Princess Christina of the Netherlands (Maria Christina; 18 February 1947 – 16 August 2019) was the youngest of four daughters of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld , house = Lippe , father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe , mother = Armgard von Cramm , birth_date = , birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld , birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany , death_date = ...

Early life

Princess Christina, who was known as Princess ''Marijke'' in her youth, was born on 18 February 1947, at Soestdijk Palace, Baarn, the Netherlands. Her parents were Crown Princess Juliana, the only child of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and

. At the time of her birth, she was fifth in the line to the throne after her mother and three older sisters:

Princess Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband ...

, Princess Irene and Princess Margriet. She was baptised on 9 October 1947 and her

godparents In infant baptism and denominations of Christianity, a godparent (also known as a sponsor, or '' gossiprede'') is someone who bears witness to a child's christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelong ...

included Queen Wilhelmina (her maternal grandmother), her eldest sister Princess Beatrix, Sir Winston Churchill (for whom her father stood proxy), her paternal grandmother Armgard von Cramm, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and his niece

Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma Princess Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte Zita Marguerite of Bourbon-Parma (18 September 1923 – 1 August 2016) was the wife of King Michael I of Romania. Michael abdicated the throne in 1947, and he and Anne married the next year. Nonethel ...

. On 4 September 1948, after a reign of nearly 58 years, Christina's grandmother Queen Wilhelmina (68) abdicated the throne and her mother was inaugurated as Queen of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

on 6 September 1948.

Childhood and education

While her mother was pregnant with Christina, she contracted the German Measles or

rubella Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is an infection caused by the rubella virus. This disease is often mild, with half of people not realizing that they are infected. A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and ...

and as a result, Christina was born nearly blind. With medical treatment and custom eye-glasses, her vision improved to a point that she could attend school and live a relatively normal life. In 1963, she stopped using her first name Maria, from then on referring to herself merely as Christina. She graduated from secondary school (Amersfoort Lyceum) in 1965 and went on to attended the University of Groningen where she studied teaching theory. At age 21 she moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

to study classical music in at the ''École de musique Vincent-d’Indy'' in Montreal where she studied vocal teaching.

Marriage

Princess Christina and Jorge Guillermo 1975

While living in New York as Christina van Oranje, the Princess started a relationship with Cuban exile

Jorge Guillermo Jorge Pérez y Guillermo (born August 1, 1946) was the husband of Princess Christina of the Netherlands between 1975 and the couple's divorce in late 1996. He was accordingly brother-in-law to Queen Beatrix between 1980 and 1996. He is also a note ...

. Although societal attitudes were changing, because Guillermo was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

, it was still possible that a marriage could cause a public scandal in the Netherlands such as the one that occurred in 1964 when Christina's sister Princess Irene married the Catholic Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma. Accordingly, Princess Christina, at that time ninth in line for the Dutch throne, renounced her and her descendants' rights to the throne before officially announcing her engagement on

St. Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

, 1975. She converted to Catholicism in 1992. The couple were married on 28 June 1975, civilly in Baarn and then religiously in an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The wo ...

ceremony in the Cathedral of Saint Martin,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

. After their wedding, they lived in New York but later moved to the Netherlands, where they built in Wassenaar, near

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

. The couple built up an extensive art collection. They had three children: *Bernardo Federico Thomas Guillermo (born 17 June 1977, Utrecht), married 2 March 2009, New York City (USA), Eva Marie Prinz Valdes (born 2 August 1979) and has two children. *Nicolás Daniel Mauricio Guillermo (born 6 July 1979, Utrecht), *Juliana Edenia Antonia Guillermo (born 8 October 1981, Utrecht), has three children with Tao Bodhi. By her request, the couple divorced on 25 April 1996.

Career

She began teaching singing in New York after completing her vocal teaching studies at the ''École de musique'' Vincent-d’Indy in Montreal. She recorded and released several CDs (classical, Broadway) in 2000 and 2002, and was a long-term supporter of the Youth Music Foundation in the Netherlands. In 1989, she allowed her name to be used for the ''Prinses Christina Concours'' an annual competition held in the Netherlands to encourage the musical talents of children in the Netherlands. She performed at the marriage of her nephew Prince Bernhard Jr. and this was one of her few public performances. She also sang at the funerals of her both her parents Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard in the

New Church (Delft) The Nieuwe Kerk (; en, New Church) is a Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Protestant church in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. The building is located on Delft Market Square (Markt), opposite to the City Hall (Delft), City Hall (Dutch: ...

. She completed a dance therapist training and worked, in the later part of her career, with sound and dance therapy. She worked to share her knowledge in the fields of dance/sound therapy and physical contact, with the blind. She worked for the Visio foundation in the towns of

Huizen Huizen () is a municipality and a village in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. The name "Huizen" is Dutch for "houses" and this usage has been linked to the belief that the first stone houses, instead of the more common sod houses ...

and

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda ...

to achieve this. Early 2019, Christina made headlines when she decided to sell several works of art. These works came to her through inheritance from the Dutch royal family: art lover

William II of the Netherlands William II ( nl, Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, anglicized as William Frederick George Louis; 6 December 1792 – 17 March 1849) was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg. William II was the son of Willi ...

. Dutch institutions including the Museum Boymans Van Beuningen did not have enough funds to purchase the major piece of the auction, an anatomical drawing by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

. It was sold by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

for $8.2 million.

Death

In June 2018, it was announced that Princess Christina had been diagnosed with bone cancer. She died on 16 August 2019, aged 72. Her body was taken to Fagel's Garden Pavilion nearby Noordeinde Palace for a private service held on 22 August, and her remains were cremated.

Titles, styles and honours

Honours

National honours

* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion * : Recipient of the Silver Wedding Anniversary Medal of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard 1962 * : Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Princess Beatrix, Princess of Orange and Claus von Amsberg 1966 * : Recipient of the Queen Beatrix Inauguration Medal 1980 * : Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange and Máxima Zorreguieta 2002 * : Recipient of the King Willem-Alexander Inauguration Medal 2013

Foreign honours

* Grand Duchy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown * Nepalese Royal Family: Member Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Three Divine Powers

Ancestry

References

External links

*
Royal House of the Netherlands
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christina of the Netherlands, Princess 1947 births 2019 deaths House of Orange-Nassau Dutch people of German descent Dutch people of Russian descent Dutch women singers Dutch Roman Catholics Dutch music educators Dutch expatriates in the United States Dutch expatriates in England Dutch expatriates in Italy Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism Princesses of Orange-Nassau University of Groningen alumni National Theatre School of Canada alumni People from Baarn Montessori teachers House of Lippe Blind musicians Blind educators Blind royalty and nobility Blind people from the Netherlands Deaths from bone cancer Deaths from cancer in the Netherlands Daughters of monarchs