page_title: Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
section_title: Marriage
hierarchical_section_title: Wilhelmina of the Netherlands / Marriage
caption_attribution_description: Queen Wilhelmina &amp; Juliana
context_page_description: Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw the First and the Second World Wars, as well as the Dutch economic crisis of 1933.
  The only child of King William III of the Netherlands and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Wilhelmina ascended to the throne at the age of 10 after her father's death in 1890, under her mother's regency. After taking charge of government, Wilhelmina was generally popular for maintaining Dutch neutrality during the First World War and solving many of her country's industrial problems. By that time, her business ventures made her the world's first female billionaire in dollars. She ensured that her family was one of seven European royal houses remaining in existence.
  Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Wilhelmina fled to Britain and took charge of the Dutch government-in-exile. She frequently spoke to the nation over radio and came to be regarded as a symbol of the resistance.
context_section_description: On 7 February 1901 in The Hague, Queen Wilhelmina married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Although she was devoted to her spouse at the time of their wedding, it proved in the long run to be an unhappy marriage that did little more than meet its obligation by producing an heir. Prince Henry was known to have had numerous extra-marital affairs, at least one of which resulted in illegitimate offspring. Nine months later, on 9 November, Wilhelmina suffered a miscarriage. On 4 May 1902, she gave birth to a premature stillborn son. Her next pregnancy ended in another miscarriage on 23 July 1906. During this time period, Wilhelmina's heir presumptive was her first cousin once removed William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Next in line was her cousin Marie Alexandrine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
  As it was assumed that the former would renounce his claim to the Dutch throne and that the latter was too elderly to become Queen, Marie Alexandrine's eldest son, German Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz, stood in line to succeed Wilhelmina assuming she had no surviving children. Prince Heinrich had close associations with the German Imperial family and military, so there were fears that were the Queen to remain childless, the Dutch Crown "was bound to pass into the possession of a German prince, whose birth, training, and affiliations would naturally have led him to bring Holland [sic] within the sphere of the German Empire, at the expense of its independence, both national and economic", according to one contemporary publication. The birth of Princess Juliana, on 30 April 1909, was met with great relief after eight years of childless marriage. She formed a close relationship with her mother, who tragically suffered two further miscarriages on 23 January and 20 October 1912.
caption: Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter Juliana, circa 1914
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