Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld [1] ( Baarn , January 31 1938 ) was from April 30, 1980 until April 30, 2013 Queen of the Netherlands . [2] She is the eldest child of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard and since 2002 the widow of Prince Claus .

Content
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 * 1 Birth and baptism
 * 2 Years and Youth Study
 * 3 "My own people"
 * 4 Engagement and marriage
 * 5 offspring
 * 6 Preparing for the throne
 * 7 Inauguration
 * 8 Kingship
 * 9 Income
 * 10 State Visits
 * 11 Prince Claus
 * 12 Honorary Doctorate University of Leiden
 * 13 25-year reign
 * 14 70th and 75th birthday
 * 15 Controversies
 * 15.1 Bilderberg Conference
 * 15.2 Issue Jorge Zorreguieta
 * 15.3 Margarita affair
 * 15.4 Mabel Gate
 * 16 Book Fasseur and Greet Hofmans affair
 * 17 Touch Apeldoorn
 * 18 Speech from the Throne
 * 19 Abdication
 * 20 Personal Titles
 * 21 Awards
 * 22 Knightly orders
 * 23 Functions and positions held
 * 24 Genealogy
 * 25 Know
 * 26 Bibliography
 * 27 See also
 * 28 External link

Birth and baptism
Half June 1937 Juliana made ​​during a brief radio address from Soestdijk Palace in Baarn her first pregnancy public. After a festive reception in Amsterdam said the Crown Princess in thanking the Amsterdam bourgeoisie that: "Never had anything I can keep to deal with all parts of the program, it was not - self gratifying - was for health reasons, you certainly want to understand and justify. " [3] [4] [5]

Beatrix with her mother

The pregnancy went smoothly, but not without worry. End of November 1937 Bernhard bumped into a car near Diemen at high speed on a vehicle laden with sand. [6] He walked include a fractured skull and severe concussion. The pregnant Juliana moved into the hospital. Just after New Year were the parents back to their home address Soestdijk Palace. [7] [8]

On Monday morning, January 31, 1938 saw Beatrix at Soestdijk Palace born. Through official bulletins circulated that was born to 09:47 hours "a good daughter." [9] The next day, at Soestdijk Palace done by the father reported the birth, in the presence of Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn . [10]

On this occasion the official names were announced: The official nickname was Beatrix. Prince Bernhard said that the focus really should be on the a, but that he had decided to focus, in accordance with the practices, to impose the email. [11] The informal nickname was eventually Trix.
 * Beatrix (she who makes you happy).
 * Wilhelmina, to Queen Wilhelmina, maternal grandmother.
 * Armgard, to princess Armgard, paternal grandmother.

The naming ceremony took place on May 12, 1938 in the Great or St. James' Church in The Hague . [12] The infant wore a christening gown from 1880, where previously her grandmother and mother were baptized. The service was conducted by Reverend EHBlaauwenbaard from Baarn . The 88-year-old former chaplain Reverend WL Welterbaptized the princess. The whole was broadcast live on the radio. As official sponsors were present: King Leopold III of Belgium, the British Princess Alice of Albany (a cousin of Queen Wilhelmina), Queen Elisabeth of Erbach-Schönberg (an aunt of Queen Wilhelmina), Allene Countess Kotzebue (a good friend of the mother Prince Bernhard) and Duke Adolf of Mecklenburg (an uncle of Princess Juliana).

Beatrix has the Dutch nationality. Through its direct lineage of Princess Sophia of Hanover she is also a British citizen from birth. According to Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 are all descendants of Princess Sophia automatically British nationals, provided that at birth the parents were legally married to each other. [13] A British court has to confirm the citizenship, is to be able to call on. Beatrix above must submit an application, which it has not done so far. [14]

Childhood years and study
Beatrix has three sisters: Irene (1939), Marguerite (1943) and Christina (1947), as well as two half-sisters: Alicia de Bielefeld (1952) and Alexia Grinda (1967).

Two and a half years after her birth fell on May 10, 1940 the Germans Netherlands and within the country was involved in the Second World War . With her ​​grandmother Queen Wilhelmina, her parents and sister Irene fled Beatrix after several days by boat to England . In June, she traveled with her ​​mother and Irene to Canada, where they spent the rest of the war. [15] In the summer of 1945 turned the family expanded with Daisy who was born in 1943 in Canada, returned to the Netherlands again took up residence in Soestdijk Palace.

Beatrix after her return from America in 1959

Late forties visited the princess as the primary for that time quite progressive Workshop Kindergemeenschap the pedagogue Kees Boeke in Bilthoven . Beatrix is just like her sisters' scout been. " She was first gnome and later water girl scout . Beatrix attended secondary school at the Incrementum, one especially for her and her sister Irene established branch of the Baarnsch Lyceum . As a graduation gift she received from her father a Fiat 1400.

To celebrate her eighteenth birthday she got as a national gift the steel yacht Green Draeck gift, which incidentally only one year later was launched. The royal family still flies with it. On February 7, 1956 Beatrix was as probable heir to the crown 'is installed as a member of the Council of State, the highest advisory body of the government. In June that year, she graduated high school -A.

Then, Beatrix to Leiden, where she at the Rapenburg and moved to the University of Leiden to study. She was a member of the Association for Female Students in Leiden. "[16] Beatrix demanded that her fellow students not tutoyeerden her and her claims with Royal Highness. Her training was focused on its future work as head of state. The first few years she attended lectures in theoretical and applied sociology, economics, parliamentary history, jurisprudence and constitutional law. Later in European law, international law, history, the Statute of the Kingdom, current international politics and culture of Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles .

While studying the princess visited several European and other international organizations include Strasbourg , Geneva , Brussels and Paris . She received her bachelor's degree rights in the summer of 1959. That year she bought castle Drakensteyn in the woods of Lage Vuursche, where she moved in 1963. On July 7, 1961 she passed herdoctoral degree program rights, a combination of multiple disciplines.

Also in 1961, Beatrix initiator and later chairman of a European working group that young Europeans called to work for a united Europe . In subsequent years, she took numerous representative obligations and made several trips, including to the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname.

"My own people"
Beatrix visited in 1959, the city ofNew York, 350 years after Henry Hudson and was welcomed with aticker-tape parade

Beatrix spent in 1959 to visit the United States . [17] In the city of New York on September 11, she was welcomed with a ticker-tape parade and in Washington DC, she was at the White House received by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and wife.

Prior to her visit, she was interviewed by some American journalists. She said that she marry preferred someone of royal blood and told about a boat trip three years ago at the invitation of the then Greek Monarchs, where she was surrounded merely in his own words "with families all in the Almanach de Gotha stand ". She continued with: "I enormously enjoyed That trip, because i felt that i was among my own people and Could be myself" or "I have greatly enjoyed that trip, because I felt that my own kind of people was and myself could be. " [18] The statement "my own kind of people" led the kingdom to a storm of indignation. Back on home soil they gave Schiphol her first press conference where Dutch reporters could ask questions freely. She knows the consternation of a misunderstanding about the intonation and to a mistranslation. According to her, did she mean by "my own people" "a family circle, private sphere, a circle of peers" and the statement was not intended "to express a certain standing". [19]

Four years later, she was back in America. When she represented her father's kingdom at the funeral of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy .

Engagement and wedding
Saturday May 1st, 1965 at nine o'clock in the morning was Beatrix at castle Drakensteyn hand-in-hand photographed with a hitherto by the Dutch media stranger who Claus von Amsberg happened to be called. [20] The photos were taken by freelance photojournalist John de Rooy. [21] [22] They were on May 6, first published by the British newspaper Daily Express, followed by newspaper De Telegraaf . The photos are iconic in the Dutch paparazzi journalism .

Princess Beatrix and Claus van Amsberg in the gardens of Soestdijk Palace on June 28, 1965, the day of their engagement

There was great commotion when it appeared that Claus a German and had been a member of the Hitler Youth . A committee headed by historian Loe de Jong of the former Dutch Institute for War Documentation examined the war record of Claus. The results were not as burdensome assessed. Through all the commotion felt the couple is forced to take a rapid decision and was announced on June 28, 1965 by Queen Juliana of the engagement. [23]

Beatrix and Claus appeared together on New Year's Eve 1962 for the first time to have met at a party in Bad Driburg . Eighteen months later held meetings around the wedding of Princess Tatjana zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Maurice Prinz von Hessen. Dutch journalists spied Beatrix and Claus on a winter holiday, but because Claus thought that was intended for a prince consort too low fulfilled social function, no serious work was made of his presence.

Marriage (10 March 1966)

Dutch society remained divided over the engagement with a German, relatively shortly after the Second World War. It became known that the marriage would take place in Amsterdam, the three Jewish church organizations in the Netherlands found this insult to the Dutch Jews, mainly from Amsterdam, during the war to German concentration camps were deported. [24] [25]

To escape the commotion, Beatrix and Claus talked to have preferred their planned wedding ceremony held in Baarn. The government wanted to know nothing of it and ordered to leave the wedding take place in Amsterdam.

On March 10, 1966, the civil ceremony in the town hall of Amsterdam was performed by the Mayor of Amsterdam Gijs van Hall . The same day the marriage was blessed in church in the Westerkerk . [26] The church service was boycotted by the representatives of the three Jewish denominations. [27] During the two rijtoeren with the Golden Carriage were bystanders smoke bombs detonated in protest against the marriage.

Preparing for the throne
From the seventies Beatrix began to prepare intensively for her future role as head of state . Prince Claus she made ​​many trips abroad, including a controversial to the Soviet Union . In right-wing circles suggested that the actual crown prince couple leftist sympathies would have partly fueled by the strong interest of the couple for development and all forms of artistic expression. [source?]

After the Lockheed affair began Beatrix and Claus delving into the royal court and made ​​plans for a modification thereof. In addition, they asked advisers to prepare for the kingship of Beatrix. On January 31, 1980 Queen Juliana made during a live televised speech announced that she wanted to do on 30 April abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix.

That Beatrix would succeed her mother as queen, was at her birth not obvious. Only in 1983, the Constitution changed so that the eldest child of the head of state is the legitimate heir to the throne. Until then it was arranged that the eldest son always took precedence over a daughter. Only after Juliana biologically could not have children anymore, Beatrix was sure that she was the intended successor.

Inauguration
Queen Beatrix during her swearing in the New Church

On the morning of April 30, 1980, at 10.06 am, signed Queen Juliana at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the deed of abdication and was formally Queen Beatrix. In the afternoon she was in the New Church, at a formal sitting of the States-General , and in the presence of representatives of European dynasties, sworn in and inaugurated as queen of the Netherlands.

In Amsterdam there was at the time of the change of rule a big squatters running that the coronation had proclaimed day of action under the motto "no housing, no crowning.The festive inauguration of Beatrix was therefore overshadowed by the coronation riots in the inner city of Amsterdam ; squatters and the Mobile Unit yielded real battles. The mobile unit could occur with difficulty that squatters were advancing towards the Dam to disrupt the ceremony in the New Church. As one of her first public appearances as Queen Beatrix visited the day after the inauguration riot police injured in hospital.

Kingship
The protocol was tightened and Beatrix developed a governing style that is as stylish and business was described. [source?] Unlike her mother, who often had to appeal to 'madam', Beatrix wished she always addressed was with 'majesty'. The anniversary of her mother was arrested as Queen, but it bloemendefilé was abolished. Instead the people in procession walked along the platform of its residential palace and flowers resigned, like her mother, Beatrix chose that they each would do one or two Dutch sites.They also bought it off using her mother the queen before Christmas her palace staff a mug of hot chocolate poured. She also gave visiting ministers no cup of tea anymore, as her mother did, but showed that about a lackey.

The plans for the Dutch court to reorganize were performed. At the head was a master, to which the heads of department are responsible. In 1981 she moved with her ​​family to The Hague. Huis ten Bosch Palace was the residential palace Noordeinde Palace in The Hague city near the Courtyard work palace.

State Visits followed. First to Luxembourg and then to the neighboring countries Belgium , West Germany and the United Kingdom . In her state visit to the United States she spoke on April 22, 1982 the entire US Congress increased.

On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary in 1988 aired a TV portrait on April 29, where in addition Beatrix also Prince Claus and the words came to her three sons. The writer Hella Haase took a TV interview with her.When asked Beatrix told her that she did not read literature, because by studying the many official documents previously did not have the time.

A day later, on Queen Beatrix paid a surprise visit to Amsterdam and visited the flea market . There she was kissed by a spontaneous Amsterdam. [28] As a national gift Beatrix was the documentary The genesisoffered by Cherry Duyns, which was first broadcast on April 30, 1988. [29]

Monogram of Queen Beatrix

Beatrix got more (political) space to express its opinion and give their own interpretation to the king. [source?] Her Christmas speeches carried a personal stamp. [30] Other speeches attracted attention.

Historically her Christmas speech of 1988. In the speech from the throne that year, Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers tell her that the Netherlands had become cleaner, especially in the water and the air. At Christmas she said exactly the opposite: "Our world is suffering from pollution and poisoning of air, soil and water slowly dying earth.."

For its commitment to the unity of Europe on May 16, 1996 she received the prestigious International Charlemagne Prize of the German city of Aachen .

Beatrix has a keen interest in art. Every year they reached the royal grants for young artists from. In 2000, Beatrix founded as guest curator of an exhibition of contemporary Dutch artists in theStedelijk Museum in Amsterdam under the title 'The performance. Dutch art in the municipal palace. As a hobby models and sculpts it.

She was well aware of files. Former Prime Minister Van Agt expressed his official weekly visits to her ever so: "You will be quizzed by measured and publicized queen knows all the carrots was sweating..." [31]

In 2002, Beatrix personally active to save the lives of the Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, who until the death penalty was convicted of sex before marriage, where she was again pregnant.Beatrix invited David Vries Village, the former director of Amnesty International in the Netherlands to attend the state banquet for the visiting Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo . They arranged after the dinner were the two to talk to each other. [32] Its action succeeded. The death sentence was revoked.

Until 2010, Beatrix involved in the formation of a new cabinet. In 2010 and 2011 was in the parliament discussed the possible introduction of a ceremonial monarchy . Such proposals were ultimately not count on a parliamentary majority. In 2012, the Lower House, however, decided to make its own Rules of Procedure be amended so that the head of state is now no longer plays a role in the formation process. Incidentally, the House had since 1971 ( motion-Kolfschoten ) the ability to not be involved in the formation the head of state. [33]

Income
Beatrix annually receives a salary from the state. For 2013, this was the queen set at an amount of 5,233 million euros, of which 825,000 euros was income portion, the rest part of the human and material costs; this income was adjusted downwards after her abdication. Since her retirement she continues to keep the free disposal of the government plane. [34]

The evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad published in 2010, after having to have recourse to the Freedom of Information Act, which Beatrix a year earlier in the Royal Stables in The Hague had made ​​a trial installation locations of the planned new interior of the government plane. They could thus include testing the hardness of the seats. The cost of the test arrangement amounted to just over 100,000. The total refurbishment costs totaled 4.3 million euros, eight tons more than budgeted. The Government Information Service announced that the reorganization did not take place at the request of the queen, but the newspaper found in the documents that it was duly taken into account her wishes. [35]

State Visits
During her reign Beatrix brought 54 state visits. Three days after returning from her last state visit to Singapore, she announced her abdication.

In 2011 the state visit to Oman canceled, due to local disturbances were a result of a call of a part of the population for greater democracy in this dictatorial oil state. Immediately after the cancellation, Prime Minister Rutte announced that the queen would still visit the country, but as a private individual. [36] A year later, the state visit was still on and she visited Oman a second time.

Prince Claus
During Beatrix 'kingship, she had to deal with the poor health of her husband. In the late seventies, there were indications that Prince Claus was depressed. From 1982 he was previously treated in a Dutch and Swiss clinic. Later at Claus diagnosed Parkinson asked and he got cancer. On October 6, 2002, he died. Beatrix and his sons and daughters were at his bedside when he died.

Honorary doctorate at Leiden University
On February 8, 2005 Beatrix received from the hands of the Rector of the University of Leiden an honorary doctorate awarded for the way she has raised the importance of freedom of people and has spoken about the responsibility that freedom brings. In her speech she gave to have more freedom gained outside the ministerial responsibility for. [37]

25th jubilee
Queen Beatrix during Budget Day in the Golden Coach

On April 30, 2005 Beatrix celebrated her 25th jubilee with a meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, where in addition to the royal family and the government were also almost all members of parliament and many other official representatives of the Dutch people present.

In the afternoon there was the usual Queen's Day celebration, this time in Scheveningen, and evening was held in a marquee on the Hague Malieveld a show place where the royal family was present. During a television interview, broadcast on the eve of the anniversary, Beatrix spoke of a greatly changed society and solitude of kingship. As part of its jubilee Beatrix visited all Dutch provinces, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba .

The press, on the occasion of the jubilee, Beatrix generally praised for its professional, if somewhat distant kingdom. [source?] Her suggested meddling and influence were nuanced. An opinion poll found that the vast majority of the Dutch people Beatrix and the monarchy supported. [38] [39]

70th and 75th Anniversary
On the occasion of her seventieth birthday was on January 30, 2008 the television documentary "Many discussed above reproach, Queen Beatrix 70 years' broadcast. One day later, a celebration in Carré place. As usual with jubilee celebrations were just for this birthday several books about her life on the market. Her last birthday when she queen fourth on February 1, 2013 with her ​​family at the Beatrix Theater where the dance group Introdans gave a performance.

Controversies
Long remained the royal family scandal free. Late nineties this changed. Public opinion began to turn against occasional Beatrix and in popular rural tabloids she was depicted as a "bad mother" who would not want her son Willem-Alexander was marrying the one he wanted.

Queen Beatrix in the renovated Roombeek, April 22, 2008

The court had in the course of the nineties, the unwritten rule that only married couples could be received by the queen. Henk Krol filed a complaint about in 1997 by the Equal Treatment Commission, as homosexuals and other unmarried therefore could never their partner take. The scheme was tacitly changed that a "sufficiently stable" relationship must exist between the partners. [40]

Of different nature were suggestions that Beatrix went beyond its constitutional powers on several occasions. So let the then Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo in 1996 at the opening of the Dutch Embassy in Amman know that the embassy had come because Beatrix had insisted on it because of her friendship with the then Jordanian King Hussein . Another story that did the rounds in the same year was that Beatrix hand would have had that the Dutch ambassador to South Africa, Esq. mr. Röell Eduard (1937-2002), was transferred because of marital infidelity. Van Mierlo denied that certainly; infidelity indeed was not the basis for the transfer, Beatrix wish however. [41] [42] [43] It was also suggested that they exerted too much influence through involvement and knowledge of state affairs, including in government coalitions. [source? ]

Its vaunted perfectionism and commitment were seen more often from that time as meddling and its business approach as aloof. In political circles was sometimes spoken negatively about "beatrix ism". Beatrix 'obstinacy was criticized. Her annual skiing holiday in the Austrian Lech was not canceled in 2000, despite seventeen countries of the European Union just had a diplomatic boycott against Austria promulgated because of the appointment in the government of the populist ultra-right party of Joerg Haider .

In November 1999 there was criticism when Beatrix of the Dutch press said that " the lie reigns . " Later it turned out that the remark related to one press release that are not her or her family was.

Beatrix was missing in 2005 at the funeral of Pope John Paul II . The Dutch Government was the presence of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende sufficient. This led to some commotion in Dutch Roman Catholic circles, who felt ignored. As former Prime Minister spoke Dries van Agt his disapproval of staying away from Beatrix, while numerous other (non-Catholic) heads of state have arrived.

Bilderberg Conference
Beatrix takes part in the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Conference, which was partly founded by her father in 1954. The conference is attended annually by invitation by heads of state, politicians and business leaders. It is not known what was discussed. It also is not public about the role of Beatrix. The political, economic and closed nature has to written questions in the House led. The answers did not address what is being discussed.

Issue Jorge Zorreguieta
Mid-1999 it was announced that the father of Máxima, which Beatrix 'eldest son had a relationship at the time of the regime of General Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina first had been Secretary of State and later Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. Although according to Dutch government investigation Jorge Zorreguieta was not personally involved in disappearances of opponents of the regime, emerged turmoil in society and found a part that the prince could not marry his daughter. Only after it was decided that her father was not allowed to be present at the marriage could be consummated marriage in Amsterdam on February 2, 2002. [44]

Margarita affair
Queen Beatrix during the reading of the Speech from the Throne 2011

Beatrix 'niece, Princess Margarita, daughter of her sister Irene, accused in 2003 the Queen and other relatives harassment and eavesdropping against her and her husbandEdwin de Roy van Zuydewijn . According to the princess and her husband had the royal family to include the provision that the company's Roy Zuydewijn a major order was lost, so it went bankrupt. In the news magazine HP / De Tijd fulminated the couple against several members of the royal family. Also gave the couple television interviews.

During a state visit to Chile in 2003, Beatrix felt compelled to respond publicly to the allegations. During a meeting with the press Beatrix said that "the family does not recognize" in the picture sketched by Margarita. [45]

Mabel Gate
The affair Mabel Gate played in 2003. Mabel Wisse Smit at the time was the fiancé of Beatrix's second son Friso; was claimed to be the late eighties had a sexual relationship with the later murdered drug lord Klaas Bruinsma . Although she denied, there were many dissenting voices. Wisse Smit also had an affair with a contentious and married Bosnian Foreign Minister, Muhamed Sacirbey . This was at the time Mabel Gate played in New York caught on suspicion of abusing state funds for personal purposes.

Both Friso and Mabel Wisse Smit were found to have lied about the past Mabel. When this became known, they desisted to ask permission for their forthcoming marriage to parliament. As a result, it was Friso from his wedding no longer a member of the Royal Family, which his rights to the throne fell. He also lost his title 'Prince of the Netherlands.

Book Fasseur and Greet Hofmans affair
Beatrix gave historian C. Fasseur the only access to the royal house archives for his book about Wilhelmina and Juliana. He also got to inspect and until then controversial report that a committee headed by Juliana's confidant Louis Beel had made ​​in the fifties on the affair surrounding the faith healer Greet Hofmans . The result of research into Fasseurs Johnston was reflected in the book ''Juliana & Bernhard. The Story of a Marriage 1936-1956'' released in November 2008. It discredited Fasseur years of rumors that Prince Bernhard had given his wife to lock in a mental institution if still longer with the healer maintain contacts. He had not found any evidence. It was also the publication known to not always thought as Prime Minister Willem Drees had had let drafting the report, but Juliana and Bernhard. The report was attached. Beatrix had the report need not be revealed. There still rested on secrecy. That Beatrix was given only to Fasseur inspection, was not appreciated by everyone, and because they work Fasseur is unverifiable. [46]

Apeldoorn attack
On Queen's Day 2009, the 38-year-old insisted Karst Tates in Apeldoorn with a small passenger by fences and a crowd toward the open double-decker bus that contained the entire royal family. There were eight people, including the driver, and eleven wounded. Beatrix and her family were unharmed, but broke their visit to the city immediately. A motive has never been found, nor what Tates' exact intentions had been, but according to people who knew him he would have cherished hatred against the monarchy.

King's speech
Just before Budget Day 2012 told director Paul Smulders of the Society Our Language in an interview with BBC News that Beatrix sometimes make substantive changes in the throne speech as already approved by everyone. A day after his remarks were broadcast, he was relieved of his annual duty to look after her speech at the Dutch language. He had that function on behalf of the Society since 1987. [47] Years earlier, former Prime Minister Lubbers even proclaimed that Beatrix sometimes the speech adapted.

Abdication
Standard of Princess Beatrix

Queen Beatrix during a visit toFreeze 2008

On January 28, 2013 announced the queen in a short TV address her abdication on April 30, 2013. She stated that she felt it was a good time to resign, since it would would be commemorated 75 years in 2013 and later that year be two hundred years that Netherlands is a kingdom. [48] In addition, they indicated that the responsibility of the country "in the hands of a new generation should be." Beatrix stressed that they did not resign because the task would have been too heavy for the reason that gave her mother when she announced her abdication in 1980. The heir to the throne was her eldest son Willem-Alexander. [49]

On the evening prior to her abdication aired a recorded farewell speech of her through the Dutch television and radio, addressed to the people, which they mainly discussed the constitutional position of the head of state and indicated that the history will probably show that its choice of prince Claus as a husband as the best decision of her life will be assessed. [50]

Since her abdication she carries the titles Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau and Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld with the title Royal Highness. From February 4, 2014 she officially resides in Castle Drakensteijn. [51] [52] The building Noordeinde 66 in The Hague since 2014 her pied-à-terre . It has since also the place for its secretariat.

Personal Titles
Beatrix carried addition to the above, from her duties as queen until her resignation the next noble and glorious titles (in official documents abbreviated to "Etc. etc. etc..."):
 * Marchioness of Veere and Vlissingen
 * Countess of Katzenelnbogen , Vianden , Dietz , Spiegelberg , Buren , Leerdam and Culemborg
 * Viscountess of Antwerp
 * Baroness of Breda , Diest , Beilstein, the city Grave , the Land of Cuijk , IJsselstein , Cranendonck , Eindhoven , Liesveld , Herstal , Warneton , Arlay and Nozeroy
 * Vrijvrouwe of Ameland
 * Lady of Baarn, Besancon , Borculo , Bredevoort , Bütgenbach , Dasburg , Geertruidenberg , High and Low Vith , Soest , Ter Eem , Turnhout , Willemstad , Zevenbergen

Distinctions
Princess Beatrix was like queen Grandmaster of
 * Military Order of William (MWO)
 * Order of the Dutch Lion
 * Order of Orange-Nassau
 * Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (Great Mastery is shared with the Grand Duke of Luxembourg)
 * House of Orange

Knightly orders
Beatrix is a member of, and has the following awards recognized chivalrous orders :
 * Runner-Grand Cross of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta  (The Reformed Dutch queen is a member of the Catholic knighthood because of her lineage of Tsar Paul I of Russia )
 * Erecommandeur the Johanniter Order in Netherlands  (The Protestant counterpart of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta)

Positions and other positions
Beatrix was as Head of State Chairman of the Council of State, a ceremonial and symbolic function, as well as the Board of the Foundation Archive of the House of Orange-Nassau.She is patron of nearly eighty Dutch associations, foundations, trusts and societies. The latter are all honorary functions. They announced the most distance to want to do, now she is no longer queen.

The Animal expelled her in June 2001 as patroness of 55% of the votes. The reason was that the crown domains recreational hunting is permitted and the members of the royal family take part. [53]

Good to Know

 * Because Beatrix smiled a lot during her first official visit to Suriname, she got from the media since the nickname 'Princess Smiles.
 * On the occasion of its 25th jubilee and thus in its related visit to the province of Limburg, the university and the university hospital called Maastricht a newly discovered proteinBR-25 (Beatrix Regina 25). [54]
 * The Dutch television program The Lie reigns over the care of journalism derived its name from a Beatrix USED ruling on the national press.
 * On Budget Day 2010 a man threw a candle holder of 629.5 grams of the Golden Carriage, which then ricocheted on the side. Motive he gave that Beatrix wrongly sat on the throne, because according to him was not a descendant of King William III . The man was almost two years and was finally fixed on February 1, 2013 in appeal sentenced to a prison term of five months unconditional. During his first trial he had demanded that DNA could be taken from the bodies of King William III, Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Juliana , so that he could prove that Beatrix not officially a member of the Orange dynasty. The judge rejected that request. [55] [56]
 * More than 7.4 million people watched on Monday January 28, 2013 at 19:00 at the three-minute live TV broadcast of the speech of Queen Beatrix, explaining its abdication announced. [57]
 * Beatrix was the oldest reigning Dutch head of state ever. Before king William III was the eldest. At the time of her abdication on April 30, 2013 she was the age of 75 years and 3 months.
 * Between the birth of Princess Amalia and the death of Princess Juliana Dutch throne were four generations alive. Earlier in Dutch history was happened between 1840 and 1843.
 * Beatrix was 33 years old queen. Queen Wilhelmina (50 years) and King William III (41 years) reigned longer, Queen Juliana (32 years), King William I (25 years) and King William II (9 years) were shorter on the throne.