Juliana of the Netherlands Biography

Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina, popularly known as Queen Juliana, was the Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 till her abdication in 1980. Born in Noordeinde Palace, The Hague, the Netherlands, Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She initially got a private education and later went to University of Leiden to study international law. During the Second World War, Juliana took refuge in Ottawa due to the German invasion of the Netherlands. Later, after her return to the Netherlands in 1945, Juliana acted as the regent during her mother Wilhelmina’s illness. She was inaugurated as the queen on 6th September 1948, after the abdication of her mother two days earlier. She remained the queen till 1980, when she abdicated in favor of her eldest daughter, Beatrix. Throughout her reign, she kindled controversy over several issues such as employing a faith healer to tend to her daughter Christina who had been almost fully blind. The marriage of her daughter Princess Irene to the Catholic Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon, Duke of Parma, earned her the ire of her Protestant citizens. The queen passed away in 2004, at the age of 94. She was the longest-lived former reigning monarch, not just in the Netherlands, but across the world.