1.2 Mother of a Nation
1.2 Mother of a Nation
Queen Wilhelmina inspecting troops during the Great War.
The Queen Wilhelmina was one of the better examples of the grandeur of the House of Orange. Her former father was to some a complete madman and deserved himself the nickname “King Gorilla” for his violent outbursts. Queen Wilhelmina on the other hand had the natural charisma befitting to a leader. She was very popular, especially considering the decline of the monarchy ever since the Napoleon wars. Already a Queen at the young age of 10, she got on the throne at the age of 18. She was internationally respected and had a tendency to meddle in international affairs. At just the age of 20 she sent a Dutch warship
’Gelderland’ to South Afrika to rescue the South African Boer resistance leader Paul Kruger, simply ignoring a British blockade.
She also had a keen business instinct and under her guidance the personal wealth of the Royal Family reached 1 billion dollar, making her the richest woman of that time. She was one of the major stock holders of the ‘Koninklijke Olie’, better known as SHELL. When oil was discovered on the Dutch Antilles in 1914 and SHELL started drilling for oil with her permission, it brought The Netherlands into a conflict with Venezuela. Venezuela claimed the Dutch Antilles, but at the time didn’t want to start an armed conflict.
---“I cannot rely on the achievements of my ancestors. I can only rely on my own performance now. I must earn their trust. I’m there for the fatherland, and the fatherland alone.” As said by the Queen in 1914---
Her desire to play a prominent role in Dutch Affairs caused her to clash with the government and parliament on numerous occasions. She had never been impressed with the politicians she had to deal with. Especially when it came to the armed forces she resisted any attempt to cut in the budget and reduce the amount of active soldiers . Despite her resistance the government decided to greatly cut the budget of the armed forced in 1918, pretty much destroying all progress the Great War had brought the Royal Dutch Army and ending a carefully organized “Luchtvaartafdeeling”, the air force of the Netherlands.
In 1918 the end of the war sparked numerous republic revolutions. Many ancient dynasties were removed from power. On the 12th of November Troelstra, leader of the socialistic party, called for a socialistic revolution in the Netherlands. People around the Queen thought she was in danger and arranged an, in their eyes, inevitable exile of Wilhelmina. In the first days there was an unsettling atmosphere but after a day or two messages start to pour in declaring their support for the Queen. On the 18th she rode out to meet her supporters in the strees. The entire square Malieveld was filled with supporters. She and her daughter rode out in an open carriage, on the Malieveld the horses were switched out for 40 soldiers who pulled the carriage back to her palace. She promised the people present that their country would go forward. The next day she excused herself for the work she had been neglecting, because “She had been turning a revolution around.”
She distrusted the United Kingdom and its intentions. It didn’t help when the United Kingdom and the United States saw it necessary to put a Naval blockade on Dutch trading routes during the Great War. They even commandeered several Dutch merchant vessels in American harbors to “support the Allied war effort”. Wilhelmina was furious and contacted the British King George to tell him how she felt about the whole ordeal. Even though the government said it would be better to stop trading convoys, Wilhelmina saw it absolutely necessary to continue the convoys and in 1918 a convoy set out to reach Dutch India unopposed.
December 8th 1925 Paleis Noordeinde – Den Hague
It has been a few days since the Disaster of Doorn. Everyone responsible for the search had to explain the situation. The last few days you could see confident man walk in and desperate man walk out. The general military staff had to take the brunt of the Queen’s anger.
“Was it not your opinion the country did not need an active defense? That the army could do with less men without endangering our sovereignty? If I can’t expect you gentlemen to protect a single foreign refugee, who can I expect you will protect my people? And now you come here, hiding behind jurisdiction issues and hard working soldiers so you can avoid the blame? Well, the blame has been cast and it is you who will now have to carry it. I hope you will carry it with more dignity then your current position.”
The men looked at the Queen, her face red of anger. She obviously had been having trouble sleeping, as her eyes could testify, but it seemed to not have hindered her ability to fill up the entire room with her voice. One of the generals stepped forward preparing an answer and the Queen’s attention turned to the man. “If you just stepped forward in order to excuse yourself, you only have our fatherland to apologize to. For I am not willing to accept it. I believe this meeting is now over.” After that she turned towards her desk and sat down. The staff saluted, but the Queen had her eyes on the piece of paper on her desk, so the salute was in vain. Silently the group of five men left the room. Wilhelmina felt like she had more pressing matters to attend to. In front of her were the final drafts of the telegrams that had to be send to the kings of Belgium and the United Kingdom. Just because her ministers found themselves indecisive, doesn’t mean she had to feel the same way. The telegram to King George read:
“In light of recent breach of Dutch sovereignty requesting swift action of your government.
Your diplomat seemed to be of little help.
Urge better communication from now on.
Status given by my government to former Kaiser Wilhelm II cannot be ignored.
As Head of State there is a responsibility to respect and enforce international law.
Requesting meeting in Den Hague next week.”
The telegram to King Albert I read:
“Recent breach of several soldiers of Belgium descent was unauthorized.
Therefore any action taken must be seen as an extremely illegal behavior.
So far reaction of your government has been lacking.
Urge immediate action to be taken against individuals responsible.
International Law dictates return of leader granted political asylum.
Requesting meeting in Den Hague next week.”
Neither kings did agree to a meeting, only replying with a message of apology and promises to keep the Dutch perspective in consideration. A few days later the emergency Allied meeting decided that the Kaiser was to be imprisoned while awaiting a trial. King George send a long letter explaining the Allied point of view, but just got back a telegram with two sentences from Queen Wilhelmina. The exact message was also received by King Albert:
“If that is how it must be, then it will be. I see no more reason to maintain contact.”
From that day on, the Dutch Royal family refused any invitations by the Belgium and English royal families and it cut all ties with Belgium and The United Kingdom. Although her government refused to put all diplomatic contact on hold and tried convincing the Queen to rekindle the relationship with the royal families, she refused. To the surprise of the government though, the people of the Netherlands responded with enthusiasm to the Queen’s actions. It seemed the people were tired of the treatment the Dutch had been receiving and large Orange rallies were seen in the larger cities of the Netherlands. Their Queen promised to take them forward, and on the 15th of December 1925 she took the first step.