Princess Christina of the Netherlands
Encyclopedia
Princess Maria Christina of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
(born 18 February 1947), Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, is the youngest of four daughters born to Queen regnant
Queen regnant
A queen regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire....
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...
and her Prince consort
Prince consort
A prince consort is the husband of a queen regnant who is not himself a king in his own right.Current examples include the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , and Prince Henrik of Denmark .In recognition of his status, a prince consort may be given a formal...
Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld.
Birth
She was born Maria Christina (Marijke) at Soestdijk PalaceSoestdijk Palace
Soestdijk Palace is a former palace of the Dutch royal family. It consists of a central block and two wings.Although named after the village of Soestdijk, which is largely in the municipality of Soest, the Soestdijk Palace is just north of the border in the municipality of Baarn in the province of...
, The Netherlands. Among her godparents was Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. Her mother had contracted German measles during her pregnancy and as a result, the Princess was born nearly blind. Over time, advances in medicine allowed for treatments that, with the aid of special glasses, brought about an improvement in her vision so that she could attend school and live a relatively normal life. Despite this initial handicap, she was a brilliant and happy child, with a considerable talent for music. She also had a capacity for languages and as a young girl delighted the visiting President of the French Republic
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
René Coty
René Coty
René Jules Gustave Coty was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president under the French Fourth Republic.-Early life and politics:...
, by conversing fluently with him in the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Princess Christina of the Netherlands could claim British nationality because of her descent from Sophia, Electress of Hanover. Her British nationality is based on 'The Act for the Naturalization of the Most Excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Issue of her Body' from 1705. This Act was repealed in 1948 and is no longer in force, but that was after her birth.
Princess Christina of the Netherlands is a direct descendant of Sophia, Electress of Hanover via her grandson King George II of Great Britain's daughter Anne, Princess of Orange, Fürstin of Nassau née Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Princess of Hanover, Duchess of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, The Princess Royal (1709–1759).
Marriage
In 1963, Princess Marijke changed to using her second name, Christina. Pursuing her gift for music, at age 21 she moved to CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to study classical music in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. After a few years, she accepted a teaching position at a Montessori school in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. There, living an ordinary life under the name Christina van Oranje, the Dutch Princess met and fell in love with a Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
-born Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n exile named Jorge Pérez y Guillermo, himself a teacher for the Addie May Collins Shelter of Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
and a former hotelier
Hotel manager
A hotel manager or hotelier is a person who holds a management occupation within a hotel, motel, or resort establishment. Management titles and duties vary by company. In some hotels the title hotel manager or hotelier may solely be referred to the General Manager of the hotel...
. Mr. Guillermo was born in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
on 1 August 1946. He is the son of Federico Gilberto Pérez Castillo and wife Edenia Mercedes Guillermo y Marrero, who died in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in 2002.
Although societal attitudes were changing, because Mr. Guillermo was a Roman Catholic, it was still possible that any marriage could cause another public scandal in the Netherlands such as the one that occurred in 1964 when her sister, Princess Irene
Princess Irene of the Netherlands
Princess Irene of the Netherlands is the second child of the late Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.-Childhood and ancestry:thumb|left|215px|Princesses Margriet, Irene, and Beatrix in 1944...
married the Catholic Carlos Hugo of Bourbon, Duke of Parma
Carlos Hugo of Bourbon, Duke of Parma
Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza was the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma from 1977 until his death...
. Accordingly, Princess Christina, at that time ninth in line for the Dutch throne, renounced her and her children's rights to the throne before converting to Catholicism and officially announcing her engagement on St. Valentine's Day, 1975.
Married on 28 June 1975, in the Cathedral of Saint Martin
Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht
St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, or Dom Church was the cathedral of the diocese of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. Once the Netherland's largest church, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, it is one of the country's two pre-Reformation cathedrals, along with the cathedral in Middleburg, Province...
, Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, in The Netherlands, the newlyweds rode through the streets of the city to the cheers of thousands of Dutch citizens. Following their marriage, she and her husband chose to live in New York but later moved to her native land where they built a home on an estate in Wassenaar
Wassenaar
Wassenaar is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. A fairly affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies 10 km north of that city on the N44 highway near the North Sea coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region...
, near The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
Their children:
- Bernardo Federico Tomás GuillermoBernardo GuillermoBernardo Federico Tomás Guillermo is a furniture designer and a more distant member of the Dutch Royal Family...
, (b. UtrechtUtrecht (city)Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, 17 June 1977), Married civilly in March 2009 in NYC to Eva Prinz-Valdez, an editor at a prominent publisher. Has a daughter Isabel Christina b. 13 April 2009. Married religiously in September 2009 in New York City. - Nicolás Daniel Mauricio Guillermo, (b. UtrechtUtrecht (city)Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, 6 July 1979) - Juliana Edenia Antonia Guillermo, (b. UtrechtUtrecht (city)Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, 8 October 1981)
Divorced in 1996, Princess Christina returned with her children to live in the United States. After her mother's death she has lived partly in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, partly in Monte Argentario
Monte Argentario
Monte Argentario is a comune and a peninsula belonging to the Province of Grosseto in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 150 km south of Florence and about 35 km south of Grosseto...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
She recorded several CDs and has a Music Foundation in the Netherlands. She sang at her father's funeral and at her mother's funeral and participated in a tribute concert that the CIMA Festival
CIMA Festival
The CIMA Festival, or Concerti in Monte Argentario, is an Italian international classical music festival which takes place annually in the Tuscan town of Monte Argentario...
did in Italy for Queen Juliana, under the direction of Jorge Chaminé
Jorge Chaminé
Jorge Chaminé is a Portuguese operatic baritone.Of Spanish and Portuguese parentage, he began his musical studies at an early age...
.