There are two Dutch civilian orders of chivalry: the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands and the Order of Orange-Nassau. These honours are conferred on people who have rendered outstanding service to society. Candidates are nominated via the mayor of the municipality where they live. Foreign nationals may also receive an honour, for which they are nominated via the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The only military order of chivalry is the Military Order of William, awarded for bravery. This is conferred on civilians, military personnel and units that have distinguished themselves by performing acts of conspicuous bravery, leadership and devotion to duty. It is the oldest Order in the Netherlands and is ranked as the highest.
In 1994, the Dutch honours system was extensively revised after almost thirty years of discussion. This revision intended to create a more democratic system, disconnecting the level of the honours from rank and social status. In principle, since then everyone in Dutch society can be honoured. In practice, this relates largely to the Order of Orange-Nassau. And, as we will see with this Order, the setting up of an Order of Chivalry within the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a matter of law and the job of Parliament.
The annual awarding of Honours is called the Lintjesregen or ribbon shower. The Awards are published in a special edition of the Government Gazette on the day before King's Day. Under King Willem-Alexander King's Day is his birthday, 27th April. In 2020 the announcements were made on Friday 24th April. Under the circumstances and because of the virus, arrangements were changed. Local mayors personally contacted the 3,060 citizens to be honoured (out of the 3,325 proposals received) and in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom it was the governors. 11 people were appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and 3,049 people were appointed to one of the degrees in the Order of Oranje-Nassau, of whom 2646 people (87%) were appointed Member.
No Member of the Dutch Royal Family, not even the Monarch themselves, appears to have encircled their Arms with the Collar or Riband of any Order since Prince Hendrik, Consort of Queen Wilhelmina. He, however, used the Chain of the Order of the Wendish Crown from the country where he was born - Mecklenburg. However, the Dutch Monarch surrounds his Shield with the Riband and Badge of the Military Order of William at the centre of the Cross on his Standard. This was changed slightly in 2013 when King Willem-Alexander came to the Throne. The Badge now hangs from a larger bow, rather than a rosette, All other Members of the Dutch Royal Family show the Shield and Crown at the centre of the Cross without the Riband. |
Order of the Netherlands Lion
The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands (Dutch: De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw) was founded by King William I of the Netherlands on 29th September 1815 and is the oldest and highest civilian Order of Chivalry in the Netherlands. The Order was set up 6 months after William became the first King of the newly formed Netherlands, following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Until recently awarded to eminent individuals from all walks of life, the original Decree sought... ...to honor all Dutchmen who give evidence of proven patriotism, special zeal and fidelity in the accomplishment of their civic duties or extraordinary competence in sciences and arts. Since 1980, the Order has been used to recognise artistic achievement, scientific research, technical innovation, innovative entrepreneurship, sport and literature. |
The Order, however, ranks after the Military William Order, which is only awarded for military merit. Foreigners are not awarded the second and third class of the Netherlands Lion but are eligible for the Order of Orange-Nassau or the Order of the Crown instead.
The Riband is of silk and was originally in Nassau blue (variously described as ultramarine, cobalt or signal blue) with two golden stripes. Recently, the Ribands have been coloured more Nassau blue and orange. The original moiré effect has disappeared. Grand Crosses wear the Riband over the right shoulder. Queen Juliana was sometimes known to have worn the Riband over her left shoulder. The Star is now made of gold, but in the past they were also made of silver. Queen Juliana , whose star was lost in May 1940, often wore such an antique silver star.
Today's decorations are not particularly expensive as they are made of silver gilt rather than solid gold. The Grand Cross with Star and Riband can remain in the possession of the family after the death of the decorated person for € 2,093. The decorations of a Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion cost € 1,654 euros and the Knight's Cross € 240.
When the Order was originally constitued in 1815 The Kingdom of the Netherlands still included what is now Belgium and so the country was bilingual - Dutch and French. The Order was known at that time in French as "l'Ordre du Lion Belgique" or "Order of the Belgian Lion". This version expired in 1830 when Belgium gained its inxdependence and The Netherlands were no longer a bilingual country. (This, of course, is not to be confused with the Royal Order of the Lion in Belgium which was constituted by King Leopold II in 1891 for services to Belgian Congo...)
Recent recipients include "icons of design and creativity" Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, professors Ton Backx, Philip Scheltens and Bert Meijer and broadcasting engineer Peter Centen. Gaining a "Dutch Lion" has always been coveted and there have been many disputes, sometimes involving the King himself with the threat to "stop wearing the Dutch Lion...". The appointment of Richard Krajicek as a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion was criticised by Hans Wiegel (himself a knight in this order) because Krajicek lived as a tax exile in Monaco. Wiegel wondered whether a 'man who avoids Dutch taxes and wins a few tennis matches' is entitled to a "Dutch Lion".
Although a lot is said about it no longer being important that one is high in rank or status and that the awards themselves are of equal merit, it is now stated in the regulations of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and the Order of Orange-Nassau that meritorious athletes, meaning the winners of gold medals at the Olympic Games, will become knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau instead of the Netherlands Lion.
Order of the Netherlands Lion: Brother
Associated with the Order of the Netherlands Lion was the grade known as Brother. It was originally intended as an award to those who performed useful acts of self-sacrifice or other acts of kindness towards fellow human beings. The award came with an annual payment of 200 Guilders, of which half would be paid to the widow(er) at the death of the award holder. The first female Brother was midwife Johanna Goozen, who was admitted in 1921. During Queen Juliana's reign, Brother became an award for lifeboat crews. The last award was made on 8th April 1960. By 1994 there were no living Brothers or surviving widow(er)s and the grade was abolished on 15th April. The Brothers' Medal (shown here) was silver with the Lion from the Netherlands Coat of Arms on the obverse and the Motto Virtus Nobilitat (English: Virtue Ennobles) on the reverse. The Riband for Brothers was blue with a single orange central stripe. |
Order of Orange-Nassau
The founding of the Order of Orange-Nassua (Dutch: Orde van Oranje-Nassau) was long and labourious. The reason for its introduction, however, was simple. Until the death of King William III on 23rd November 1890, the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were in a personal union under the Crown. Succession in Luxembourg, however, was governed under the Salic Law, which meant that William's daughter Wilhelmina could only succeed in the Netherlands. Only the nearest male relative could succeed in Luxembourg and so Aldolphe, Duke of Nassau became the next Grand Duke. Apart from the exclusive Order of the Netherlands Lion, there were no awards in the Netherlands that the government could grant for minor merits. Up to William's death, the king had the opportunity, albeit in his capacity as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, of awarding the Luxembourg Order of the Oak Crown. The first obstacle came with William's funeral. As was the custom at the time, the many members of the foreign deputations at the funeral all counted on an appropriate decoration in memory of their presence. The Dutch government could not break that tradition without causing much bad blood. The only available Dutch decoration left, the Order of the Netherlands Lion, offered no possibility in a society obsessed by ranks and classes. Prussia, in comparison, had 19 possibilities at the time. The Dutch government refused to consider the option of handing out tie pins and portraits in attractive frames, and had to order 13 grand crosses and stars and 26 commander's crosses and stars for the "Dutch Lion" at a huge cost. Consequently, the House of Representatives made a number of suggestions and there was much discussion with the Senate. |
With a design which many have found particularly uninspiring, the draft bill did not meet with much approval. Many ministers thought a second Order irrelevant and pointed out the many parallels with the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Others objected to the name of the Royal House being associated with a 'second set'. There were huge debates about the order being awarded with 'Swords' and about gold, silver and bronze Medals of Honour. The law was finally passed and Queen Regent Emma, on behalf of her young daughter Queen Wihlemina, instituted the Order of Orange-Nassau on 4th April 1892.
However, for many years, there was no agreement on the functional differences between the two Orders and so confusion arose. This was not helped by the fact that Queen Emma remains the only member of the Dutch Royal family who has ever worn the Order because she was the only member of the Dutch Royal Family to be included in the Order!
On the other hand, the number of appointments to the Order has continued to rise from the institution until a record number of appointments in 1971. This was due to the many associations and companies founded immediately after the Liberation and the many associated anniversaries.
Reform did not come until 1996, prepared by the Minister of the Interior, Ien Dales. This was mainly marked by the replacement of the Medals of Honour with a Member Class and a system less dominated by just 'years of service'. In 2012 standards for qualification and promotion were applied by the Chancellery of the Netherlands Orders.
Whilst originally thought of as uninspiring and hardly original, the colours of the Riband - Nassau blue, white and orange - which had already been widely used in Dutch awards, have never been changed.
Military William Order
At the institution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, King William I was looking for an Order to reward those who had helped in the Napoleonic Wars. He considered a version of the Order of the Golden Fleece (which had been founded by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, in Bruges, i.e. the Low Countries, in 1430) or one of the Burgundian Cross. But since the Dutch constitution stipulated that orders of knighthood could only be established by law, he had to abide by the decisions of bureaucrats in the Council of State, High Council of Nobility and the ministries. The Military William Order (Dutch: Militaire Willems-Orde, abbreviated to MWO) is the oldest and highest honour in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Order was established on 30th April 1815 by King William I and is named after St. William of Gellone (755–814), the first Prince of Orange and not the King. St. William was a Frenchman and a cousin of Charlemagne. The title Prince of Orange came into the Nassau family in the 16th century. As formulated at its institution in 1815, the Order is conferred for acts that show "Courage, Policy and Loyalty". This also largely remains the Order's Motto, which In Dutch is: Voor Moed, Beleid en Trouw |
The Design for the Cross was presented to King William I by the High Council of Nobility in 1815 and was probably the work of heraldic draftsman Antonie Frederik Zurcher, who also drew up the national Coat of Arms in the same year. Designs were also made for a Chain but this has never been made. Between the arms of the white Maltese Cross should, according to Article 6 of the Act, be the Cross of Burgundy. As the symbol of the late medieval Netherlands this was a Saltire raguly (with what look like saw teeth) and in red, whereas the Saltire on the Star is green and looks like a Saltire of laurel leaves. Some say it should a St. Andrew's Cross or plain Saltire as, confusingly, St. Andrew was the Patron Saint of the Duchy of Burgundy. According to writer Jan Albertus van Zelm van Eldik, who was Secretary of the Chancellery of the Dutch Orders from 1948 to 1977, it was unclear to officials and jewellers from the beginning what exactly the Cross should look like. At the centre of the Badge is what is called a Firesteel and this comes from the Order of the Golden Fleece. The original Firesteel is in the shape of a B for Burgundy, but here it is rotated and sits effectively on its back.
Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
The House Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau is not a specific Dutch Order of Chivalry but was founded by King William III of the Netherlands, in his capacity as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and his cousin, Duke Adolphe of Nassau, who would become Grand Duke of Luxembourg when William died. The Order aims to be a symbol of the unity and connectedness of the two lines of the House of Nassau (the Ottonian line which gave rise to the monarchs of the Netherlands and the Walram line which became the dukes of Nassau). On 29th January 1858, William signed the charter and on 16th March, Adolph signed it too, after coming back from a visit to France as he did not want to do such an important thing while abroad. It was co-signed by the Luxembourg Minister of State, Mathias Simons, four days later and then sent to The Hague. The charter was published on 5th May in Luxembourg and six days later in Nassau. The first person to receive the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau was Emperor Napoleon III of France, followed by the Tsar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia and Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, who was acting as regent. |
To the dissatisfaction of his Nassau co-grandmaster, William III regularly conferred the Order and increased the one grade of knight to a list of four - knight, officer, commander and grand cross - in 1873. The Dukes of Nassau were much more thrifty in awarding the House Order. Adolphe refused to recognise the new grades and never awarded them.
When the personal union of the Netherlands and Luxembourg came to an end with the death of King William III in 1890, the Order initially disappeared from the Dutch system and neither Queen Wilhelmina nor her mother Queen Regent Emma, before 1898, felt free to grant the Order.
This situation changed in 1905 and since then the heads of both branches of the House of Nassau, jointly or individually, may rule the Order. In her first years, Queen Wilhelmina awarded a number of Orders to German princes, but was otherwise still extremely reluctant to grant this decoration. In 1890 Adolphe had abolished the grades that William III had created unilaterally and had it recorded in the 1905 Decree that the division into several degrees, regretted and not foreseen at the time of its foundation, would remain undone. Because the Statutes of the Order always referred to "sons" it was assumed at the Dutch court that the Dutch princesses - Wilhelmina, Juliana and Juliana's daughters - were not born knights in the Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau. But, as Queen, Juliana was ironically included in the order in 1951, after a state visit to Luxembourg, by Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg.
Because they are sons of the head of one of the two lines of the House of Nassau, the three children of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands received the Grand Cross of this Order on the day of their mother's Inauguration in 1980. After their eighteenth birthdays, the Princes wore the insignia on their uniform or on a dress suit.
The decoration was jointly awarded by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Grand Duke John of Luxembourg to Nelson Mandela during his state visit to the Netherlands in 1999. Otherwise, it is still rarely awarded in the Netherlands and there was a very near 90 year gap between General CJ Snijders, Commander of the Army, on 29th September 1919 and ex-Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel on 31st August 1999. This means that Queen Juliana never awarded the Order at all!
Order of the House of Orange
The Order of the House of Orange (Dutch: Huisorde van Oranje) is a dynastic order similar to the Royal Victorian Order in the United Kingdom. The Order was instituted by Queen Wilhelmina on 19th March 1905 and is not subject to ministerial responsibility or influence, but is awarded at the discretion of the Dutch monarch alone. Although the House of Orange could have done so, it never possessed a house order. In the House of Nassau, the Très Noble Ordre de la Fidélité played only a brief and insignificant role. The Order of the Oak Crown was founded by King William II in his capacity as Grand Duke William III of Luxembourg and was formally a purely Luxembourg affair, not a house order. William conferred this Order no more than 30 times. King William III resorted to the conferral of this Luxembourg order because he felt hindered by the prime ministers, Thorbecke in the lead, in granting knighthoods. On the day of his inauguration, William III awarded 300 Orders of the Oak Crown and thousands more followed. The King awarded the decoration so often within the Netherlands that it came to be seen as a Dutch house order! The otherwise often frugal William III paid for all these glittering awards out of his own pocket. The Constitution of the Netherlands was clear: "Orders of knighthood are established by law", as it had been since 1815. The establishment of an order could therefore not take place outside of Parliament and the Order of the Oak Crown fulfilled the role, since Luxembourg had been a member of the German Confederation, administered as a Dutch province until 1841 and then given its own constitution and its own parliament. |
After her Inauguration in 1898 and marriage in 1901, Queen Wilhelmina began to travel. According to the customs of the time, dozens of decorations had to be provided. In 1900 and 1901, the Lower House objected to the considerable budget overruns that resulted from the Inauguration, the visit to the World Exhibition in Paris and the Royal Wedding. Matters came to a head in 1904 when both Wilhelmina and her husband Prince Hendrik began to make enquiries. Queen Wilhelmina stated she intended to confer the Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau, on "the basis of the Agreement concluded between His Majesty King William III and His Highness the Duke of Nassau". The Supreme Council of Nobility (it had five members) was divided. The majority agreed that a house order was against the Constitution, however, the minority looked to the constitutional provision that "the King organises his House as he sees fit". Therefore, in a letter dated 7th January 1905, the Council of Ministers did not object to the establishment of a house order.
The choice fell on a design by the German August Witte. But, after Witte's death in 1908, production was taken over by De Koninklijke Utrechtse Fabriek van Zilverwerken which came up with a new design that is still used today. The red enamelled Latin Cross shows a Bugle Horn from the Arms of Orange with the national Motto 'Je Maintaindrai'. Showing between the arms of the Cross is a wreath of orange tree leaves. The Riband is, of course, orange. (Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany was honoured with the Order, being very attached to his title of "Prince of Orange", which had been claimed by King Frederick I of Prussia, and proud of his descent from William the Silent. He noted that the colour of the Riband was similar to that of his "High Order of the Black Eagle". The Dutch envoy was able to reassure the Emperor that the House Order is carried over the other shoulder and therefore no confusion could arise...)
The first appointees to the Order were Queen Emma, Prince Hendrik and Wilhelmina's cousin Princess Marie, at that time the only other princess of the Netherlands. Wilhelmina, Hendrik and Emma made generous use of the opportunity to confer the Order of the House of Orange in the initial years, but Wilhelmina lost interest between the wars, saying she would scrap the whole thing whenever the budget was discussed.
In the first decades of Queen Juliana's reign, the House Order was granted as always, but in the 1960s, when attempts were made to give the system of Dutch orders of state a more contemporary character, the Queen involved the House Order as well. In her eyes, this Order was no longer adequate; there were grades and degrees that were never conferred. The resulting Houben Committee advised the Queen to no longer grant house orders during state visits and to appoint Dutch nationals outside the Royal Family only to the lowest degree of the order. Promotion could then follow later. The committee also recommended the establishment of an Order of Loyalty and Merit with knights in two degrees. By Court Decree on 30th November 1969, Queen Juliana decided to reorganise the Order herself and split the House Order into three, with additional medals for Arts and Science and for Initiative and Ingenuity. The three are:
- The Order of the House of Orange
- The Order of the Crown
- The Order of Loyalty and Merit
Princess Laurentien, wife of King Willem-Alexander's brother Prince Constantijn, wears the Riband of the House Order to the Dutch Opening of Parliament, called Prinsjesdag, as she has received no other Dutch Order of Chivalry.
Order of the Crown
As we have seen above, the Order of the Crown was established by Queen Juliana in 1969 as part of the House Order of Orange. It is largely awarded to "foreigners who have rendered special services to the Royal House" and centres, or centered, around state visits. It has five degrees and three medals, so that the employees of foreign courts and governments receive an award corresponding to their rank and expectation. Because state visits are a matter for the state of the Netherlands and not for the Royal Family, the establishment of this Order broke through the reform of the decoration policy desired by the Government and Chambers. The Queen ignored the advice of the Houben Committee as we saw above. The choice of the name is also controversial, because this award is not recognized by the "Crown "but is granted by the monarch as a private person (in a" Court Decree "). The criticism applies equally to the rank indication as this Order has no knights and no members. | On her State Visit to the United Kingdom in November 1982, the relatively recently inaugurated Queen Beatrix - accompanied by her Consort, Prince Claus - made a number of appointments to the Order of the Crown as would be expected. Most notable recipients of the Grand Cross were HRH Princess Alexandra, the then Hon. Mrs Ogilvy, who, with her husband Angus Ogilvy, had accompanied the Dutch Royal Couple as the guests of honour at a Banquet hosted by the Lord Mayor of London at the Guildhall, and, very much to her surprise, the Princess of Wales. Having married Prince Charles (who had received his Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown from Queen Juliana on her State Visit to the UK in 1972) less than a year and a half before, this was Diana's first State Visit and she had apparently not been prepared to receive an Order. When it came to the State Banquet on 18th November she had no idea what to do with what seemed like an enormous sash. She apparently ended up having to change her entire outfit, including the jewellery. The Riband was secured with an enormous sapphire brooch which Diana had received from HM The Queen Mother as a wedding present and would later turn into her signature choker. (The choker shown in the photograph was on loan from HM The Queen.) |
Whilst the award of Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown could be seen as a gift from one royal to another on state visits, Queen Beatrix recognised a paradox in awarding the Order of the Crown to others since these visits are a matter for the government and therefore of the Dutch state. The monarch is sent or the invitation is accepted in the monarch's capacity as 'chief diplomat'. Therefore, on 20th December 2000, the Commemorative Medal for State Visits (Herinneringsmedaille Buitenlandse Bezoeken) was established by Ministerial Decree "on behalf of the Queen". The Decree, however, does not mention the concept of "state visit". For example, it is possible to award a medal even for less formal visits. The Medal is awarded by the Minister of Foreign Affairs "as a token of appreciation for the dedication shown" to a person only once. It is therefore not possible for the same person to be awarded the medal again or a bar. |
The colours of the Riband for the Medal are very similar to that of the Order of the Crown. Naturally with a basic orange background, both ribbons have the national colours of the flag - red, white and deep blue. The Medal's stripes are at the very edge whereas the Order's are not and show a band of orange on the outside.
Order for Loyalty and Merit
As the third new Order in the shake-up of 1969 and therefore established by Queen Juliana in that year, the Order for Loyalty and Merit was introduced to be conferred "upon those persons who have loyally and faithfully, and with merit and character assisted the Head of State or the members of the Royal House during their obligations and their daily work." The Queen wished to continue to reward long-term service and to give priority to merit in the higher degrees instead of years of service. In practice, the Order is awarded for 12 and 24 years of loyal service, but an employment contract of 20 years is also sufficient for the first class of the Order. Jan Albertus van Zelm van Eldik (1912 - 2012), political historian and Secretary of the Chancellery of the Dutch Orders from 1948 to 1977, was highly ciritical of this Order, calling the statutes and provisions "technically incorrect...". His work, if not life-work, Courage and virtue. Orders of knighthood in the Netherlands. The development of a world of its own within Dutch society has become a standard in the study of Dutch Orders of Chivalry. |