: The Luxembourg royal family had little
: option but to flee. The Grand Duchess
: Charlotte would have been very mindful of
: the fate of her elder sister, who was
: vilified for her her alleged pro German
: sympathies in the first World War.
: Charlotte's nephew, Prince Anselm of Thurn
: & Taxis was killed in 1944, so the war
: did hit the grand ducal family. Had
: Charlotte remained in Luxembourg she would
: have been compromised like Marie Adelaide
: & King Leopold in Belgium. I'm not sure
: they lived in luxury. Also of course both
: Felix & Jean served with the Allied
: forces.
I'm not saying anything against the Grand Duchess or criticizing her decision: I would have done the same thing myself, in her shoes. It's just that I've often read that things were different in the Netherlands, when Queen Wilhelmina did the same thing as her Luxembourg counterpart. Her decision to flee the invading Germans, instead of staying (an act that could be interpreted as surrender), was not unanimously supported among the Dutch. In fact, it was initially thought of as an act of abandoning her subjects. In Luxembourg, people said "tell our sovereign that we stand beside her at all costs ... that we carry her on our shoulders ... that we won't let her feet touch the soil on her return ..."
But I've never heard of such support for Queen Wilhelmina in her country: evidently it wasn't until a year later, that the people at large supported her action, and decided that she could do better work from abroad, than at home. The lack of unanimity in sentiment among her subjects got reflected in their greetings, when she returned to the Netherlands: some actually treated her with coldness. However, most were glad to welcome their sovereign home.
I don't know, however, if Wilhelmina got the same reception as Charlotte, who was greeted with the salute, "Madame, we adore you!" Oh well ... Luxembourg is a smaller country, and so one can expect greater unanimity of sentiment amongst the people ...
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