An unpopular monarchy
She inherited a low-standing institution and handed it on stronger.
F.Eveleens — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Christian Michelides — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Loek Tangel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Loek Tangel — CC BY-SA 4.0
A memorial in The Hague to Queen Emma, queen regent of the Netherlands between 1890 and 1898. Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont married King William III when she was twenty and he was sixty-three. He died eleven years later leaving a single daughter, Wilhelmina, aged ten. Emma held the regency for eight years until her daughter reached eighteen. Those years matter in Dutch history because the monarchy was unpopular when William III died — he had been a difficult-tempered king with low standing. Emma rebuilt the institution's image by quiet means: regular public appearance, distance from political conflict, and broad support for charitable work, particularly against tuberculosis. By the time Wilhelmina took the throne the monarchy was stronger than her mother had inherited it. The monument stands on a public square and is free to see.
She inherited a low-standing institution and handed it on stronger.
She backed the Dutch public health campaign against it on a wide scale.
Her method was regular appearance rather than intervention in conflict.
North of central The Hague
Emma's daughter, who ruled the Netherlands for fifty years between 1898 and 1948 — the longest reign in the country's history. She is known above all for the Second World War, when she refused to surrender and left for London, broadcasting to the Dutch under occupation through Radio Oranje. Churchill described her as the only man among the governments in exile. She returned in 1945 and abdicated to her daughter three years later.
The nearby Noordeinde street holds the royal palace, art galleries and antique shops. The Lange Voorhout is a broad avenue shaded by lime trees where seasonal markets are held. And the Binnenhof — the parliament complex around a pond — is ten minutes on foot. Distances in central The Hague are all short and no transport is needed.
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