova wearing it.

Queen Maxima’s starry wedding tiara

In the pictures you can see Queen Maxima of The Netherlands wearing it.

The Mellerio Shell tiara

In the second pucture you can see Queen Letizia of Spain wearing it.

[royalbloopers]

[roehenstart]

William I of the Netherlands. By Jan Baptist van der Hulst.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Princess Catharina-Amalia (born 7 December 2003) is the heir to the Dutch throne and is the eldest of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima’s three daughters.

Unusually, the monarchy in The Netherlands has been predominantly female-led, with three Queens reigning in succession from 1890-2013, when Catharina-Amalia’s father became King, so she’s in good company historically.

Unlike her parents who have committed a handful of regrettable gaffes (including going on holiday to Greece during a Covid-19 lockdown), Catharina-Amalia seems to have her finger on the pulse of the nation.

Case in point:

She rejected her rights to a yearly royal allowance when she turned 18, ostensibly because as a student (she’s studying politics, psychology, law, and economics at the University of Amsterdam), she’s not a “working” royal but also because it felt wrong during a cost of living crisis.

Much like Prince William here, the Princess is keen to have a normal university experience and lived in shared housing with other students until she was threatened with kidnap by a criminal gang.

She also attended a public primary school and even worked in a beach bar in The Hague during her summer break.

Like many Gen Z-ers, she has spoken candidly about mental health, revealing she sometimes sees a therapist, and while making no direct comments about it, she was the focus of new legislation that means LGBTQIA+ royals would be able to marry anyone they chose without forfeiting their right to the throne.

The House of Orange is in need of good PR, as its popularity rankings have dropped in recent years, with Catharina-Amalia hopefully just the fresh face it needs.

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium

Princess Elisabeth (born 25 October 2001) will make history when she ascends to the throne as the country’s first Queen Regnant.

A decade before her birth, the primogeniture was altered to allow for female succession, and she will be the first monarch to benefit.

Had it not been changed, her younger brother, Prince Gabriel, would have been the next King.

The 22-year-old is the eldest daughter of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. She has a second younger brother, Prince Emmanuel.

She spent her formative years in Brussels, before attending “Hippie Hogwarts,” UWC Atlantic College in Wales.

After completing her education, she undertook a year of military training at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, following in the footsteps of other heirs to the throne.

She’s now studying at Lincoln’s College at Oxford University, where she has competed in the rowing team.

She’s a confident public speaker, having had lots of practice: her first speech was at the age of nine when she opened a children’s hospital named in her honour.

She’s also becoming increasingly recognised for her fashion choices, with reports of the “Elisabeth” effect in Belgium, where her fans rush out to buy what she’s wearing, drawing comparisons to our very own Princess of Wales.

In recent years, Belgium, like many other Western nations, has had to confront its colonial past.

How the Princess decides to acknowledge and apologise for Belgium’s part remains to be seen, but will be vital for how she’s viewed both at home and on the world stage.

Princess Leonor of Spain

The world has been gripped by so-called “Leonormania” in recent weeks, after the heir to the Spanish throne turned 18.

The eldest of King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s two daughters, Princess Leonor (born 31 October 2005) is fast-becoming a national obsession, with her every fashion choice (and potential boyfriend) documented and dissected.

Her rising public profile is in contrast to her closely guarded childhood, during which she made very few public appearances.

After attending primary school in Barcelona, she moved to Wales to complete her education at UWC Atlantic (the same school as Princess Elisabeth of Belgium), where she graduated earlier this year.

She is now enrolled in a military academy undergoing officer training, which will last for three years.

Ahead of her 18th birthday, she presented her inaugural Princess of Asturias Awards, managing to appear decidedly unstarstuck when meeting Hollywood icon Meryl Streep and Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

Much like her father, Leonor will be keen to distance herself from the fiscal scandals of her grandfather, the ex-King Juan Carlos, which also implicated her aunt and uncle, and have played out telenovela-style in Spain over the last decade.

She will do well instead to emulate her mother and grandmother, the beloved Queen Sofia, whose chic style she has already clearly inherited.

In terms of politics, one issue she may have to face head on is the rise of Catalan separatism – an issue that her father made a rare public statement against in 2020 – and which he has been widely criticised on.

Princess Victoria of Sweden (and Princess Estelle)

The 46-year-old Princess Victoria (born 14 July 1977) is another European royal who has benefitted from the modernisation of primogeniture.

In fact, she was second-in-line to the Swedish throne at birth and leapfrogged over her younger brother, Prince Carl Philip, upon the change in the constitution.

It caused something of a controversy at the time, as her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, objected to the change – not because he didn’t want women to succeed but because of his sympathy towards his son, who was suddenly stripped of his Crown Prince status.

In Sweden, the monarch has even less of a role in public life than in the UK, and as such, King Carl XVI Gustaf has largely kept out of the spotlight.

However, similar to other royals of her generation, Victoria has been more candid about her personal life. She was open about her struggles with anorexia in the 1990s.

Speaking about her experience in 2002, she said:

“I, Victoria, didn’t exist. It felt like everything in my life and around me was controlled by others. The one thing I could control was the food I put in me.”

She leapt to the defence of her now-husband, personal trainer Daniel Westering, when the couple’s early relationship came under close scrutiny.

Princess Victoria’s 11-year-old daughter, Princess Estelle (born 23 February 2012), is next in line to the throne after her mother.

She has similarly benefitted from the change in the law, as she has a younger brother, Prince Oscar.

Commentary in the Swedish press questioned the appropriateness of their match, something which Victoria spoke out against.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Family tree of the Royal House of Orange-Nassau

Dutch vintage postcard

[dreamconsumer]

Prince Floris of Orange-Nassau. By Jeroen van der Meyde.

He is the youngest son of Princess Margrethe of the Netherlands and Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven. He is a cousin of the current king, Willem-Alexander.