Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria Of Orange-Nassau
WILHELMINA HELENA PAULINE MARIA OF ORANGE-NASSAU [WILHELMINA ] (1880- ), queen of the Netherlands, was born at the Hague on the 31st of August 1880. Her father, William III. (Willem Paul Alexander Frederik Lodewijk), had by his first wife, Sophia Frederika Mathilde of Wurttemberg, three sons, all of whom predeceased him. Having been left a widower on the 3rd of June 1877, he married on the 7th of January 1879 Adelheid Emma Wilhclmina Theresia, second daughter of Prince George Victor of Waldeck-Pyrmont, born on the 2nd of August 1858, and Wilhelmina was the only issue of that union. She succeeded to the throne on her father's death, which took place on the 23rd of November 1890, but until her eighteenth year, when she was " inaugurated " at Amsterdam on the 6th of September 1898, the business of the state was carried on under the regency of the queen-mother, in accordance with a law made on the 2nd of August 1884. On the 7th of February 1901 Queen Wilhelmina married Henry Wladimir Albert Ernst, duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (born on the 19th of April 1876). To the great joy of the Dutch people, Queen Wilhelmina, on the 30th of April 1909, gave birth to an heir to the throne, the Princess Juliana (Juliana Louise Emma Maria Wilhelmina). (See HOLLAND: History.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
