On this day in 1909, Princess Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was born. She was reigning Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until she abdicated the throne on her birthday in 1980.
In 1937, Juliana married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. This spoon commemorates their 50th wedding anniversary in 1987.
At the start of WWII, (then) Princess Juliana, Bernard, and their children fled to the United Kingdom. Juliana and the children continued on to Ottawa, Canada, while Bernhard and her mother, Queen Wilhelmina, remained in the U.K., setting up a Dutch government in exile.
Juliana remained in Ottawa, with Bernhard visiting from time to time. In 1943, when her third child, Princess Margriet, was born, the Governor of Canada passed a special law that declared Juliana’s rooms at the Ottawa Civic Hospital as “extraterritorial” so that Princess Margriet would have strictly Dutch citizenship and could remain in the line of succession for the throne.
Margriet’s older sister, Beatrix, eventually became Queen, followed by Beatrix’s son, Prince Willem.