Princess Christina of the Netherlands
Daughter of Queen Juliana who in childhood was the inadvertent cause of a crisis in the Dutch court
PRINCESS CHRISTINA OF THE NETHERLANDS, who has died of bone cancer aged 72, was the youngest and probably least known of the four daughters of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who reigned from 1948 until her abdication in 1980, and her German-born husband Prince Bernhard of Lippebiesterfeld; yet as a small child she was also, indirectly, the cause of a domestic crisis that reputedly threatened their marriage, split the Dutch court and made international headlines for two months in 1956.
Princess Christina was born on February 18 1947 at Soestdijk Palace, her parents’ home at Baarn, in the province of Utrecht. She was known by her first name, as Princess Marijke, until 1963, when she began using her second name, Christina.
At the time of her birth her mother, the future Queen Juliana, was heir presumptive to her mother, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. At Christina’s baptism on October 9 1947, her godparents included Queen Wilhelmina, Winston Churchill, her eldest sister Princess Beatrix, her paternal grandmother Princess Armgard, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and Princess Anne of Bourbon-parma.
A year and a half after she was born, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated and Princess Juliana was inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands.
During her pregnancy, Princess Juliana had contracted German measles. As a result Christina had been born nearly blind, and an operation could give her only minimal eyesight. In 1948 Prince Bernhard obtained the services of a faith healer and “hand layer” called Greet Hofmans in the hope that she might cure his youngest daughter.
Over the next eight years Greet Hofmans developed a huge influence on the profoundly religious Queen, allegedly encouraging pacifist ideas, obtaining posts at the palace for her friends, and trying to interfere
in government affairs. Certainly, her influence was such that she persuaded Queen Juliana to move from her private rooms “because the earth waves were not right”.
For a time Greet Hofmans resided in Soestdijk Palace, but over time the court split into two camps – Juliana and other admirers of the faith healer on one side, and on the other Prince Bernhard, his supporters and the royal couple’s other children.
Eventually Greet Hofmans was moved out of the palace. However, she went to live in a caravan in a nearby park and continued to see the Queen and her young patient until she finally overreached herself by trying to win a reprieve for a war criminal sentenced to death.
On June 13 1956 an article about Greet Hofmans’s hold over the Queen appeared in the German magazine Der Spiegel subtitled “Between queen and Rasputin”, supposedly based on a briefing by Prince Bernhard. The article prompted the Dutch press, which, until then, on government instructions, had remained silent on these goings-on, to comment on the affair for the first time. There were rumours that the Queen was contemplating abdication.
A committee of three elder statesmen was appointed to discuss the matter with the Queen, and subsequently, on their advice, she broke off all relations with Greet Hofmans, she and her husband signing a joint statement declaring that they had fully accepted the committee’s advice, before flying to Corfu for a holiday.
Despite widespread scepticism about Greet Hofmans’s activities, however, the young princess’s eyes improved to the point where she was able to ride a bicycle in traffic.
A bright and happy child, early on Princess Christina developed a considerable talent for music – and for languages. She became fluent in French, delighting the French President, René Coty, when he visited the Netherlands in 1954.
She was also notably independent-minded. A contemporary recalled that, cycling to school from the royal palace at Soestdijk, the young princess would take great pleasure in losing the private detective who was supposed to tail her through the forest. At the age of 16 she switched to a new school of her own choice and moved out of the palace to share a flat with a friend.
After getting a teaching degree at Groningen, she left Holland for Canada at the age of 21 to study piano and singing to a professional standard in Montreal; she was described as having a “pleasing” soprano voice. She moved on to Mcgill University in the city and ended up in New York working as a music teacher at a Montessori school.
While living in New York, under the name Christina van Oranje, she met and started a relationship with a Cuban refugee called Jorge Guillermo, a social worker – and a Roman Catholic.
Queen Juliana and her straitlaced Protestant court had already weathered a scandal in 1964 when Christina’s older sister Princess Irene married the Catholic Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-parma, and were said to disapprove of the relationship.
As a result Princess Christina renounced her rights to the Dutch throne before announcing her engagement.
However, by the time the couple married in June 1975, first in a civil ceremony in Baarn and then in an ecumenical ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht, any misgivings seemed to have been put aside.
Indeed it was only after Prince Bernhard flew Jorge secretly into Holland in the royal plane, and the Dutch government passed the so-called “Christina Law” to make the marriage legal, that he was given American citizenship.
The couple had two sons and a daughter, and after their marriage they lived in New York but later moved to Holland, where the royal family got Jorge a job with KLM, the Dutch airline, and lent them a wing of the royal palace while they built themselves a sumptuous new home, Villa Eikenhorst, in the royal park at Wassenaar.
There they entertained in style and built up an extensive art collection, travelling the world to buy paintings, drawings, bronzes, ceramics and objets de vertu to furnish their new abode. In 1992 Princess Christina converted to Roman Catholicism, but then the marriage went to pieces.
After their divorce in 1996, Princess Christina put their art collection (and a fine cellar) under the hammer at Sotheby’s. Poignantly, the star of the sale was a painting of Mars courting Venus, by the Dutch Mannerist Cornelis van Haarlem. Subsequently Princess Christina returned with her children to live in the US.
Her solace was always music. As a singer and pianist she gave many private concerts – and a few public ones – recorded several CDS and sang at family events including the funerals of her parents. She also founded a music foundation and chaired the Princess Christina Competition, a music competition for young people.
After her mother’s death in 2004 she lived in London and in Monte Argentario, Italy.
Her children survive her.