Noble Blood - The Resistance Queen Wilhelmina

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was raised like a fairy tale princess — but she would reign over one of the most tumultuous periods in European history and she would attempt to lead her people while in exile after the Nazis invaded her country.Sign up for Dana's history writing course!Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Merch!— Order Dana's book 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. On July 28, 1940, the BBC began broadcasting a new radio show. Radio Oranhe, or Orange, was a 15-minute-long program. Each episode began with the words, Radio Orange Here, the voice of a combatant Netherlands. The show provided timely reports on war developments,

and it implored the Dutch population not to comply with occupying forces. The show even included encrypted messages meant for the resists. in the Netherlands. The program was hosted by voices of Dutch resistance in exile, authors, journalists, historians, performers, including the journalist A. Den Doolard, who had begun publishing reports warning against the impending rise of fascism back in 1937.

The show also featured the Jewish singer Jetty Pearl, who performed songs on the show, mocking the Nazis. She would later join the women's auxiliary corps of the Royal Netherlands Army. But perhaps Pearl's most shining accomplishment is that after the war, she became the first singer to perform in the first ever Eurovision Song Contest. Despite Pearl's holding of that prestigious title, Radio Orange had a recurring speaker with another, possibly even more impressive title.

Queen of the Netherlands. This war is about giving the world a guarantee that those who want goodwill not be prevented from accomplishing it. Queen Wilhelmina spoke, now translated, in that first broadcast. Those who believe that the spiritual values acquired by mankind can be destroyed by the edge of the sword, must learn to realize their vanity.

Brute violence cannot deprive people of their convictions. Radio Orange was so popular amongst the Dutch population that in May 1943, German authorities ordered Dutch citizens to hand in their radios. Many did not comply, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has a photo in their archives of a group of Dutch resistance members and the Jews that they were protecting all crowded together around a contraband radio. Though Queen Wilhelmina didn't appear in every broadcast, her speeches on the program were so influential that even beyond being a leader during that, time, she became a major symbol of resistance for the Dutch people. Though these radio broadcasts were a major and lasting moment in her reign, World War II was far from the first event that Wilhelmina led the Dutch people through. After her father's death in 1890, she had become queen at

only ten years old. A wartime queen twice over, Wilhelmina, Wilhelmina reigned during an era of great monarchical influence, the likes of which we will almost certainly never see again. And influence she did. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. The majority of our detailed information on Wilhelmina's life comes from the woman herself. Her 1959 memoir, the aptly titled for a monarch book, Lonely But Not Alone, opens with her earliest memories and concludes with the end of her reign.

Because retirement is relatively rare among monarchs, this book is incredibly unique as a retrospective. We rarely get to read, in a monarch's own words, their reflections and, opinions on their entire reign as a whole. It's not Prince Harry's spare levels of juicy, but it's still a rare and insightful look into the thoughts and feelings of being a royal. Despite the book having all the markings of an autobiography, Wilhelmina warned the reader against that very classification.

Quote, the reader should not expect to find here a political or historical account or an autobiography, she writes. Such works are concerned with other aspects of life. I shall invite the reader to follow me on a higher plane. What sort of higher plane, you might be wondering? Supernatural Romance? A Kafka-esque interrogation of this elf? Alas, no, Wilhelmina meant more straightforwardly.

The subject of this book is God's guidance of our people. in past, present, and future. The memoir does devote much of its time to the role of Christianity in Wilhelmina's life and reign, but her notion that it doesn't serve as a history or autobiography says more about Wilhelmina than the text itself. Chapter 1, titled Father and Mother, opens with the line, Let me begin by saying that I still possess my father's walking stick, with which I was always allowed to play when we went out for a stroll,

if the world is not too strong for the uncertain steps of a child at the age of three or four. Wilhelmina goes on to recount that she and her father had a daily hour of play, beginning at five o'clock in the evening, which was but one slice of life in what seems to have been the idealized princess girlhood. The bits and pieces she described sound straight out of a storybook.

Wilhelmina remembers sledding with her mother, her father buying the three of them matching fur coats for the winter. A chalet that I imagine as a child-sized version of the Marie-Antoinette Queen's Hamlet,

was built for Wilhelmina in the gardens with a dove-caught, a duck pond, a playground, and a donkey to ride. She remembers the estate's gunmaker, who, for her, acted as the, quote, good fairy, mending her broken toys like Drosselmeyer in the Nutcracker. And in perhaps the most stereotypical memory of a young princess's life, she joyfully recalls her father announcing that Shetland Pony's would be arriving for her, quote, no less than four in number. Above all, she describes a closeness with her parents that's often missing in other accounts of royal life. The family lived between the Nuruddin Palace in the Hague and Hetlu Palace,

built by the House of Orange in Appledorn, which was primarily used as a summer residence. This was the life of the only child. of King William III and his second wife, Queen Emma. However, Princess Wilhelmina was not initially raised to be a queen. When the widowed King William married Emma, his second wife, in 1879, two of three sons he had still lived. The marriage was not intended to produce an heir. In fact, the existing heirs were older than their new stepmother.

The king was 41 years older than his 21-year-old bride. Apparently, Emma was the fifth woman he tried to marry after the death of his wife, following a French opera singer whom the government pressured him to break up with, his own niece, the princess of Denmark, and Emma's older sister. Sounds like the making of an incredible season of The Bachelor, 19th century. edition. Despite the lack of political incentive, Emma did give birth to a child, a daughter, Wilhelmina, in 1880. By this point, another of the king's sons had died of typhus, which meant that Wilhelmina was third in line to inherit the throne. You might be thinking

third in line, she only had one more living older brother, but there was a semi-salic system in place at the time. Basically, it meant men first, so Wilhelmina was behind her uncle and her father's remaining son. But Wilhelmina's uncle would die when she was just one years old, and her half-brother died when she was four, which rapidly changed the importance not only of Wilhelmina's role, but also of her mothers. This was increasingly true, as it became clear that William would likely not live to see his daughter, his only remaining heir, reach adulthood. In 1887, just before his 70th birthday, William fell ill.

Wilhelmina recalls that during his last few years, he hardly left the house, no longer able to take the strolls with his daughter that she had opened her book with. while Wilhelmina's mother cared for her father, Wilhelmina spent more time than ever with her governess, Miss Winter, who would be a major influence on her life. Quote, she herself did not hide for anybody or evade anyone. She was a bold woman, Wilhelmina writes of her. The night that Wilhelmina's father died,

Wilhelmina was sleeping in her mother's bed, waiting for her to return from her father's side. But when her mother did appear in the doorway, it was with the news that her father was gone. From that moment on, Wilhelmina reflected, many things changed. My undisturbed playing had come to an end. It was 1890, and the 10-year-old princess

who had been gifted Shetland Pony's had become queen of her. the Netherlands overnight. After the funeral, Emma was sworn in as regent, and the family relocated permanently to court at the Hague. Life became what Wilhelmina describes as, quote, permanently semi-official. It was only when she was alone with her mother that she could fully be a child again. Beyond that, Wilhelmina wrote, we were denied many innocent places. for the sake of convention, which could also function as the tagline for many episodes of this show. Wilhelmina writes,

I shall from now on refer to these conditions as the cage. The name speaks for itself. One felt hedged in and longed for freedom. It is the great irony that has plagued royal families for generations. All the wealth, power. and privilege in the world, and a self-designed, gilded cage to perform the same restrictive, monotonous motions in. As a child queen with her mother in charge, Wilhelmina's duties mostly consisted of royal visits and public appearances in between her studies. Those events were highly

important in restoring the Dutch population's good opinion of the monarchy, which had been unfavorable for years. Before, they took a liking to Emma's greater emphasis on a connection to her people, a notion that Wilhelmina would continue. The story goes that in Wilhelmina's first public appearance, as the 10-year-old monarch, she asked her mother, Mama, do all these people belong to me? No, my child, the regent queen replied. It is you who belong to all these people. When it came to Wilhelmina's studies, she was devout in her Christianity from an early age, and on top of her religious education, she learned foreign languages and the sciences. But those lessons eventually ceased in favor of a focus on history and geography.

Her education reaffirmed her belief of her status as living within The Cage. In her notes at the time, she expressed her frustration with the government handling of the Boer War, a conflict in which the self-governing Dutch settlers of the Boer Republics resisted annexation by Great Britain. The government did not fulfill the urge in their hearts, she wrote at the time, referring to the people. And I felt that the public wished to see me openly revealing my sympathy for our kinsmen. How could I as the head of state? These feelings shaped the young queen's politics. She remained pro-bore and anti-British for life.

In another particular anecdote, she notes being moved after learning about the laws and religions in the Dutch East Indies, modern-day Indonesia, she was, quote, stirred to pity by accounts of human sacrifices made to appease evil spirits and, quote, took a warm interest in the efforts to spread the gospel among these poor people. Another very classic royal sentiment. When Will Halmina was nearly 15, she and her mother traveled to England to meet the then-58-year-old. year old, Queen Victoria and her family. In Victoria's diary, she wrote, quote, the young queen, who will be 15 in August, still has her hair hanging loose. She is very slight and graceful, has fine features, and seems to be very intelligent and a charming child. She speaks English extremely

well and has very pretty manners. There was a composite photo made of a the two of them at the time to commemorate this historic visit. In the photo, Will Halmina looks like a witch brought the American girl doll Samantha to life, and Queen Victoria looks like the same witch cursed her to sleep with her eyes open. I'll put the photo on the Noble Blood Instagram and Patreon. Like England, the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament, where the monarch acts as head of state, but a prime minister wields greater political power.

In her teenage years, Wilhelmina's mother, as acting ruler, began to take her along to the state general to prepare for her role. Wilhelmina recalls that at the very moment when she turned 18, she signed her first official papers, and with that her reign began. She was formally sworn in a few days later on September 6, 1898. She describes these early years of her tenure as a state of limbo. Quote, behaving like a grown-up, becoming reigning queen, is not the same thing as attaining one's full maturity.

She reflects fairly wisely, in my opinion. She understood she gave off the illusion of being grown up, but in her words she was conscious of a void in her existence, which was going to be filled up only very slowly. Not a girl, not yet a woman. In this moment in her memoir, Wilhelmina takes a moment to note that in the summer of 1898, her coming of age coincided with the national exhibition of women's work,

put on by the first Dutch women's organization, Tetzelschard, which is still operating today. It was an event styled after the World's Fair, which displayed art and handicrafts by Dutch women, along with speeches, lectures, and performances. It was considered a major moment in Dutch first-wave feminism, and when De Vroux, or The Woman, was held as a follow-up exhibition in 1913,

the queen attended twice. Will Halmina doesn't comment on the content of the conference, noting, diplomatically, that it would be, quote, outside her scope. But her choice to mention it, despite that, signifies that it must have had an impact on her self-perception during this adolescent era of self-actualization. The next major phase in that journey was her engagement and marriage. In February of 1901, less than two years after her official personal reign began, Wilhelmina married Duke Henrik of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Their relationship can perhaps best be described in the words of the tagline of Greta Gerwig's Barbie. She's everything. He's just can. In her memoir, she describes neither her engagement nor her husband with her,

even the slightest hint of romance. But she notes that he liked hunting and boats, that he was kind and helpful, and always accompanied by his faithful dot-sound, Helga. He appears so infrequently in her memoir that we may as well get it out of the way now that he was known as a frequent adulterer and fathered a child with a mistress. While Henrik may not have inspired a great passion in her life. Will Halmina recount that the marriage itself catalyzed a major turning point in regards to her perceptions of her own freedom. It seems that realizing she didn't even have the freedom to act as a traditional wife if she wanted to stirred something greater in her. Quote, I sought and found my freedom of action, not always without causing shocks. My inner freedom I had achieved

years before. We took less and less notice of the conventions of the cage and went our own way, arousing a great deal of friction and criticism, end quote. The friction, she mentions, appears to have been between herself and the nation's politicians, not her husband, politicians who did not appreciate the queen having much of anything to say, especially considering her pro-bore politics, which is actually slightly a misleading name for people in this context who opposed the Boer War, which was a colonial war happening in South Africa. The people, however, felt more kinship with the monarchy than they had for many, many years. Wilhelmina was more on the side of the people

than the politicians. The next major event in Wilhelmina's personal life is not discussed in her memoir at all, the birth of a stillborn son in 1902. Four years later, her second pregnancy would also end with a miscarriage. For the people whose job it was to worry about these things, there was increasing anxiety as to what would happen if the queen did not produce an heir. But in April 1909, the couple's daughter, Juliana, was born healthy. I must leave it to the reader to a our parental happiness at her arrival after we had waited eight years, Wilhelmina writes. The mother-daughter relationship would go on to mirror the closeness of Wilhelmina and her own mother, and even when writing as an old woman, Wilhelmina's memoir is constantly interjected

at random times with references to Juliana and her life. Even as Queen, Wilhelmina writes that she devoted every bit of time she could to being a mother to her only child. But only a few short years after Giuliana's birth, Wilhelmina's role as Queen would take on new, urgent levels of responsibility. Those with an inside knowledge of politics had long foreseen that the world would be plunged into a war of unprecedented whorescerned. horror, Wilhelmina writes. She recalls that in the early days after Germany declared war on Russia in 1914, actions were taken with the intent of minimizing national anxiety, like Wilhelmina taking a normal train from Amsterdam back to the Hague, even though the matter required some urgency. The Netherlands maintained the policy of neutrality that they had held since 1830, but the

army still had to be mobilized as an act of deterrence. There was a march as the garrison from the Hague deported, and Wilhelmina made a grand show of patriotism, holding Juliana on her shoulders as the royal family sang the national anthem with the cheering crowds. As a woman, Wilhelmina could not act as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, but she still performed regular, in of the army and navy, not only to make sure that things were up to the standards she wanted to set, but to reinforce morale and set an example of endurance and tenacity. There's a story that before the war began, the last German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, boasted to the young queen, quote,

My guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them. Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied, Quite true, your majesty, your guards are seven feet tall, but when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep. A good comeback. She understood the country's spiritual and psychological needs for a leader, and knew that it was a role that she had to fulfill. Quote, a war makes special demands,

the confidence that was sufficient. in peacetime is no longer enough. Confidence was the word that echoed in me constantly. My thinking and acting were long dominated by the thought I had to earn it, end quote. Just three days after Germany declared war on Russia, on August 4th, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium. The Netherlands began to accept Belgian refugees, and the Dutch began to learn first half. of the cruelty that people were being subjected to. Wilhelmina notes that it was hard to remain neutral for those four years, but neutrality is not an emotional stance, but a political one. At heart, man is never neutral, she reflected, despite no further divulgences, at least in her writing,

as to which way her heart was leaning at the moment. As it became clear that Germany's was going to lose the war and the war was approaching its end, a surprising guest star returns to our story, Kaiser Wilhelm. With the German war effort of failure, the Kaiser was forced to abdicate in 1918, marking the end of the German Empire and the beginning of the German Republic. Wilhelmina says she'll never forget the November morning

when she woke to the news that the Kaiser had crossed their borders, into the province of Limburg. First, the news came to her from the government, and it was soon followed by a telegram from the Kaiser himself, attempting to explain his actions. Wilhelmina did not seem fond of the Kaiser before the war, and the sentiment would continue.

At first, she questioned if his decision to flee his country was an attempt to prevent needless bloodshed, but it soon became clear that he was, only out to save his own behind. Quote, his habit of listening to the councils of these advisors, who had neither the statesmanship nor the courage, which the situation demanded, had been his undoing, she wrote.

Despite her seemingly negative personal feelings towards the man, the Dutch government allowed him to stay. Wilhelmina herself invited his wife to join him in the Netherlands, not out of hospitality, apparently, but out of the expectation that she would be a good influence on her husband. Their son, the crown prince, soon followed. The allied governments, of course, attempted to extradite the man and his son, but by virtue of the Netherlands neutrality and right of asylum, they refused.

Despite this and their neutrality, the Netherlands was still a, founding member of the new League of Nations. The German revolution happening next door stirred what Wilhelmina calls commotion in some groups of the population, and notes that there were a tense few days. That's all the credence she gives to Red Week, the unsuccessful Dutch socialist revolution of 1918. And while her language is minimizing, it was quite literally only a few days long. On October 11th, the Dutch royal family was relocated to the Hague for safety as talk of a revolution grew, but by October 13th, it was apparently clear that the revolution was dead. Will Helmina reflects on her personal

life during the four years of the First World War as an essential time in her spiritual growth. She recalls conversations with two older acquaintances, both of whom felt that the war had disillusioned them about humanity. The queen notes that she was moved by their feelings, but also pitied them as the strength of her faith prevented her from the emptiness that they were experiencing. In fact, the emptiness that so many in Europe and around the world were feeling in the aftermath of the destruction of the First World War. Wilhelmina now saw, in her words, that the loneliness she had been plagued with from the minute she became a young queen was her, quote, opportunity with God, and she would fill her quiet moment with religious text and spiritual reflection. quote, in spite of all the worries the war caused us, my personal problems were gradually solved.

Thus, the end of the First World War was also the end of a period in my life. That's what we in the business call some positive personal framing. She also acknowledges that by the time the war ended, she was no longer the young queen. At 38, she felt she was approaching middle age. As to how the First World War changed her as a ruler, Wilhelmina emphasized a need to adapt to public displays of the monarchy. There should be no more ostentation, she wrote. My conduct should always correspond with people's profound feelings about life.

There should be contact with all classes of the population in their working, thinking, and feeling. The war also presented her with the novel ideas. that her staff had, quote, rights as well as duties, and she essentially established an HR for them. There's no good way to transition from that to the next thing that I want to mention, which is that while it's hard to find sourcing on this fact, apparently, Will Halmina's business acumen

during the interwar period led her to become the world's first female billionaire in dollars. This is not something Wilhelmina herself talks about in her writing, so I don't want to claim this as concrete fact, but we do know that Wilhelmina had significant, if possibly not that significant, personal wealth. She also learned how to paint. That brings us to 1938.

Wilhelmina notes that as early as he was appointed, she apparently had no doubt in her mind that Hitler would establish a dictatorship. She followed closely as he invaded Austria, then Czechoslovakia. She writes of living in the knowledge that they were headed toward catastrophe, knowing Hitler's sights were set on Europe as a whole. After British and the French declared war in 1939, the Netherlands once again declared neutrality.

Still, they knew it was only a matter of time before an attack, which arrived months later in May 1940. Wilhelmina spent the night of May 9th in an air raid shelter, and at 4 a.m., the Germans crossed the border. The Hague was the source of an attack in the morning, and it was becoming clear that the royal family could no longer stay. Juliana now grown and her children left first. Wilhelmina attempted to stay and, quote, rang up the King of England one night and asked for assistance. She writes that she could hear the war approaching from her shelter, and on the morning of May 13th,

the commander-in-chief advised that the queen leave the hague. She agreed and hurriedly packed a few belongings and left with a few others, including her head of security. The first place they attempted to go was the Hook of Holland, a town in the southwest corner of the country. But bombs began to drop over the town as soon as they arrived. The group was able to find a British destroyer ready to set sail, and they attempted to go to the town of Zeeland in Flanders,

but the British ship captain wasn't able to make contact with the town. With no knowledge of what they might be sailing into, the decision was made to go instead to England. Of course, I was fully aware of the shattering impression that my departure would make at home, she reflected, but I considered myself obliged for the sake of the country to accept the risk of appearing to have resorted to ignominious flight. Wilhelmina was greeted in London by her daughter, Juliana, and by King George, who invited, invited her to stay as a guest of the palace with himself and the Queen of England. Juliana, however, would leave with her children for Canada. When it became clear that Wilhelmina's stay in England would be indefinite,

she purchased a house for herself in Eaton Square. She tells the reader, It was here that I met the first England Varda, which the book's translator notes was the word used for a Dutch person who had escaped to England, where I heard the first broadcast of Radio Orange and received the first letters from Juliana, and it was here that I accustomed myself to exile. As to the experience of being a queen in exile, Wilhelmina expresses that above all else she needed to maintain iron-clad self-control, which is an ironic fate following the rigidity she once detested.

In her eyes, any decision-making capabilities would be lost once she, quote, gave rein to emotions and human pity. As a ruler abroad, she sought to continue her rule, but a government in exile couldn't function the same as one at home. Military plans were kept secret from her, and much of her work at this time was to keep in contact with fellow heads of state. The Battle of Britain soon began, and, and work was often interrupted by the sirens urging citizens to make their way to shelters. By September, Wilhelmina began to take her work to the shelter daily at half past six and stay there until the morning. Wilhelmina eventually moved to a house in the country, then a new place in London in Chester Square.

The Eaton Square House was set up by the government as a home for England. During this dark time, Wilhelmina felt buoyed by the support of Dutch people abroad seeking to aid their homeland. A collection of funds was raised to support the war effort, and the Queen often received letters of support from those abroad and those still in her occupied homeland. Many even attempted to encode secret messages to inform her of the situation at home, and while Wilhelmina, Halmina appreciated their efforts, she feared for the safety of anyone trying to smuggle her messages. For the first few months in exile, she was completely cut off from the news in the Netherlands, and the England Varder connections to resistance groups at home became her major source of

information. In her writing, she holds them in great regard. Many of those Anglin Varders were resistance members who had fled, when it had become clear that they would soon be unable to continue to fight at home, and so they had come to join the forces in London. Wilhelmina notes that the Dutch abroad formed a community in London, something like a large village, where everyone knew everyone. She worked to establish a Dutch center to centralize information and resources, as well as to further her own connection with the expats.

The opening of the center was the first, time, the queen wore a marguerite or daisy brooch, which would become a symbol of Dutch resistance. She wanted the Dutch in Britain to have an identifiable symbol of solidarity, and she chose the daisy for something, quote, immaculate white, an expression of sorrow and hope and an object within everyone's reach. Juliana's daughter, born during the war, was given the name Margot. The British government sought to aid the Dutch community by opening Netherlands House, a meeting place for both communities, where social meetings, lectures, and musical gatherings were held. Wilhelmina herself was often in attendance.

She learned through these lectures that the people were, quote, not only longing for liberation, but also a new era. liberation should not mean a return to the old conditions. During this time, Englenvarders would come to their office and share with her their visions of the future, and Wilhelmina held a conference specifically for Dutch university students in Britain to share their experiences with student-resistant movements. Their ideas were so influential, in fact, that Wilhelmina planned to oust the Prime Minister and build a new cabinet entirely formed by resistance members who had lived in the occupied state through the war. She writes that she shared the people's ideas about future

policies with the current Prime Minister and informed him that she wanted to be the one to lead the charge when it came to reforms. This was the catalyst for Radio Orange, which began this episode. My broadcast speeches were not only concerned with the new times, the Queen reflects. They also aimed at inspiring and stiffening resistance against the oppressor and at informing the nation of the government's policy. Her desired effect was achieved. As mentioned at the top of the episode, Radio Orange was extremely popular among the people, and the Queen was more popular than ever.

Her New York Times obituary shares an anecdote in which churchgoers in the fishing town of Huizen sang one verse of the Dutch national anthem, Wilhelmus von Nausai, on the Queen's 60th birthday. But the Nazis had explicitly forbidden any celebrations of the Queen's birthday, and the town paid a fine of 60,000 guilders. In 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wilhelmina traveled to the United States for a national tour at the invitation of President Roosevelt. She greatly admired both the president himself, as well as the first lady, namely for her independence, in addition to her devotion to her husband. During this trip, Wilhelmina became the first queen to address Congress. Back in England, Wilhelmina also began to meet more frequently with Churchill,

who once called her the only real man among the governments in exile. Wilhelmina finally returned to the Netherlands in 1945 when she crossed the Dutch border on foot. The reception from her people was incredibly warm. While there were certainly those who resented the queen for leaving, by and large, the Dutch citizens were thrilled at their queen's return. In her later years after the war, Wilhelmina opted for life in the countryside and could often be seen doing what the Dutch like to do best, riding her bike. Her reign would only continue three more years.

In 1948, she abdicated as her health began to fail. Juliana had already briefly taken over her monarchical duty, at the end of 1947, but now she was officially to be sworn in as queen. How numerous were and are my reasons for gratitude, Wilhelmina reflects. My confidence in Juliana's warm feelings for the people we both love so much and in her devotion to the task that was awaiting her. Then also the fact that my office was transferred to her during my lifetime, and that I might have the opportunity to see some of her reign.

Really, there is no room, Wilhelmina wrote, for sadness in my heart. Her reign was 57 years and 286 days. Wilhelmina did get to see over a decade of her daughter's reign before she died of cardiac arrest at Hetlu Palace at the age of 82. At her request, the royal family held a white funeral, a symbol of the queen's faith, which signified her belief that death was only the beginning of eternal life. That's the story and tumultuous long life of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands,

but stick around after a brief sponsor break for a little sweet fact. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

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What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo.

Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through,

and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming. talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah. It would not be Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A book called Sweets, A History of Candy, might not be the place you'd expect to find royal history. But in the section devoted to the Netherlands, author Tim Richardson notes, the candy that's quote, most Dutch of all, the Wilhelmina Mint. In 1892, the head of the Dutch candy company. fortune, asked the young Queen Wilhelmina if he could name his new peppermint after her as a celebration of her 12th birthday. Queen Regent Emma wrote a reply on behalf of her daughter, saying that, it's fine and she leaves it entirely up to him, a very diplomatic answer.

He went ahead with the idea and produced a line of candies featuring Wilhelmina's portrait on each mint. The peppermints were such a a hit with the royal family that Fortune received the predicate of purveyor to the royal household in 1896. It's a title that the candy company still holds to this day. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Miriam. Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and Rima

Il K. Ali, with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrer My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat.

Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.