Wilhelmina (Helena Paulina Maria) (1880–1962)

Queen of the Netherlands, 1898–1948. Following the Nazi invasion of Holland in May 1940, she and her government went into exile in London for five years. Her daughter Juliana (b.1909) succeeded her when she abdicated for reasons of ill-health in 1948.

Wilhelmina succeeded her father, King William II, in 1890, but her mother acted as regent for her until she was 18. She was enthroned in Amsterdam on 6 September 1898. In 1901, she married the German nobleman Heinrich Wladimir Albrecht Ernst, Duke of Mecklenburg–Schwerin; he died in 1934. When her daughter ascended the throne, Wilhelmina took the title of ‘Princess of the Netherlands’.