Early Life
Prince Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand was born on 27 April 1967 in the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He is the first child of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Claus of the Netherlands, and the first grandchild of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. From birth Willem-Alexander has the titles Prince of the Netherlands (Dutch: Prins der Nederlanden), Prince of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: Prins van Oranje-Nassau), and Jonkheer of Amsberg (Dutch: Jonkheer van Amsberg). He was baptised as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church on 2 September 1967 in Saint Jacob's Church in The Hague. His godparents are Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck, Prime Minister Jelle Zijlstra, and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
He has two younger brothers: Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, born in 1968, and Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands, born in 1969. He lived with his family at the castle Drakesteijn in the hamlet Lage Vuursche near Baarn from his birth until 1981, when they moved to the larger palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. His mother Beatrix became Queen of the Netherlands in 1980, after his grandmother Juliana abdicated. He then received the hereditary title Prince of Orange, as heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of the autonomous countries the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Read more about this topic: Willem-Alexander, Prince Of Orange
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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