Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948.
Wilhelmina was the only child of King William III and his second wife Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. At the age of four she became heir presumptive to the Dutch throne after her half-brother and great uncle died. She became Queen when her father died, when she was 10 years old. As she was still a minor, her mother served as regent until she turned 18 years old. In 1901, she married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with whom she had a daughter Juliana.
She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch.
Princess Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, was born on 31 August 1880 at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Her childhood was characterised by a close relationship with her parents, especially with her father, who was 63 years of age when she was born.
When Wilhelmina was born, William had already outlived two of his sons by his first wife and only the childless Prince Alexander and the King's uncle Prince Frederick of the Netherlands were alive, so she was third in line to the throne from birth. When Prince Frederick died a year later in 1881, she became second in line. When Wilhelmina was four, Alexander died, and the young girl became heir presumptive.
King William III died on 23 November 1890. Although 10-year-old Wilhelmina became queen of the Netherlands instantly, her mother, Emma, was named regent.
Wilhelmina was sworn-in and inaugurated at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 6 September 1898, when she was 18. On 7 February 1901 in The Hague, she married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The birth of a daughter, Juliana, on 30 April 1909, was met with great relief after eight years of childless marriage.
At the age of 20, Queen Wilhelmina ordered a Dutch warship, HNLMS Gelderland, to South Africa to evacuate Paul Kruger, the embattled President of the Transvaal.
Wilhelmina had a stern dislike of the United Kingdom partly 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 Wilhelmina and the people of the Netherlands felt very closely linked.
Wilhelmina died in Het Loo Palace at the age of 82 on 28 November 1962.