Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands for fifty-eight years and led its government-in-exile through the Second World War. Born in The Hague in 1880, she was the only surviving child of William III by his second marriage, and became queen at ten in 1890 under her mother's regency, taking power at eighteen. She kept the Netherlands neutral through the First World War, and afterwards refused to extradite the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom she had granted asylum, telling the Allies that the right of asylum was not negotiable. She was extremely wealthy, taking a close interest in her Royal Dutch Shell holdings, and was a formidable and formal personality who intimidated her ministers. Germany invaded on 10 May 1940. She intended to stay and was persuaded to board a British destroyer, expecting to be landed in Zeeland; the captain judged it impossible and took her to Harwich. She arrived in London with nothing. She refused to be a figurehead. She broadcast to the occupied Netherlands on Radio Oranje throughout the war — the broadcasts were illegal to listen to and widely heard — calling Hitler the arch-enemy of mankind, and she involved herself in the government-in-exile's decisions to an extent that stretched her constitutional position. Churchill is reported to have called her the only real man among the governments-in-exile. Her son-in-law flew with the RAF and her daughter Juliana was in Canada. She returned in 1945 to a devastated country, wanted a renewed political system, and got the old parties back. She abdicated in 1948 in favour of Juliana and died in 1962.
- Lived: 1880 CE – 1962 CE
- Nationality: Dutch
- Roles: queen, head_of_state
