Princess Margarita Maria Beatrix of Bourbon-Parma, Countess of Colorno ( nl, Margarita Maria Beatrix Prinses de Bourbon de Parme; born 13 October 1972),Dossier in Belgian Newspaper
is the eldest daughter of

Princess Irene of the Netherlands Princess Irene of the Netherlands (Irene Emma Elisabeth; born 5 August 1939) is the second child of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard. In 1964, she converted to Catholicism and married the then- Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon- ...

and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. She is a member of the

House of Bourbon-Parma The House of Bourbon-Parma ( it, Casa di Borbone di Parma) is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the Fren ...

as well an extended member of the

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

. Per a 1996 royal decree issued by Queen Beatrix, she is entitled to the style and title '' Her Royal Highness'' Princess Margarita de Bourbon de Parme in The Netherlands as a member of the extended royal family.

Early life

Born in Nijmegen, she is the twin sister of Prince Jaime. She also has an elder brother, Prince Carlos, and a younger sister, Princess Carolina. Her godparents are Queen

Beatrix of the Netherlands 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 husban ...

(maternal aunt) and

Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma ( es, link=no, Don Sixto Enrique de Borbón-Parma y Borbón-Busset; it, Sisto Enrico di Borbone Parma; born 22 July 1940), known as Enrique V by supporters, is considered Regent of Spain by some Carlists who ...

(paternal uncle). She is the eldest granddaughter of

Queen Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. S ...

and

Prince Bernhard , 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 = ...

. In 1981, her parents divorced. Together with her mother and her siblings she moved from

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, to live with her grandparents, 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 = ...

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

. Later she moved to

Wijk bij Duurstede Wijk bij Duurstede () is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Population centres * Cothen * Langbroek *Wijk bij Duurstede Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede, 2013.'' City The city ...

. Margarita studied Cultural

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

at the

Vrije Universiteit The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and is an

interior decorator Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...

. She studied interior architecture in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

First marriage and controversy

On 19 June 2001, Princess Margarita married the entrepreneur Edwin Karel Willem de Roy van Zuydewijn, member of a Dutch patrician family. The

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Every country maintaining a pop ...

of the couple took place in

, and the Roman Catholic marriage was held in

Auch Cathedral Auch Cathedral (french: Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch) is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Auch in the Midi-Pyrénées, France. It is a national monument, and is the seat of the Archbishopric of Auch. Under the Concord ...

(France), presided by

Ronald Philippe Bär Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form of ...

, the former

Bishop of Rotterdam The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rotterdam is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in South Holland province of the Netherlands. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht. Since 2011, the ...

, on 22 September 2001. De Roy van Zuydewijn was however not trusted by the Dutch Royal Family, and the marriage was therefore not attended by its senior members. In 2003, a series of incidents had become known as the ''Margarita-affair''. In the media Margarita and her husband accused the Dutch Royal House and the Dutch secret service of obstructing the affairs of ''Fincentives'', the company of de Roy van Zuydewijn. They also said that their telephone conversations had been secretly tapped. After some while it was revealed that the Queen's personal Cabinet had indeed ordered an investigation; the right to do so was legally removed from the Queen. The couple's home was the Bartas Castle in Saint-Georges, Gers,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, but by 2004 the princess was increasingly less seen there and more in Amsterdam. On 13 August 2004, it was revealed that she was filing for a

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

; the official divorce was signed on 8 November 2006. The marriage did not produce any children. Because of the quarrels between the princess and the Dutch Royal family during the Margarita-affair, she was not welcome at the marriage of her cousin

Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Beat ...

Máxima Zorreguieta Máxima may refer to * ''Máxima'' (magazine) * Máxima FM, Spanish radio station * Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Máxima (born Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti; 17 May 1971) is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander. A ...

, or at the funeral of her uncle,

Prince Claus of the Netherlands Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg (born Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg; 6 September 1926 – 6 October 2002) was Prince consort of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until his death in 2002 as the husband ...

. However, after her divorce from De Roy van Zuydewijn, the relationship with the royal family steadily improved again.

Second marriage and family

Wedding of Prince Jaime and Viktória Cservenyák 22

On 3 May 2008, she married Tjalling Siebe ten Cate (born 23 December 1975, in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

), a lawyer at De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch National Bank), also a member of a Dutch patrician family. Together they have two children: *''Julia'' Carolina Catharina ten Cate (born 3 September 2008 in

) *''Paola'' Cecilia Laurentien ten Cate (born 25 February 2011 in

) Her godmother is

Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands (née Petra Laurentien Brinkhorst; born 25 May 1966) is the wife of Prince Constantijn and sister-in-law of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. Early life Petra Laurentien Brinkhorst was born in ...

. The family currently lives in Amsterdam. Princess Margarita is the godmother of the three of her nieces: Princess Cecilia of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of her brother Carlos, Duke of Parma, Princess Zita Clara of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of her twin brother Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi and Alaïa-Maria Brenninkmeijer, daughter of her only sister

Princess Carolina, Marchioness of Sala Princess Maria Carolina Christina of Bourbon-Parma, Marchioness of Sala (born 23 June 1974), is the fourth and youngest child of Princess Irene of the Netherlands and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. She is a member of the House of Bourbon-Parma as ...

Titles, styles and honours

Already a ducal princess from birth, her father bestowed on 2 September 1996 the substantive title ''Contessa di Colorno'' (

Countess Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Colorno Colorno (Parmigiano dialect, Parmigiano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Parma in the Italy, Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about north of Parma. Colorno borders the following municipal ...

) upon her. The same year she was incorporated into the

Dutch nobility The Dutch nobility is a small elite social class constisting of individuals or families recognized as noble, and with or without a title of nobility in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The existence of nobility was established in the Constitution ...

by her aunt

Queen 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 husban ...

, with the highest noble title ''Prinses de Bourbon de Parme'' (Princess of Bourbon-Parma) and styled ''Hare Koninklijke Hoogheid'' ('' Her Royal Highness''). She does not belong to the House of Orange-Nassau or the limited

Dutch royal house In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the monarchy is a constitutional office and is controlled by the Constitution of the Netherlands. A distinction is made between members of the royal family and members of the royal house. Membership According t ...

, but as a granddaughter of Queen Juliana, she is officially a member of the more extended

. ;Honours * Ducal Family of Parma: Knight of the Parmese Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George * Ducal Family of Parma: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis for Civil Merit * : Recipient of the King Willem-Alexander Investiture Medal

Ancestry

References

External links

Official website of the House of Bourbon-ParmaSecond official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma

Biography of Her Royal Highness Princess Margherita Maria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margarita Of Colorno, Countess, Princess People from Nijmegen Princesses of Bourbon-Parma Dutch princesses Dutch nobility Italian nobility Spanish nobility Dutch twins 1972 births Living people