page_title: Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
section_title: Youth
hierarchical_section_title: Wilhelmina of the Netherlands / Youth
caption_attribution_description: Queen of Holland
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: Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of the Netherlands of Orange-Nassau was born on 31 August 1880, in Noordeinde Palace, The Hague, Netherlands. She was the only child of King William III and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her childhood was characterised by a close relationship with her parents, especially with her father, who was 63 years old when she was born.
  Under the Semi-Salic system of inheritance that was in place in the Netherlands until 1887, Wilhelmina was third in line to the throne from birth. Her father had had three sons with his first wife Sophie of Württemberg, but two of them had died before Wilhelmina's birth. The only other surviving male relatives from the House of Orange were his uncle Frederick, who died in 1881 when his daughter was one year old, and his third son Alexander, who died before she turned four. By 1887, the 70-year-old King finally abandoned the 'hope of a son' with his young wife and made the pragmatic decision to settle the throne upon his only surviving child.
  King William III died on 23 November 1890 and 10-years-old Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands, though her mother was named regent. In 1895, Wilhelmina visited Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who penned an evaluation in her diary: "The young Queen ... still has her hair hanging loose. She is slender and graceful, and makes an impression as a very intelligent and very cute girl. She speaks good English and knows how to behave with charming manners."
  On 6 September 1898, Wilhelmina was sworn-in at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. She was well aware what was expected by the elected representatives, but was a strong-willed, forceful woman who spoke and acted her mind. She "hated" politicians and instead stated a love for the people. Like most Dutch, Wilhelmina had a stern dislike of the United Kingdom as a result of the annexation of the republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State in the Boer War. The Boers were descendants of early Dutch colonists, to whom she and the people of the Netherlands felt very closely linked. In conversation with her former governess Elisabeth Saxton Winter, she teasingly referred to the Boer soldiers as "excellent shots". At the age of 20, the Queen ordered Dutch warship HNLMS Gelderland, to Portuguese East Africa under the order of evacuate Paul Kruger, the embattled President of the Transvaal. She was not amused to hear that a Dutch medical relief team was planning to accommodate the needs of both Boer and British wounded soldiers.
caption: Queen Wilhelmina in the 1890s
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