Princess Christina of the Netherlands.

The death of Princess Christina of the Netherlands, on 16 August, at the relatively young age of 72, came as a shock to many in the international community. However, the Dutch Government Information Service (RVD) disclosed, in June 2018, that the Princess had been diagnosed with bone cancer, in the autumn of 2017.

Princess Maria Christina (often referred to in her youth by her ‘roepnaam‘  of Marijke), was the youngest child of Princess (later Queen) Juliana, heir presumptive to the Dutch throne, and her German-born husband, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Her birth, on 18 February 1947, was a cause for national rejoicing, for Christina was the first royal to be born on Dutch soil since the country’s liberation from German occupation in May 1945 and the royal family’s return from a five-year exile.

However, the country’s joy was soon somewhat tempered by the discovery that the infant princess was almost blind, probably as a result of Princess Juliana having contracted German measles (rubella) during her pregnancy. Indeed, such was Juliana’s distress that Prince Bernhard sought out the services of a faith healer, Greet Hofmans. Sadly, Hofmans’ influence over the deeply religious Queen Juliana (who ascended the throne, on 6 September 1948, following the abdication of her mother Queen Wilhelmina) caused a rift between Bernhard and Juliana. Fortunately, the intervention of the Dutch government led to the Queen finally breaking off all relations with Hofmans in 1956.

Meanwhile, as Marijke grew older, her sight improved thanks to advances in optical techniques. Indeed, the Princess was eventually able to cycle from her home at the Soestdijk Palace to school in nearby Baarn, on occasion travelling so fast that she left her police detective lagging far behind. By her mid-teens, the Princess was already displaying an independence of spirit: She indicated that she now wanted to be known as ‘Christina’, having deemed Marijke as being ‘too childish.’ The Princess also swapped the hallowed halls of palace life to share a flat with a female friend. Christina later enrolled at the University of Groningen and graduated with a teaching degree.

In 1968, the Princess moved to Canada to study classical music at the Montreal Academy of Music and subsequently attended the city’s McGill University. She later relocated to New York where, as Christina van Oranje, she taught music at a Montessori school. Christina then met and fell in love with a Cuban exile, Jorge Pérez y Guillermo, the son of a doctor and a teacher of disadvantaged children at the Addie May Collins Day Care Shelter in East Harlem. However, as Jorge was a Roman Catholic, the Princess-recalling the public outcry in the Protestant Netherlands when her elder sister Irene had married the Roman Catholic Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma in 1964- decided to renounce her and her descendants’ rights to the Dutch throne even before the couple’s engagement was officially announced. 

Christina and Jorge married, first in a civil ceremony in Baarn on 28 June 1975, followed by a religious blessing at Saint Martin’s Cathedral in Utrecht. The couple returned to New York to commence married life and inhabited a large Manhattan apartment with their three children, Bernardo (born in 1977), Nicolás (1979) and Juliana (1981). In 1984, the family relocated to the Netherlands where they built a substantial house, the Villa Eikenhorst, on the De Horsten royal estate at Wassenaar. This 17th-century-style home was soon filled with fabulous paintings by the Old Masters, antique Delftware, Persian carpets and French Louis XV furniture. The music-loving Princess also had her own music room where she could practice her arias in privacy.

In April 1992, the Princess was officially received into the Roman Catholic Church. Sadly, in April 1996 Christina and her husband Jorge divorced. The Princess then decided to return to live in New York, where her children were being schooled. Her share of the contents of the Villa Eikenhorst were sold at auction at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam the following November. The house would later become the official residence of the Prince of Orange following his marriage to Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in February 2002.

The Princess continued with her interest in music. As a pianist and singer she gave many private concerts and she also sang at the wedding of her son Nicolás and the funerals of both her parents. Christina also made two CD’s and was Patron of the Princess Christina Music Competition, the aim of which is to encourage young people to develop their musical talents.

In 2007, Christina moved to London and also had a property in Italy. In 2009, she hit the headlines when it was announced that she had invested her large fortune (inherited from her mother Juliana) in a ‘Daffodil Trust’ based in the British tax haven of Guernsey. This tax-saving exercise drew condemnation from some Dutch politicians although many individuals thought the matter a private one, given that the Princess had lived overseas for so many years and undertook no official engagements. According to the Dutch press, this trust was closed down in 2016.

In recent years, the Princess had taken a keen interest in dance and sound therapy techniques which could assist the blind and visually impaired. She share this knowledge at workshops arranged by the Visio Foundation in the Dutch towns of Huizen and Breda.

Following her death at the Noordeinde Palace in the Hague, Princess Christina’s mortal remains were transported to Fagel’s Garden Pavilion in the palace grounds , to allow close friends and family to pay their final respects. A private cremation service will follow.