Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wilhelmina's wedding will not be postponed

January 8, 1901

A "trustworthy, but unofficial source," told the New York Herald today that Queen Wilhelmina's wedding will not be postponed due to the death of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
The Dutch court has decided that Queen Wilhelmina will wear full mourning for three ways, and her mother, Emma, the Queen Dowager, for four weeks, instead of six, so that the mourning period will be over when the young Dutch queen weds Prince Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on February 7.
The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach died on January 5. His late, Sophie, was the daughter of Willem II of the Netherlands. Their only son, Karl August, was raised with the possibility of succeeding to the Dutch throne, as well as Saxe-Eisenach, and he was fluent in Dutch. At the time of Karl August's death in 1894, he was second in line to the Dutch throne, after his mother, Sophie.
The Grand Duchess died three years later. The current heir presumptive to the Dutch throne is the new Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Wilhelm Ernst, who is unmarried.
It is expected that in the fullness of time, the Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach family will move far down the line to the Dutch throne after Wilhelmina marries and has several children.

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