Beatrix of the Netherlands

Biography

Beatrix was born in 1938 at Soestdijk Palace, the eldest daughter of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard. During the German occupation the family went into exile, and she spent the war years in Ottawa, where she attended school. She became heir presumptive when her mother became queen in 1948, and studied at Leiden University, taking a law degree in 1961.

Her 1966 marriage to the German diplomat Claus von Amsberg, who had served in the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht, set off protests and street clashes in Amsterdam, although Prince Claus later became one of the most popular members of the royal family. They had three sons.

She became queen on 30 April 1980, when Juliana abdicated. She met the prime minister weekly and, until a change in 2012, appointed the informateur who led coalition negotiations, giving her a real part in cabinet formation. During her reign Aruba became a separate country within the kingdom in 1986, and the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010. In 2009 a driver killed several spectators in an attempt to ram the royal family's bus during the Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn.

She abdicated on 30 April 2013, after exactly 33 years on the throne, in favour of her eldest son Willem-Alexander, and returned to the style of princess.