Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in Canada with their daughters, Princess Beatrix, Princess Irene and the infant Princess Margriet, 1943.
The recent news that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be moving to Canada was announced around the time of another royal Canadian anniversary. On 19 January, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands celebrated her 77th birthday in her home country of the Netherlands. Despite being a Dutch princess, she was technically born in Canada.
In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and the Dutch royal family went into exile in the United Kingdom. When the London Blitz began, the Governor-General of Canada, Lord Athlone, invited the royal family to Canada. Queen Wilhelmina and her son-in-law, Prince Bernhard, remained in London, but Wilhelmina’s daughter, Princess Juliana, took her two young daughters to safety in Canada. The Princess leased Stornoway in the Ottawa suburb of Rockcliffe Park. The house is today the official residence of the Leader of the Official Opposition.
Juliana and Bernhard’s two daughters, Princess Beatrix and Princess Irene were both under two years old when they arrived. As the girls grew up, they attended Rockcliffe Park Public School. In school, Beatrix, who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 to 2013, was known as ‘Trixie Orange.’
Prince Bernhard frequently visited his family in Canada. In 1942, it was announced that Juliana and Bernhard were expecting their third child. Anne Frank, who was in hiding in Amsterdam, wrote in her diary, “Prince Bernhard recently announced that Princess Juliana is expecting a baby in January, which I think is wonderful.” Prince Bernhard discouraged the Dutch people from celebrating the news as they were under Nazi occupation.
Since Canada followed the rule of birthright citizenship, Princess Juliana was faced with the prospect of a Dutch royal baby being born a Canadian citizen. If the baby was a boy, he would surpass his two elder sisters to become second in line to throne. Meaning the King of the Netherlands would be a Canadian citizen. To remedy this, Lord Athlone temporarily declared the maternity ward of Ottawa Civic Hospital extraterritorial. The baby would therefore inherit Dutch citizenship from its mother. On 19 January 1943, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born, in Canada.
Princess Juliana expressed relief that it was another girl, believing a boy would have caused too much celebration in the occupied Netherlands. The Dutch tricolor flag was flown from the Centre Block’s Peace Tower and the carillon played Dutch music. In 1945, the Netherlands was liberated, and the royal family returned home. As a thank you for sheltering them, the royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa, with the promise of 10,000 more sent each year. In 1946, 20,500 bulbs were sent specially for the Ottawa Civic Hospital. This gift has become the Canadian Tulip Festival.
With so many governments-in-exile based in London during World War II, Princess Margriet’s story is not the only one of a royal baby born away from home. It is said that in 1945, the British government temporarily ceded Suite 212 of Claridge’s Hotel in London to Yugoslavia so that the son of King Peter II could be born on Yugoslav territory. However, unlike Margriet’s birth, no official record of this exists.
In 2012, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario honoured Princess Margriet with an honorary doctorate. In her commencement address she said, “my mother and two sisters found shelter in Canada during the Second World War [...] I feel Canada is my second homeland.”