Princess Christina of the Netherlands

Princess Christina

Princess Christina in 1968
Spouse Jorge Pérez y Guillermo
(m. 1975; div. 1996)
Issue Bernardo Guillermo
Nicolás Guillermo
Juliana Guillermo
Full name
Maria Christina
House House of Orange-Nassau (official)
House of Lippe (agnatic)
Father Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Mother Juliana of the Netherlands
Born 18 February 1947
Soestdijk Palace, Baarn, Netherlands
Religion Roman Catholicism

Princess Maria Christina of the Netherlands (born 18 February 1947)[1] is the youngest of four daughters born to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld.

Birth

Maria Christina "Marijke" was born at Soestdijk Palace, Baarn, Netherlands. Among her godparents was Winston Churchill. Her mother had contracted German measles during her pregnancy and as a result, the Princess was born nearly blind. Over time, advances in medicine allowed for treatments that, with the aid of special glasses, brought about an improvement in her vision so that she could attend school and live a relatively normal life. Despite this initial handicap, she was a brilliant and happy child, with a considerable talent for music. She also had a capacity for languages and as a young girl delighted the visiting President of the French Republic, René Coty, by conversing fluently with him in the French language.

Marriage

Princess Christina and Jorge Guillermo in 1975

In 1963, Princess Marijke changed her name to her second name, Christina. Pursuing her gift for music, at age 21 she moved to Canada to study classical music in Montreal. After a few years, she accepted a teaching position at a Montessori school in New York City. There, living under the name Christina van Oranje, the Princess met and started a relationship with a Havana-born Cuban exile named Jorge Pérez y Guillermo, himself a teacher for the Addie May Collins Shelter of Harlem and a former hotelier. Guillermo was born in Havana on 1 August 1946. He is the son of Federico Gilberto Pérez y Castillo and wife Edenia Mercedes Guillermo y Marrero, who died in Florida in 2002. Brother of Gilberto Pérez y Guillermo.

Although societal attitudes were changing, because Guillermo was a Roman Catholic, it was still possible that any marriage could cause another public scandal in the Netherlands such as the one that occurred in 1964 when her sister, Princess Irene married the Catholic Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. Accordingly, Princess Christina, at that time ninth in line for the Dutch throne, renounced her and her descendants' rights to the throne before converting to Catholicism and officially announcing her engagement on St. Valentine's Day, 1975.

Married on 28 June 1975, in the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht, the newlyweds rode through the streets of the city to the cheers of thousands of Dutch citizens. Following their marriage, she and her husband chose to live in New York but later moved to her native land where they built a home on an estate in Wassenaar, near The Hague.

Their children were:

Divorced in 1996, Princess Christina returned with her children to live in the United States. After her mother's death she has lived partly in London, partly in Monte Argentario, Italy.

She recorded several CDs and has a Music Foundation in the Netherlands. She sang at her father's funeral and at her mother's funeral, and participated in a tribute concert that the CIMA Festival held in Italy for Queen Juliana, under the direction of Jorge Chaminé.

Titles, styles, and honours

Titles and styles

Honours

See also List of honours of the Dutch Royal Family by country

National honours

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Hunter, Brian (1 June 1992). The Statesman's Year-Book 1992–93. Macmillan. p. 992. ISBN 978-0-333-55836-2. Retrieved 16 June 2011.

External links

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