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 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 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 Soestdijk Palace ( nl, Paleis Soestdijk ) is a palace formerly belonging to 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 ...

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 ...

, the Netherlands. Her parents were Crown Princess Juliana, the only child of

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World Wa ...

, 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, 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 lifelo ...

included Queen Wilhelmina (her maternal grandmother), her eldest sister Princess Beatrix,

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

(for whom her father stood proxy), her paternal grandmother Armgard von Cramm, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and his niece Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma. 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 to ...

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. 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 let ...

, 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, thro ...

, 1975. She converted to Catholicism in 1992. The couple were married on 28 June 1975, civilly in

and then religiously in an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

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 Net ...

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

Wassenaar Wassenaar (; population: in ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and Dorp (town), town located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, on the western coast of the Netherlands. An affluent suburb of The ...

, near

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 ...

. 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). 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 a ...

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 has ...

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 Wil ...

. Dutch institutions including the

Museum Boymans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located a ...

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 A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thy ...

. She died on 16 August 2019, aged 72. Her body was taken to Fagel's Garden Pavilion nearby

Noordeinde Palace Noordeinde Palace ( nl, Paleis Noordeinde, ) is one of the three official palaces of the Dutch royal family. Located in The Hague in the province of South Holland, it has been used as the official workplace of King Willem-Alexander since 2013. ...

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 The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

* : 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 The Order of the Oak Crown (french: Ordre de la Couronne de chêne, german: Eichenlaubkronenorden, lb, Eechelaafkrounenuerden) is an order of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. History The Order of the Oak Crown was established in 1841 by Grand ...

* 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