WILHELMINA

Wilhelmina: translation

(1880–1962)

Queen of the Netherlands. She suc ceeded her father, King William III, in 1890; during her minority un til 1898, her mother, Queen Emma, was regent. During the British blockade of South Africa around 1900, Wilhelmina won international respect when she ordered a Dutch Navyship to evacuate Paul Kruger (1825–1904), the defeated president of the Transvaal. She married Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1876–1934) in 1901, and they had one daughter, Juliana, in 1909. Wilhelmina had a strong personality. She succeeded in raising the prestige of the monarchyduring World War I and especially World War II, when the queen and the Dutch government lived in exile in London. The Dutch people could hear her stimulating voice on Radio Orange during this war. The decolo nization of Indonesia was a bitter pill for her to swallow. She abdi cated in favor of her daughter in 1948 and thereafter lived in the Het Loo palace, near Apeldoorn. In 1959, she published her autobiogra phy, Eenzaam maar niet alleen [Lonely but Not Alone].