The

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

of the Dutch sovereign has changed many times since the establishment 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 = ...

due to formations and dissolutions of

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...

s, as well as due to marriages of female sovereigns and

cognatic Cognatic kinship is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be known ...

successions.

History

The

was proclaimed on 16 March 1815, as a state in

with the

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

under

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

, a member of the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherlands ...

who had already inherited a vast number of titles and lands from his ancestors. On 19 April 1839, the

Duchy of Limburg The Duchy of Limburg or Limbourg was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire. Much of the area of the duchy is today located within Liège Province of Belgium, with a small portion in the municipality of Voeren, an Enclave and exclave, excla ...

joined the union. William I, William II and William III all ruled as kings, grand dukes and dukes. In 1866, however, the Duchy of Limburg ceased to exist as a separate polity and instead became integrated into the Kingdom of the Netherlands as a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

. William III kept the ducal title and passed it on to his successor, Wilhelmina, but she did not succeed him to the throne of Luxembourg, as the country's succession laws provided for strict observance of

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Du ...

. Thus, the reference to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg disappeared from the style of the Dutch monarch. The male line of the House of Orange-Nassau ended with the death of William III on 23 November 1890. His only surviving child and successor, Wilhelmina, married

Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (german: Heinrich Wladimir Albrecht Ernst; nl, Hendrik Vladimir Albrecht Ernst; 19 April 1876 – 3 July 1934) was Prince consort of the Netherlands from 7 February 1901 until his death in 1934 as the husband o ...

on 7 February 1901 and, as customary, assumed the feminine form of her husband's title. The title of

Duchess of Mecklenburg This is a list of the Duchesses and Grand Duchesses; the consorts of the Duke Mecklenburg and later the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Strelitz Duchess of Mecklenburg Mecklenburg-Schwerin Line (III) Mecklenburg-Strelitz Line Grand ...

was thus added to her full style. The government did not want the House of Orange-Nassau to become extinct on Wilhelmina's death, and so in 1908 she issued a royal decree conferring the title of Prince or Princess of Orange-Nassau to her descendants. Her only child,

Juliana Juliana (variants Julianna, Giuliana, Iuliana, Yuliana, etc) is a feminine given name which is the feminine version of the Roman name Julianus. Juliana or Giuliana was the name of a number of early saints, notably Saint Julian the Hospitaller, wh ...

, was therefore born not only Duchess of Mecklenburg but also Princess of Orange-Nassau, like previous members 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 ...

. When Juliana married

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 = ...

in 1936, Wilhelmina decreed that her daughter and

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

would assume the title of Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, as customary, but that it would come after her birth title of Duchess of Mecklenburg.Decree of granting the title "Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld" to HRH Prince Juliana
– Website with Legislation concerning the Royal House of the Netherlands On 4 September 1948, Wilhelmina

abdicated Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...

in favour of Juliana, which brought the title of Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld into the full style of the Dutch monarch. At the same time, the title of Duchess of Limburg was dropped, Wilhelmina being the last person to hold it. Like Wilhelmina, Juliana had no sons. She abdicated in favour of

Beatrix Beatrix is a Latin feminine given name, most likely derived from ''Viatrix'', a feminine form of the Late Latin name ''Viator'' which meant "voyager, traveller" and later influenced in spelling by association with the Latin word ''beatus'' or "bles ...

, the eldest of her four daughters, on 30 April 1980. Beatrix is not a male-line descendant of Duke Henry and thus not a Duchess of Mecklenburg. She was the first Dutch monarch in 79 years not to bear the title. Through her father, she is a Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld. On 30 April 2013, she abdicated in favour of her eldest son,

Willem-Alexander 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 Beatri ...

, who thus became the first male on the throne in 123 years. He is not a male-line descendant of Prince Bernhard and thus not a Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld. He bears the honorific

Jonkheer (female equivalent: ; french: Écuyer; en, Squire) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the ...

van Amsberg as the son of

Claus van Amsberg 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 ...

Full styles

Shortened styles

Shortened versions of the styles, used in

preamble A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subj ...

s: *1815–1890:

By the Grace of God By the Grace of God ( la, Dei Gratia, abbreviated D.G.) is a formulaic phrase used especially in Christian monarchies as an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch. For example in England and later the United Kingdom, the phrase was fo ...

, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, etc., etc., etc. *1890–2013: By the Grace of God, Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, etc., etc., etc. *2013–present: By the Grace of God, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, etc., etc., etc. Titles that have appeared in shortened styles, preceded by " His Majesty" or "Her Majesty" and the monarch's name: *1815–1890: King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, etc. *1890–1901: Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, etc. *1901–1948: Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg, etc. *1948–1980: Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, etc. *1980–2013: Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, etc. *2013–present: King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, etc.

References

{{Imperial and royal styles Dutch monarchy Royal styles