WEBVTT - The Resistance Queen Wilhelmina 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:13.680 and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener discretion advised. On July 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:20.160 twenty eighth, nineteen forty, the BBC began broadcasting a new 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:26.200 radio show, Radio Aranhe or Orange, was a fifteen minute 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:32.240 long program. Each episode began with the words radio Orange 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:37.680 here the voice of a combatant Netherlands. The show provided 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:42.720 timely reports on war developments, and it implored the Dutch 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:48.080 population not to comply with occupying forces. The show even 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:53.720 included encrypted messages meant for the resistance in the Netherlands. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:01:02.800 The program was hosted by voices of Dutch resistance in exile, authors, journalists, historians, performers, 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.920 including the journalist A Den Dullard, who had begun publishing 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:13.280 reports warning against the impending rise of fascism back in 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.800 nineteen thirty seven. The show also featured the Jewish singer 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.000 Jetty Pearl performed songs on the show mocking the Nazis. 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.800 She would later join the Women's Auxiliary Corps of the 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:33.240 Royal Netherland Army. But perhaps Pearl's most shining accomplishment is 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.039 that after the war, she became the first singer to 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:43.680 perform in the first ever Eurovision Song Contest. Despite Pearl's 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:48.560 holding of that prestigious title, Radio Orange had a recurring 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:55.240 speaker with another, possibly even more impressive title, Queen of 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.040 the Netherlands. This war is about giving the war the 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.800 world a guarantee that those who want goodwill not be 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:10.800 prevented from accomplishing it, Queen Wilhelmina spoke now translated in 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:16.320 that first broadcast. Those who believe that the spiritual values 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.600 acquired by mankind can be destroyed by the edge of 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:26.440 the sword must learn to realize their vanity. Brute violence 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:32.480 cannot deprive people of their convictions. Radio Orange was so 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:38.160 popular amongst the Dutch population that in May nineteen forty three, 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:44.519 German authorities ordered Dutch citizens to hand in their radios. 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:50.520 Many did not comply, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.960 has a photo in their archives of a group of 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.560 Dutch resistance members and the Jews that they were protecting, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:04.520 all crowded together around a contraband radio. Though Queen Wilhelmina 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.160 didn't appear in every broadcast, her speeches on the program 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:14.480 were so influential that, even beyond being a leader during 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:18.600 that time, she became a major symbol of resistance for 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:23.520 the Dutch people. Though these radio broadcasts were a major 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.239 and lasting moment in her reign, World War. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.320 Two was far from the first. 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.960 Event that Wilhelmina led the Dutch people through. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.600 After her father's. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.000 Death in eighteen ninety, she had become queen at only 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:45.480 ten years old. A wartime queen twice over, Wilhelmina reigned 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.680 during an era of great monarchical influence, the likes of 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:55.400 which we will almost certainly never see again, and influence 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:05.000 she did. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.520 The majority of our detailed information on Wilhelmina's life comes 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.680 from the woman herself. Her nineteen fifty nine memoir, the 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:22.640 aptly titled for a monarch book, Lonely but Not Alone, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.880 opens with her earliest memories and concludes with the end 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:33.560 of her reign. Because retirement is relatively rare among monarchs, 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:39.200 this book is incredibly unique as a retrospective. We rarely 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.479 get to read, in a monarch's own words, their reflections 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.760 and opinions on their entire reign as a whole. It's 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:52.760 not Prince Harry's spare levels of juicy, but it's still 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.080 a rare and insightful look into the thoughts and feelings 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.839 of being a royal book having all the markings of 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:08.760 an autobiography, Wilhelmina warns the reader against that very classification quote. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.200 The reader should not expect to find here a political 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:17.800 or historical account or an autobiography. She writes, such works 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.800 are concerned with other aspects of life. I shall invite 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.719 the reader to follow me on a higher plane. What 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.839 sort of higher plane you might be wondering? Supernatural romance? 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:35.880 A Kafka esque interrogation of the self alas no, Wilhelmina 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:40.800 meant more straightforwardly, the subject of this book is God's 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:46.080 guidance of our people in past, present, and future. The 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.200 memoir does devote much of its time to the role 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.919 of Christianity in Wilhelmina's life and reign, but her notion 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.599 that it doesn't serve as a history or autobiography says 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:04.520 more about wilhelmi then the text itself. Chapter one, titled 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:09.000 Father and Mother, opens with the line let me begin 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.960 by saying that I still possess my father's walking stick, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.159 with which I was always allowed to play when we 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.479 went out for a stroll. If the world is not 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.640 too strong for the uncertain steps of a child at 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.680 the age of three or four. Wilhelmina goes on to 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.679 recount that she and her father had a daily hour 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:36.840 of play, beginning at five o'clock in the evening, which 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.159 was but one slice of life in what seems to 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:46.120 have been the idealized princess girlhood. The bits and pieces 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:51.440 she described sound straight out of a story book. Wilhelmina 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.320 remembers sledding with her mother, her father buying the three 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.960 of them matching fur coats for the winter. A chalet 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.480 that I am imagine as a child sized version of 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:07.400 the Marie Antoinette Queen's Hamlet was built for Wilhelmina in 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.240 the gardens, with a dovecot, a duck pond, a playground, 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.680 and a donkey to ride. She remembers the estate's gun maker, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:21.720 who for her acted as the quote good fairy, mending 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.640 her broken toys like Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, And in 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:32.480 perhaps the most stereotypical memory of a young princess's life, 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:37.920 she joyfully recalls her father announcing that Shetland ponies would 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.960 be arriving for her quote no less than four in number. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.080 Above all, she describes a closeness with her parents that's 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:51.200 often missing in other accounts of royal life. The family 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.400 lived between the newer Deaned Palace in the Hague and 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.000 Hetloo Palace built by the House of Orange in Appledorn, 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:05.840 which was primarily used as a summer residence. This was 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.040 the life of the only child of King William the 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:14.840 Third and his second wife, Queen Emma. However, Princess Wilhelmina 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.480 was not initially raised to be a queen. When the 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:23.840 widowed King William married Emma, his second wife, in eighteen 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:28.600 seventy nine, two of three sons he had still lived, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.600 the marriage was not intended to produce an air. In fact, 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:38.200 the existing heirs were older than their new stepmother. The 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.360 king was forty one years older than his twenty one 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:47.560 year old bride. Apparently, Emma was the fifth woman he 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.319 tried to marry after the death of his wife. Following 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.920 a French opera singer whom the government pressured him to 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.319 break up with his own niece, the Princess of Denmark 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:04.200 and Emma's older sister. Sounds like the making of an 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:10.199 incredible season of The Bachelor nineteenth century edition. Despite the 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:15.320 lack of political incentive, Emma did give birth to a child, 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.439 a daughter, will Helmina, in eighteen eighty. By this point, 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:25.600 another of the king's sons had died of typhus, which 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.400 meant that will Helmina was third in line to inherit 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.280 the throne. You might be thinking third in line she 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.400 only had one more living, older brother, but there was 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.760 a semisalic system in place at the time. Basically it 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:46.040 meant men first, so Wilhelmina was behind her uncle and 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.760 her father's remaining son. But Wilhelmina's uncle would die when 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.880 she was just one years old, and her half brother 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.760 died when she was four, which rapidly changed the importance 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.280 not only a Wilhelmina's role, but also of her mother's. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.960 This was increasingly true as it became clear that William 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.480 would likely not live to see his daughter, his only 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:18.920 remaining heir, reach adulthood. In eighteen eighty seven, just before 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:26.920 his seventieth birthday, William fell ill. Wilhelmina recalls that during 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.120 his last few years he hardly left the house, No 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.920 longer able to take the strolls with his daughter that 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:39.480 she had opened her book with. While Wilhelmina's mother cared 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.960 for her father, Wilhelmina spent more time than ever with 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.480 her governess, Miss Winter, who would be a major influence 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:49.240 on her life. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:50.240 Quote. 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:54.200 She herself did not hide for anybody or evade anyone. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:59.120 She was a bold woman, Wilhelmina writes of her. The 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:03.199 night that we will Wilhelmina's father died, Wilhelmina was sleeping 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.760 in her mother's bed, waiting for her to return from 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.520 her father's side. But when her mother did appear in 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.319 the doorway, it was with the news that her father 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:21.680 was gone. From that moment on, Wilhelmina reflected, many things changed. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.400 My undisturbed playing had come to an end. It was 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.240 eighteen ninety and the ten year old princess, who had 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:35.360 been gifted Shetland ponies, had become Queen of the Netherlands. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:40.559 Overnight after the funeral, Emma was sworn in as regent 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:46.200 and the family relocated permanently to court at the Hague. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:52.880 Life became what Wilhelmina describes as quote, permanently semi official. 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.280 It was only when she was alone with her mother, 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.160 that she could fully be a child again. Beyond that, 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.320 Wilhelmina wrote, we were denied many innocent pleasures for the 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.680 sake of convention, which could also function as the tagline 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:15.280 for many episodes of this show. Wilhelmina writes, I shall 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.840 from now on refer to these conditions as the cage. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:24.440 The name speaks for itself. One felt hedged in and 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.959 longed for freedom. It is the great irony that has 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:34.800 plagued royal families for generations. All the wealth, power and 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:40.240 privilege in the world, and a self designed gilded cage 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:50.320 to perform the same restrictive, monotonous motions. And As a 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:55.520 child queen with her mother in charge, Wilhelmina's duties mostly 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:01.240 consisted of royal visits and public appearances in between her studies. 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:07.040 Those events were highly important in restoring the Dutch population's 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.480 good opinion of the monarchy, which had been unfavorable for 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.920 years before. They took a liking to Emma's greater emphasis 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.840 on a connection to her people, a notion that Wilhelmina 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:25.160 would continue. The story goes that in Wilhelmina's first public 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:30.600 appearance as the ten year old monarch. She asked her mother, MoMA, 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.000 do all these people belong to me? No, my child, 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.360 the regent queen replied, it is you who belong to 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:44.600 all these people. When it came to Wilhelmina's studies, she 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.719 was devout in her Christianity from an early age, and 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:53.240 on top of her religious education, she learned foreign languages 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:58.600 and the sciences, but those lessons eventually ceased in favor 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.600 of a focus on Him, my story and geography. Her 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:07.199 education reaffirmed her belief of her status as living within 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:08.400 the cage. 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:10.800 In her notes at the time. 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.800 She expressed her frustration with the government handling of the 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:19.160 Boer War, a conflict in which the self governing Dutch 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:24.160 settlers of the Boer Republics resisted annexation by Great Britain. 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.280 The government did not fulfill the urge in their hearts, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.120 she wrote at the time, referring to the people, and 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.440 I felt that the public wished to see me openly 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:40.080 revealing my sympathy for our kinsmen. How could I as 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:45.560 the head of state. These feelings shaped the young queen's politics. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:51.160 She remained pro bore and anti British for life. In 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:56.240 another particular, anecdote, she notes being moved after learning about 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.960 the laws and religions in the Dutch East India modern 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:06.239 day Indonesia. She was quote stirred to pity by accounts 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.840 of human sacrifices made to appease evil spirits, and quote 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.600 took a warm interest in the efforts to spread the 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:21.640 gospel among these poor people, another very classic royal sentiment. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:27.280 When Wilhelmina was nearly fifteen, she and her mother traveled 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:28.360 to England to. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.240 Meet the then fifty eight. 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:35.040 Year old Queen Victoria and her family. In Victoria's diary, 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.840 she wrote, quote, the young Queen, who will be fifteen 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.160 in August, still has her hair hanging loose. She is 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:48.160 very slight and graceful, has fine features, and seems to 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:52.880 be very intelligent and a charming child. She speaks English 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:58.080 extremely well and has very pretty manners. There was a 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.200 composite photo made of the two of them at the 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.920 time to commemorate this historic visit. In the photo, Willhelmina 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.960 looks like a witch brought the American girl doll Samantha 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.080 to life, and Queen Victoria looks like the same witch 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.120 cursed her to sleep with her eyes open. I'll put 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:25.880 the photo on the Noble Blood Instagram and Patreon. Like England, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:31.360 the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament where 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.160 the monarch acts as head of state, but a prime 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:41.720 minister wheeled greater political power. In her teenage years, Wilhelmina's mother, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.360 as acting ruler, began to take her along to the 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.040 States General to. 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:48.480 Prepare for her role. 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.520 Will Helmina recalls that at the very moment when she 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.120 turned eighteen, she signed her first official papers, and with 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:02.600 that her reign began. She was formally sworn in a 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:07.560 few days later on September sixth, eighteen ninety eight. She 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.840 describes these early years of her tenure as a state 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.439 of limbo. Quote, behaving like a grown up, becoming reigning 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.879 queen is not the same thing as attaining one's full maturity, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:26.480 she reflects fairly wisely, in my opinion, she understood she 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.879 gave off the illusion of being grown up. But in 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.960 her words, she was conscious of avoid in her existence, 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.880 which was going to be filled up only very slowly. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:43.040 Not a girl, not yet a woman in this moment. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.400 In her memoir, Wilhelmina takes a moment to note that 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.800 in the summer of eighteen ninety eight, her coming of 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:55.320 age coincided with the national exhibition of women's work put 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.359 on by the first Dutch women's organization, Tetzelshad, which is 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:01.720 still operating today. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.639 It was an event styled after. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.879 The World's Fair, which displayed art and handicrafts by Dutch women, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:15.800 along with speeches, lectures, and performances. It was considered a 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:21.440 major moment in Dutch first wave feminism, and when Devrau 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.440 or the Woman was held as a follow up exhibition 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:32.080 in nineteen thirteen, the Queen attended twice. Wilhelmina doesn't comment 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.960 on the content of the conference, noting diplomatically that it 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.800 would be quote outside her scope, but her choice to 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.680 mention it despite that signifies that it must have had 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:49.480 an impact on her self perception during this adolescent era 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:57.960 of self actualization. The next major phase in that journey 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:03.360 was her engagement and marriage. In February of nineteen oh one, 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.399 less than two years after her official personal reign began, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:13.800 Wilhelmina married Duke Henrik of Mecklenburg Schwerin. Their relationship can 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:17.880 perhaps best be described in the words of the tagline 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:24.879 of Greta Gerwig's barbie. She's everything, He's just ken. In 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.880 her memoir, she describes neither her engagement nor her husband 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.919 with even the slightest hint of romance, but she notes 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.720 that he liked hunting and boats, that he was kind 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:42.520 and helpful, and always accompanied by his faithful dot sound Helga. 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.520 He appears so infrequently in her memoir that we may 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.000 as well get it out of the way now that 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.679 he was known as a frequent adulterer and fathered a 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.879 child with a mistress. While Henrik may not have inspired 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.919 a great passion in her life, Wilhelmina recount that the 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:07.000 marriage itself catalyzed a major turning point in regards to 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.480 her perceptions of her own freedom. It seems that realizing 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.320 she didn't even have the freedom to act as a 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:16.440 traditional wife if she wanted to. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:18.240 Stirred something greater. 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.840 In her quote, I sought and found my freedom of action, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.719 not always without causing shocks my inner freedom I had 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:32.240 achieved years before. We took less and less notice of 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.960 the conventions of the cage and went our own way, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.960 arousing a great deal of friction and criticism end quote. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.160 The friction she mentions, appears to have been between herself 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:49.400 and the nation's politicians, not her husband, Politicians who did 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.160 not appreciate the queen having much of anything to say, 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:59.600 especially considering her pro Bore politics, which is actually slightly 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.080 leading name for people in this context who opposed the 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:09.000 Bore War, which was a colonial war happening in South Africa. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.679 The people, however, felt more kinship with the monarchy than 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.959 they had for many many years. Wilhelmina was more on 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.760 the side of the people than the politicians. The next 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.520 major event in Wilhelmina's personal life is not discussed in 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.120 her memoir at all, the birth of a stillborn son 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:34.560 in nineteen o two. Four years later, her second pregnancy 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:38.680 would also end with a miscarriage. For the people whose 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.960 job it was to worry about these things, there was 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.280 increasing anxiety as to what would happen if the queen 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:50.240 did not produce an air But in April nineteen o nine, 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.440 the couple's daughter, Juliana, was born healthy. I must leave 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.000 it to the reader to imagine our parental happiness at 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:03.000 her arrival after we had waited eight years, Wilhelmina writes. 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.000 The mother daughter relationship would go on to mirror the 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.440 closeness of Wilhelmina and her own mother, and even when 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:17.240 writing as an old woman, Wilhelmina's memoir is constantly interjected 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.720 at random times with references to Juliana and her life. 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.280 Even as queen, Wilhelmina writes that she devoted every bit 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:28.680 of time she could to being a mother to her 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:34.000 only child. But only a few short years after Juliana's birth, 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:40.480 Wilhelmina's role as queen would take on new urgent levels 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:49.680 of responsibility. Those with an inside knowledge of politics had 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.639 long foreseen that the world would be plunged into a 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:59.320 war of unprecedented horror, Wilhelmina writes. She recalls that in 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.960 the early day days after Germany declared war on Russia 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.080 in nineteen fourteen, actions were taken with the intent of 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:12.880 minimizing national anxiety, like Wilhelmina taking a normal train from 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:16.719 Amsterdam back to the Hague. Even though the matter required 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:22.199 some urgency. The Netherlands maintained the policy of neutrality that 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.320 they had held since eighteen thirty, but the army still 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.520 had to be mobilized as an act of deterrence. There 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:34.040 was a march as the garrison from the Hague deported, 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:40.080 and Wilhelmina made a grand show of patriotism, holding Juliana 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:43.760 on her shoulders as the royal family, saying the national 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:49.080 anthem with the cheering crowds. As a woman, Wilhelmina could 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.280 not act as supreme commander of the armed forces, but 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:57.680 she still performed regular inspections of the army and navy, 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:00.399 not only to make sure that things were up to 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.680 the standards she wanted to set, but to reinforce morale 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:10.199 and set an example of endurance and tenacity. There's a 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:14.440 story that before the war began, the last German emperor, 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:18.920 Kaiser Wilhelm the second, boasted to the young queen, quote, 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.320 my guards are seven feet tall, and yours are only 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:28.639 shoulder high to them. Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied, quite true, 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:32.640 your majesty, your guards are seven feet tall, but when 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:36.399 we open our dykes, the water is ten feet deep. 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:43.680 A good comeback. She understood the country's spiritual and psychological 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:46.480 needs for a leader and knew that it was a 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:48.359 role that she had to fulfill. 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:49.439 Quote. 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:53.840 A war makes special demands. The confidence that was sufficient 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:58.240 in peacetime is no longer enough. Confidence was the word 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:02.320 that echoed in me constantly. My thinking and acting were 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:06.560 long dominated by the thought I had to earn it end. 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:12.520 Just three days after Germany declared war on Russia on 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:18.600 August fourth, nineteen fourteen, Germany invaded Belgium, The Netherlands began 0:25:18.720 --> 0:25:23.080 to accept Belgian refugees, and the Dutch began to learn 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:27.760 firsthand of the cruelty that people were being subjected to. 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:32.760 Wilhelmina notes that it was hard to remain neutral for 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:36.960 those four years, but neutrality is not an emotional stance, 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:41.440 but a political one. At heart, man is never neutral, 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:46.600 she reflected, despite no further divulgences, at least in her 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:50.280 writing as to which way her heart was leaning at 0:25:50.320 --> 0:25:56.639 the moment. As it became clear that Germany was going 0:25:56.680 --> 0:25:59.879 to lose the war and the war was approaching its end, 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:05.480 a surprising guest star returns to our story Kaiser Wilhelm 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:09.159 with the German war effort of failure. The Kaiser was 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:13.320 forced to abdicate in nineteen eighteen, marking the end of 0:26:13.359 --> 0:26:17.119 the German Empire and the beginning of the German Republic. 0:26:17.920 --> 0:26:22.199 Wilhelmina says she'll never forget the November morning, when she 0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:25.520 woke to the news that the Kaiser had crossed their 0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:29.640 borders into the province of Limburg. First, the news came 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:32.760 to her from the government, and it was soon followed 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:37.560 by a telegram from the Kaiser himself, attempting to explain 0:26:37.760 --> 0:26:42.120 his actions. Wilhelmina did not seem fond of the Kaiser 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:46.800 before the war, and the sentiment would continue. At first, 0:26:46.840 --> 0:26:50.679 she questioned if his decision to flee his country was 0:26:50.760 --> 0:26:55.000 an attempt to prevent needless bloodshed, but it soon became 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:58.280 clear that he was only out to save his own 0:26:58.480 --> 0:27:02.960 behind quote. His habit of listening to the councils of 0:27:03.000 --> 0:27:07.160 these advisers, who had neither the statesmanship nor the courage 0:27:07.720 --> 0:27:11.760 which the situation demanded, had been his undoing. 0:27:12.160 --> 0:27:12.720 She wrote. 0:27:13.680 --> 0:27:17.840 Despite her seemingly negative personal feelings towards the man, the 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:22.959 Dutch government allowed him to stay. Wilhelmina herself invited his 0:27:23.080 --> 0:27:28.520 wife to join him in the Netherlands, not out of hospitality, apparently, 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:32.040 but out of the expectation that she would be a 0:27:32.080 --> 0:27:36.400 good influence on her husband. Their son, the Crown Prince, 0:27:36.560 --> 0:27:41.520 soon followed. The Allied governments, of course, attempted to extradite 0:27:41.640 --> 0:27:44.920 the man and his son, but by virtue of the 0:27:44.960 --> 0:27:51.400 netherlands neutrality and right of asylum, they refused. Despite this 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:56.240 and their neutrality, the Netherlands was still a founding member 0:27:56.359 --> 0:28:02.040 of the New League of Nations. The revolution happening next 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:07.280 door stirred what Wilhelmina calls commotion in some groups of 0:28:07.359 --> 0:28:12.360 the population, and notes that there were a tense few days. 0:28:13.200 --> 0:28:17.399 That's all the credence she gives to Red Week the 0:28:17.600 --> 0:28:24.160 unsuccessful Dutch Socialist revolution of nineteen eighteen, and while her 0:28:24.240 --> 0:28:28.480 language is minimizing, it was quite literally only a few 0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:33.639 days long. On October eleventh, the Dutch royal family was 0:28:33.720 --> 0:28:37.439 relocated to the Hague for safety as talk of a 0:28:37.520 --> 0:28:42.800 revolution grew, but by October thirteenth it was apparently clear 0:28:43.000 --> 0:28:48.720 that the revolution was dead. Wilhelmina reflects on her personal 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:51.760 life during the four years of the First World War 0:28:52.360 --> 0:28:56.720 as an essential time in her spiritual growth. She recalls 0:28:56.840 --> 0:29:01.480 conversations with two older acquaintances, both of whom felt that 0:29:01.560 --> 0:29:06.560 the war had disillusioned them about humanity. The Queen notes 0:29:06.600 --> 0:29:10.160 that she was moved by their feelings, but also pitied 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:14.000 them as the strength of her faith prevented her from 0:29:14.000 --> 0:29:18.440 the emptiness that they were experiencing, in fact, the emptiness 0:29:18.480 --> 0:29:21.920 that so many in Europe and around the world were 0:29:21.920 --> 0:29:25.680 feeling in the aftermath of the destruction of the First 0:29:25.800 --> 0:29:30.800 World War. Wilhelmina now saw in her words that the 0:29:30.840 --> 0:29:34.200 loneliness she had been plagued with from the minute she 0:29:34.280 --> 0:29:38.720 became a young queen was her quote opportunity with God, 0:29:39.280 --> 0:29:42.640 and she would fill her quiet moment with religious text 0:29:43.120 --> 0:29:44.800 and spiritual reflection. 0:29:45.600 --> 0:29:46.080 Quote. 0:29:46.320 --> 0:29:49.360 In spite of all the worries the war caused us, 0:29:49.760 --> 0:29:52.760 my personal problems were gradually solved. 0:29:53.280 --> 0:29:54.320 Thus the end of. 0:29:54.320 --> 0:29:57.080 The First World War was also the end of a 0:29:57.160 --> 0:30:00.760 period in my life. That's what we in the business 0:30:00.800 --> 0:30:07.720 call some positive personal framing. She also acknowledges that by 0:30:07.760 --> 0:30:10.920 the time the war ended, she was no longer the 0:30:11.320 --> 0:30:15.000 young queen. At thirty eight, she felt she was approaching 0:30:15.200 --> 0:30:19.080 middle age. As to how the First World War changed 0:30:19.080 --> 0:30:23.600 her as a ruler, Wilhelmina emphasized a need to adapt 0:30:24.000 --> 0:30:28.040 to public displays of the monarchy. There should be no 0:30:28.160 --> 0:30:33.320 more ostentation, she wrote, My conduct should always correspond with 0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:37.959 people's profound feelings about life. There should be contact with 0:30:38.120 --> 0:30:42.840