Posted by CatherineNY
on 2/10/2009, 19:02:06, in reply to "Re: The man from 1936"
148.168.127.10
Interesting -- you have certainly highlighted some of his positive accomplishments. I still have to say I am not a fan.
--Previous Message--
: His unfaithfullness did not undermine the
: monarchy at all.
:
: The Prince had one big problem: he had no
: feeling for good and bad guys. Added to this
: his lifelong loyalty to friends, even when
: they turned out to be somewhat suspect, then
: the Prince's problem is there.
:
: Another contribution to the princely
: problems was his unlimited free space and
: the deep reverence successive Cabinets had
: for him. Were the previous and the next
: Prince of the Netherlands (Heinrich von
: Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Claus von Amsberg)
: too restricted, this Prince could do
: anything he wanted.
:
: All this, the poor feeling for carefully
: choosing one's friends, the Prince's own
: adventurous character and the almost
: unlimited free space he had until 1976 did
: lead to the later problems.
:
: But the Prince for sure has his own merits.
: He was the one who made Juliana a more
: cosmopolitic lady (He however remained
: critical on her appearances. He always
: wanted her to be more glamorous or regal and
: could be quite b###hy on that as his letters
: to her shows us). The monarchy with its
: trappings as we know it today is much to the
: Prince's credits. He had an eye for
: protocol, ceremonial and necessary
: trappings. Thanks to him the carriages and
: the Royal Stables but also all the
: ceremonial uniforms (most of the
: re-introduced in 1948) survived the
: 'modernization' Wilhelmina and Juliana
: wanted.
:
: While the Prince, from the first day after
: the war began to use the royal residences
: again, his mother-in-law Wilhelmina sticked
: to common houses in Breda or The Hague
: because she thought this was part of the
: 'renewal' of the monarchy in a 'reborn'
: Netherlands. For the Prince this was
: complete quatsch .
:
: Gratitude is owed to the Prince for his
: unbelievable and vital contribution for the
: succes of the World Wildlife Fund (with the
: panda). The (dangerous) act (using the
: media) to get Ms Hofmans and her clan out of
: the Queen's surroundings was hard and
: painful for the Queen but after reading the
: Beel Report and the 'Messages from Beyond' I
: fully understand it from a constitutional
: viewpoint.
:
: It probably was the most stormy royal
: marriage of the 20th Century. With the
: Waleses as a close runner up.
: