Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener discretion advised. On July twenty eighth, nineteen forty, the BBC began broadcasting a new radio show, Radio Aranhe or Orange, was a fifteen minute long program. Each episode began with the words radio Orange here the voice of a combatant Netherlands. The show provided timely reports on war developments, and it implored the Dutch
population not to comply with occupying forces. The show even included encrypted messages meant for the resistance in the Netherlands. The program was hosted by voices of Dutch resistance in exile, authors, journalists, historians, performers, including the journalist A Den Dullard, who had begun publishing reports warning against the impending rise of fascism back in nineteen thirty seven. The show also featured the Jewish singer Jetty Pearl performed songs on the show mocking the Nazis.
She would later join the Women's Auxiliary Corps of the Royal Netherland Army. But perhaps Pearl's most shining accomplishment is that after the war, she became the first singer to perform in the first ever Eurovision Song Contest. Despite Pearl's holding of that prestigious title, Radio Orange had a recurring speaker with another, possibly even more impressive title, Queen of
the Netherlands. This war is about giving the war the world a guarantee that those who want goodwill not be prevented from accomplishing it, Queen Wilhelmina spoke now translated in that first broadcast. Those who believe that the spiritual values acquired by mankind can be destroyed by the edge of the sword must learn to realize their vanity. Brute violence
cannot deprive people of their convictions. Radio Orange was so popular amongst the Dutch population that in May nineteen forty three, German authorities ordered Dutch citizens to hand in their radios. Many did not comply, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has a photo in their archives of a group of Dutch resistance members and the Jews that they were protecting,
all crowded together around a contraband radio. Though Queen Wilhelmina didn't appear in every broadcast, her speeches on the program were so influential that, even beyond being a leader during that time, she became a major symbol of resistance for the Dutch people. Though these radio broadcasts were a major and lasting moment in her reign, World War.
Two was far from the first.
Event that Wilhelmina led the Dutch people through.
After her father's death.
In eighteen ninety, she had become queen at only ten years old. A wartime queen twice over, Wilhelmina reigned during an era of great monarchical influence, the likes of which we will almost certainly never see again, and influence she did. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. The majority of our detailed information on Wilhelmina's life comes from the
woman herself. Her nineteen fifty nine memoir, the aptly titled for a monarch book, Lonely but Not Alone, opens with her earliest memories and concludes with the end of her reign. Because retirement is relatively rare among monarchs, this book is incredibly unique as a retrospective. We rarely get to read, in a monarch's own words, their reflections and opinions on
their entire reign as a whole. It's not Prince Harry's spare levels of juicy, but it's still a rare and insightful look into the thoughts and feelings of being a royal book having all the markings of an autobiography, Wilhelmina warns the reader against that very classification quote. The reader should not expect to find here a political or historical account or an autobiography. She writes, such works are concerned with other aspects of life. I shall invite the reader
to follow me on a higher plane. What sort of higher plane you might be wondering? Supernatural romance? A Kafka esque interrogation of the self alas no, Wilhelmina meant more straightforwardly, the subject of this book is God's guidance of our people in past, present, and future. The memoir does devote much of its time to the role of Christianity in Wilhelmina's life and reign, but her notion that it doesn't serve as a history or autobiography says more about wilhelmi
then the text itself. Chapter one, titled Father and Mother, opens with the line let me begin by saying that I still possess my father's walking stick, with which I was always allowed to play when we went out for a stroll. If the world is not too strong for the uncertain steps of a child at the age of
three or four. Wilhelmina goes on to recount that she and her father had a daily hour of play, beginning at five o'clock in the evening, which was but one slice of life in what seems to have been the idealized princess girlhood. The bits and pieces she described sound straight out of a story book. Wilhelmina remembers sledding with her mother, her father buying the three of them matching
fur coats for the winter. A chalet that I am imagine as a child sized version of the Marie Antoinette Queen's Hamlet was built for Wilhelmina in the gardens, with a dovecot, a duck pond, a playground, and a donkey
to ride. She remembers the estate's gun maker, who for her acted as the quote good fairy, mending her broken toys like Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, And in perhaps the most stereotypical memory of a young princess's life, she joyfully recalls her father announcing that Shetland ponies would be arriving for her quote no less than four in number. Above all, she describes a closeness with her parents that's often missing
in other accounts of royal life. The family lived between the newer Deaned Palace in the Hague and Hetloo Palace built by the House of Orange in Appledorn, which was primarily used as a summer residence. This was the life of the only child of King William the Third and his second wife, Queen Emma. However, Princess Wilhelmina was not
initially raised to be a queen. When the widowed King William married Emma, his second wife, in eighteen seventy nine, two of three sons he had still lived, the marriage was not intended to produce an air. In fact, the existing heirs were older than their new stepmother. The king was forty one years older than his twenty one year old bride. Apparently, Emma was the fifth woman he tried
to marry after the death of his wife. Following a French opera singer whom the government pressured him to break up with his own niece, the Princess of Denmark and Emma's older sister. Sounds like the making of an incredible season of The Bachelor nineteenth century edition. Despite the lack of political incentive, Emma did give birth to a child,
a daughter, Wilhelmina, in eighteen eighty. By this point, another of the king's sons had died of typhus, which meant that will Helmina was third in line to inherit the throne. You might be thinking third in line she only had one more living, older brother, but there was a semisalic system in place at the time. Basically it meant men first, so Wilhelmina was behind her uncle and her father's remaining son.
But Wilhelmina's uncle would die when she was just one years old, and her half brother died when she was four, which rapidly changed the importance not only a Wilhelmina's role, but also of her mother's. This was increasingly true as it became clear that William would likely not live to see his daughter, his only remaining heir, reach adulthood. In eighteen eighty seven, just before his seventieth birthday, William fell ill.
Wilhelmina recalls that during his last few years he hardly left the house, No longer able to take the strolls with his daughter that she had opened her book with. While Wilhelmina's mother cared for her father, Wilhelmina spent more time than ever with her governess, Miss Winter, who would be a major influence on her life.
Quote.
She herself did not hide for anybody or evade anyone. She was a bold woman, Wilhelmina writes of her. The night that we will Wilhelmina's father died, Wilhelmina was sleeping in her mother's bed, waiting for her to return from her father's side. But when her mother did appear in the doorway, it was with the news that her father was gone. From that moment on, Wilhelmina reflected, many things changed. My undisturbed playing had come.
To an end.
It was eighteen ninety and the ten year old princess, who had been gifted Shetland ponies, had become Queen of the Netherlands. Overnight after the funeral, Emma was sworn in as regent and the family relocated permanently to court at the Hague. Life became what Wilhelmina describes as quote, permanently semi official. It was only when she was alone with her mother, that she could fully be a child again.
Beyond that, Wilhelmina wrote, we were denied many innocent pleasures for the sake of convention, which could also function as the tagline for many episodes of this show. Wilhelmina writes, I shall from now on refer to these conditions as the cage. The name speaks for itself. One felt hedged in and longed for freedom. It is the great irony that has plagued royal families for generations. All the wealth, power and privilege in the world, and a self designed
gilded cage to perform the same restrictive, monotonous motions. And As a child queen with her mother in charge, Wilhelmina's duties mostly consisted of royal visits and public appearances in between her studies. Those events were highly important in restoring the Dutch population's good opinion of the monarchy, which had been unfavorable for years before.
They took a liking to.
Emma's greater emphasis on a connection to her people, a notion that Wilhelmina would continue. The story goes that in Wilhelmina's first public appearance as the ten year old monarch. She asked her mother, MoMA, do all these people belong to me? No, my child, the regent queen replied, it
is you who belong to all these people. When it came to Wilhelmina's studies, she was devout in her Christianity from an early age, and on top of her religious education, she learned foreign languages and the sciences, but those lessons eventually ceased in favor of a focus on Him, my story and geography. Her education reaffirmed her belief of her status as living within the cage.
In her notes at the time.
She expressed her frustration with the government handling of the Boer War, a conflict in which the self governing Dutch settlers of the Boer Republics resisted annexation by Great Britain. The government did not fulfill the urge in their hearts, she wrote at the time, referring to the people, and I felt that the public wished to see me openly revealing my sympathy for our kinsmen. How could I as the head of state. These feelings shaped the young queen's politics.
She remained pro bore and anti British for life. In another particular, anecdote, she notes being moved after learning about the laws and religions in the Dutch East India modern day Indonesia. She was quote stirred to pity by accounts of human sacrifices made to appease evil spirits, and quote took a warm interest in the efforts to spread the gospel among these poor people, another very classic royal sentiment. When Wilhelmina was nearly fifteen, she and her mother traveled to England to.
Meet the then fifty eight.
Year old Queen Victoria and her family. In Victoria's diary, she wrote, quote, the young Queen, who will be fifteen in August, still has her hair hanging loose. She is very slight and graceful, has fine features, and seems to be very intelligent and a charming child. She speaks English extremely well and has very pretty manners. There was a composite photo made of the two of them at the
time to commemorate this historic visit. In the photo, Willhelmina looks like a witch brought the American girl doll Samantha to life, and Queen Victoria looks like the same witch cursed her to sleep with her eyes open. I'll put the photo on the Noble Blood Instagram and Patreon. Like England, the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament where the monarch acts as head of state, but a prime
minister wheeled greater political power. In her teenage years, Wilhelmina's mother, as acting ruler, began to take her along to the States General to.
Prepare for her role.
Will Helmina recalls that at the very moment when she turned eighteen, she signed her first official papers, and with that her reign began. She was formally sworn in a few days later on September sixth, eighteen ninety eight. She describes these early years of her tenure as a state of limbo. Quote, behaving like a grown up, becoming reigning queen is not the same thing as attaining one's full maturity, she reflects fairly wisely, in my opinion, she understood she
gave off the illusion of being grown up. But in her words, she was conscious of avoid in her existence, which was going to be filled up only very slowly. Not a girl, not yet a woman in this moment. In her memoir, Wilhelmina takes a moment to note that in the summer of eighteen ninety eight, her coming of age coincided with the national exhibition of women's work put on by the first Dutch women's organization, Tetzelshad, which is still operating today.
It was an event styled after.
The World's Fair, which displayed art and handicrafts by Dutch women, along with speeches, lectures, and performances. It was considered a major moment in Dutch first wave feminism, and when Devrau or the Woman was held as a follow up exhibition
in nineteen thirteen, the Queen attended twice. Wilhelmina doesn't comment on the content of the conference, noting diplomatically that it would be quote outside her scope, but her choice to mention it despite that signifies that it must have had an impact on her self perception during this adolescent era of self actualization. The next major phase in that journey was her engagement and marriage. In February of nineteen oh one, less than two years after her official personal reign began,
Wilhelmina married Duke Henrik of Mecklenburg Schwerin. Their relationship can perhaps best be described in the words of the tagline of Greta Gerwig's barbie. She's everything, He's just ken. In her memoir, she describes neither her engagement nor her husband with even the slightest hint of romance, but she notes that he liked hunting and boats, that he was kind and helpful, and always accompanied by his faithful dot sound Helga.
He appears so infrequently in her memoir that we may as well get it out of the way now that he was known as a frequent adulterer and fathered a child with a mistress. While Henrik may not have inspired a great passion in her life, Wilhelmina recount that the marriage itself catalyzed a major turning point in regards to her perceptions of her own freedom. It seems that realizing she didn't even have the freedom to act as a traditional wife if she wanted to.
Stirred something greater.
In her quote, I sought and found my freedom of action, not always without causing shocks my inner freedom I had achieved years before. We took less and less notice of the conventions of the cage and went our own way, arousing a great deal of friction and criticism end quote.
The friction she mentions, appears to have been between herself and the nation's politicians, not her husband, Politicians who did not appreciate the queen having much of anything to say, especially considering her pro Bore politics, which is actually slightly leading name for people in this context who opposed the Bore War, which was a colonial war happening in South Africa. The people, however, felt more kinship with the monarchy than they had for many many years. Wilhelmina was more on
the side of the people than the politicians. The next major event in Wilhelmina's personal life is not discussed in her memoir at all, the birth of a stillborn son in nineteen o two. Four years later, her second pregnancy would also end with a miscarriage. For the people whose job it was to worry about these things, there was increasing anxiety as to what would happen if the queen did not produce an air But in April nineteen o nine,
the couple's daughter, Juliana, was born healthy. I must leave it to the reader to imagine our parental happiness at her arrival after we had waited eight years, Wilhelmina writes. The mother daughter relationship would go on to mirror the closeness of Wilhelmina and her own mother, and even when writing as an old woman, Wilhelmina's memoir is constantly interjected at random times with references to Juliana and her life.
Even as queen, Wilhelmina writes that she devoted every bit of time she could to being a mother to her only child. But only a few short years after Juliana's birth, Wilhelmina's role as queen would take on new urgent levels of responsibility. Those with an inside knowledge of politics had long foreseen that the world would be plunged into a
war of unprecedented horror, Wilhelmina writes. She recalls that in the early day days after Germany declared war on Russia in nineteen fourteen, actions were taken with the intent of minimizing national anxiety, like Wilhelmina taking a normal train from Amsterdam back to the Hague. Even though the matter required some urgency. The Netherlands maintained the policy of neutrality that they had held since eighteen thirty, but the army still
had to be mobilized as an act of deterrence. There was a march as the garrison from the Hague deported, and Wilhelmina made a grand show of patriotism, holding Juliana on her shoulders as the royal family, saying the national
anthem with the cheering crowds. As a woman, Wilhelmina could not act as supreme commander of the armed forces, but she still performed regular inspections of the army and navy, not only to make sure that things were up to the standards she wanted to set, but to reinforce morale
and set an example of endurance and tenacity. There's a story that before the war began, the last German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm the second, boasted to the young queen, quote, my guards are seven feet tall, and yours are only shoulder high to them. Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied, quite true, your majesty, your guards are seven feet tall, but when we open our dykes, the water is ten feet deep.
A good comeback.
She understood the country's spiritual and psychological needs for a leader and knew that.
It was a role that she had to fulfill. Quote.
A war makes special demands. The confidence that was sufficient in peacetime is no longer enough. Confidence was the word that echoed in me constantly. My thinking and acting were long dominated by the thought I had to earn it end. Just three days after Germany declared war on Russia on August fourth, nineteen fourteen, Germany invaded Belgium, The Netherlands began to accept Belgian refugees, and the Dutch began to learn firsthand of the cruelty that people were being subjected to.
Wilhelmina notes that it was hard to remain neutral for those four years, but neutrality is not an emotional stance, but a political one. At heart, man is never neutral, she reflected, despite no further divulgences, at least in her writing as to which way her heart was leaning at the moment. As it became clear that Germany was going to lose the war and the war was approaching its end, a surprising guest star returns to our story Kaiser Wilhelm
with the German war effort of failure. The Kaiser was forced to abdicate in nineteen eighteen, marking the end of the German Empire and the beginning of the German Republic. Wilhelmina says she'll never forget the November morning, when she woke to the news that the Kaiser had crossed their borders into the province of Limburg. First, the news came to her from the government, and it was soon followed by a telegram from the Kaiser himself, attempting to explain
his actions. Wilhelmina did not seem fond of the Kaiser before the war, and the sentiment would continue. At first, she questioned if his decision to flee his country was an attempt to prevent needless bloodshed, but it soon became clear that he was only out to save his own behind quote. His habit of listening to the councils of these advisers, who had neither the statesmanship nor the courage which the situation demanded, had been his undoing.
She wrote.
Despite her seemingly negative personal feelings towards the man, the Dutch government allowed him to stay. Wilhelmina herself invited his wife to join him in the Netherlands, not out of hospitality, apparently, but out of the expectation that she would be a good influence on her husband. Their son, the Crown Prince, soon followed. The Allied governments, of course, attempted to extradite the man and his son, but by virtue of the
netherlands neutrality and right of asylum, they refused. Despite this and their neutrality, the Netherlands was still a founding member of the New League of Nations. The revolution happening next door stirred what Wilhelmina calls commotion in some groups of the population, and notes that there were a tense few days.
That's all the credence she gives to Red Week the unsuccessful Dutch Socialist revolution of nineteen eighteen, and while her language is minimizing, it was quite literally only a few days long. On October eleventh, the Dutch royal family was relocated to the Hague for safety as talk of a revolution grew, but by October thirteenth it was apparently clear that the revolution was dead. Wilhelmina reflects on her personal life during the four years of the First World War
as an essential time in her spiritual growth. She recalls conversations with two older acquaintances, both of whom felt that the war had disillusioned them about humanity. The Queen notes that she was moved by their feelings, but also pitied them as the strength of her faith prevented her from the emptiness that they were experiencing, in fact, the emptiness that so many in Europe and around the world were feeling in the aftermath of the destruction of the First
World War. Wilhelmina now saw in her words that the loneliness she had been plagued with from the minute she became a young queen was her quote opportunity with God, and she would fill her quiet moment with religious text and spiritual reflection.
Quote.
In spite of all the worries the war caused us, my personal problems were gradually solved. Thus the end of the First World War was also the end of a period in my life. That's what we in the business call some positive personal framing. She also acknowledges that by the time the war ended, she was no longer the young queen. At thirty eight, she felt she was approaching middle age. As to how the First World War changed her as a ruler, Wilhelmina emphasized a need to adapt
to public displays of the monarchy. There should be no more ostentation, she wrote, My conduct should always correspond with people's profound feelings about life. There should be contact with all classes of the population in their working, thinking, and feeling. The war also presented her with the novel idea that her staff had quote rights as well as duties, and
she essentially established an HR for them. There's no good way to transition from that to the next thing that I want to mention, which is that, while it's hard to find sourcing on this fact, apparently Wilhelmina's business acumen during the interwar period led her to become the world's
first female billionaire in dollars. This is not something will Helmina herself talks about in her writing, so I don't want to claim this as concrete fact, but we do know that Wilhelmina had significant, if possibly not that significant, personal wealth. She also learned how to paint. That brings us to nineteen thirty eight. Wilhelmina notes that as early as he was appointed, she apparently had no doubt in her mind that Hitler would establish a dictatorship. She followed
closely as he invaded Austria then Czechoslovakia. She writes of living in the knowledge that they were headed toward catastrophe. Knowing Hitler's sights were set on Europe as a whole. After British and the French declared war in nineteen thirty nine, the Netherlands once again declared neutrality. Still they knew it was only a matter of time before an attack, which arrived months later in May nineteen forty. Wilhelmina spent the night of May ninth in an air raid shelter, and
at four a m the Germans crossed the border. The Hague was the source of an attack in the morning, and it was becoming clear that the royal family could no longer stay. Juliana, now grown, and her children left first. Wilhelmina attempted to stay, and quote rang up the King of England one night and asked for assistance. She writes that she could hear the war approaching from her shelter, and on the morning of May thirteenth, the commander in
chief advised that the Queen leave the Hague. She agreed and hurriedly packed a few belongings and left with a few others, including her head of security. The first place they attempted to go was the Hook of Holland.
A town in the southwest.
Corner of the country, but bombs began to drop over the town. As soon as they arrived. The group was able to find a British destroyer ready to set sail, and they attempted to go to the town of Zealand in Flanders, but the British ship captain wasn't able to make contact with the town. With no knowledge of what they might be sailing into, the decision was made to
go instead to England. Of course, I was fully aware of the shattering impression that my departure would make it home, she reflected, but I considered myself obliged for the sake of the country to accept the risk of appear to have resorted to ignonymous flight. Wilhelmina was greeted in London by her daughter Juliana and by King George, who invited her to stay as a guest of the palace with
himself and the Queen of England. Juliana, however, would leave with her children for Canada when it became clear that Wilhelmina's stay in England would be indefinite. She purchased a house for herself in Eton Square.
She tells the reader.
It was here that I met the first Engelin Varda, which the book's translator note was the word used for a Dutch person who had escaped to England, where I heard the first broadcast of Radio Orange and received the first letters from Juliana. And it was here that I accustomed myself to exile. As to the experience of being a queen in exile, Wilhelmina expresses that above all else, she needed to maintain iron clad self control, which is
an ironic fate. Following the rigidity she once detested in her eyes, Any decision making capabilities would be lost once she gave rein to emotions and human pity. As a ruler abroad, she sought to continue her rule, but a government in exile couldn't function the same as one at home. Military plans were kept secret from her, and much of her work at this time was to keep in contact with.
Fellow heads of state.
The Battle of Britain soon began, and work was often interrupted by the sirens urging citizens to make their way to shelters. By September, Wilhelmina began to take her work to the shelter daily at half past six and stay there until the morning. Wilhelmina eventually moved to a house in the country, then a new place in London in Chester Square. The Eton Square House was set up by the government as a home for England varters. During this dark time, Wilhelmina felt booyed by the support of Dutch
people abroad seeking to aid their homeland. A collection of funds was raised to support the war effort, and the Queen often received letters of support from those abroad and those still in her occupied homeland. Many even attempted to encode secret messages to inform her of the situation at home, and while Wilhelmina appreciated their efforts, she feared for the
safety of anyone trying to smuggle her messages. For the first few months in exile, she was completely cut off from the news in the Netherlands and the England Vard connections to resistance groups at home became her major source of information. In her writing, she holds them in great regard. Many of those anglandvarters were resistance members who had fled when it had become clear that they would soon be unable to continue to fight at home, and so they
had come to join the forces in London. Wilhelmina note that the Dutch abroad formed a community in London something like a large village where everyone knew everyone. She worked to establish a Dutch center to centralize information and resources, as well as to further her own connection with the expats. The opening of the center was the first time the queen wore a Marguerite or daisy brooch, which would become
a symbol of Dutch resistance. She wanted the Dutch in Britain to have an identifiable symbol of solidarity, and she chose the daisy for something quote immaculate white, an expression of sorrow and vope, and an object within everyone's reach. Juliana's daughter, born during the war, was given the name Marguerite. The British government sought to aid the Dutch community by opening Netherlands House, a meeting place for both communities, where
social meetings, lectures, and musical gatherings were held. Wilhelmina herself was often in attendance. She learned through these lectures that the people were quote not only longing for liberation, but also a new era. Liberation should not mean a return
to the old conditions. During this time, engelend Vards would come to their office and share with her their visions of the future and Wilhelmina held a conference specifically for Dutch university students in Britain to share their experiences with student resistant movement. Their ideas were so influential, in fact, that Wilhelmina planned to oust the Prime Minister and build a new cabinet entirely formed by resistance members who had
lived in the occupied state through the war. She writes that she shared the people's ideas about future policies with the current Prime Minister and informed him that she wanted to be the one to lead the charge when it came to reforms. This was the catalyst for Radio Orange,
which began this episode. My broadcast speeches were not only concerned with the new Times, the Queen reflects, they also aimed at inspiring and stiffening resistance against the oppressor and at informing the nation of the government's policy.
Her desired effect.
Was achieved, As mentioned at the top of the episode, Radio Orange was extremely popular among the people, and the Queen was more popular than ever. Her New York Times obituary shares an anecdote in which churchgoers in the fishing town of Huisen sang one verse of the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus von Naussai on the queen's sixtieth birthday, but the Nazis had explicitly forbidden any celebrations of the Queen's birthday, and the town paid a fine of sixty thousand guilders.
In nineteen forty two, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wilhelmina traveled to the United States for a national tour at the invitation of President Roosevelt. She greatly admired both the President himself as well as the First Lady, namely for her independence in addition to her devotion to her husband. During this trip, Wilhelmina became the first queen to address Congress. Back in England, Wilhelmina also began to meet more frequently with Churchill, who once called her the only real man
among the governments in exile. Wilhelmina finally returned to the Netherlands in nineteen forty five, when she crossed the Dutch border on foot. The reception from her people was incredibly warm. While there were certainly those who resented the queen for leaving, by and large, the Dutch citizens were thrilled at their queen's return. In her later years after the war, Wilhelmina opted for life in the countryside and could often be seen doing what the Dutch liked to do best, riding
her bike. Her reign would only continue three more years. In nineteen forty eight, she abdicated as her health began to fail. Juliana had already briefly taken over her monarchical duties at the end of nineteen forty seven, but now she was officially to be sworn in as queen. How numerous were and are my reasons for gratitude, Wilhelmina reflects my confidence in Juliana's warm feelings for the people we both loved so much, and in her devotion to the
task that was awaiting her. Then also the fact that my office was transferred to her during my lifetime, and that I might have the opportunity to see some of her reign. Really, there is no room, Wilhelmina wrote, for sadness in my heart. Her reign was fifty seven years and two hundred and eighty six days. Wilhelmina did get to see over a decade of her daughter's reign before she died of cardiac arrest at Hetloo Palace. At the
age of eighty two. At her request, the royal family held a white funeral, a symbol of the Queen's faith, which signified her belief that death was only the beginning of eternal life. That's the story and tumultuous long life of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. But stick around after a brief sponsor break for a.
Little sweet fact. A book called Sweets, A.
History of Candy might not be the place you'd expect to find royal history, but in the section devoted to the Netherlands, author Tim Richardson notes the candy that's quote most Dutch of all, the Wilhelmina Mint. In eighteen ninety two, the head of the Dutch candy company Fortune asked the young Queen Wilhelmina if he could name his new peppermint
after her as a celebration of her twelfth birthday. Queen Regent Emma wrote a reply on behalf of her daughter, saying that it's fine and she leaves it entirely up to him, a very diplomatic answer. He went ahead with the idea and produced a line of candies featuring Wilhelmina's portrait on each mint. The peppermints were such a hit with the Royal family that Fortune received the predicate of
Purveyor to the Royal Household in eighteen ninety six. It's a title that the candy company still holds to this day. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manki. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Shchwort, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodnes. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive
producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.