What was Queen Wilhelmina's Coat of Arms after her Abdication?
On 24th August 1815, five months after the Prince of Orange became King William (Willem) I of the Netherlands, he issued a decree stipulating the national Coat of Arms and those of his family. This decree confirmed, amongst other Arms, that the Label for the eldest daughter of the monarch should be red and of three Points with a central golden Crown. That was Princess Wilhelmina's Label for the first 10 years of her life (although, in turn, she had been known by one of her middle names as Princess Pauline after a maternal aunt until she was 4 years of age) as shown here. She was not only the eldest daughter of King William III, she became his only surviving child. Wilhelmina succeeded her elderly father in 1890 at the age of 10, with her mother, Queen Emma, acting as Regent until Wilhelmina gained her majority and was sworn in at a ceremony at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 6th September 1898, a week after her 18th Birthday. |
Queen Wilhelmina reigned until she abdicated in favour of her daughter Juliana in 1948. Neither the decree of 1815 nor the changes of 1907 dealt with the Arms of abdicated monarchs and by the time it came for Juliana to give up the Throne in 1980 she reverted to the title of Princess and chose her previous Arms, namely the Lion of the Netherlands quartered with the Bugle of the House of Orange with an Inescutcheon of her father's Mecklenburg Bull's Head and his sinister Supporter of a Griffin opposite the Dutch Lion. These Arms (shown here) had been decreed for Juliana by her mother in 1909 (presumably 13th July) and then reconfirmed by a decree a week before her abdication in 1980. When Juliana's daughter Beatrix decided, in her turn, to abdicate in 2013, she too reverted to her Arms as Princess, although she appears to distinguish hers from the Arms of her sisters by also using a Shield rather than an Oval. |
It would be ironic if Wilhelmina reverted to her Arms as Princess and the eldest daughter of a monarch as the same Label - red, three Points and a central golden Crown - was chosen by the Belgian Royal Family for an abdicated monarch only last year.
PS I wish I had seen the Decree of 1815 earlier when I was discussing Crests. The Decree actually stipulates Elephant's Trunks. In a previous Blog I was of the opinion that this was a mis-interpretation but it does actually say Olifantstrompen...