Dutch treat: a royal wedding
By ARTHUR MAX
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Once again, Europe was treated to the storybook spectacle of a royal wedding: queens and princesses in regal finery, gilded carriages clattering over cobbled streets, adoring crowds paying tribute to their sovereign.
Still, a royal marriage isn't what it used to be. Rather than a union of blue bloods or an alliance of powers, most royal couples today tend to look, well, ordinary.
On Feb. 1, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, the 34-year-old Prince of Orange and heir to the Dutch throne, married Maxima Zorreguieta, 30, an Argentine beauty who has so captivated the nation that she outshines her betrothed, the future king.
She has even managed to overcome the rumblings provoked by her father having served for two years in the repressive Argentine dictatorship of Jorge Videla.
Her lack of aristocratic bloodline is no problem for the Dutch, who take pride in being average and avoid standing out. Members of the royal family are treated here more like local celebrities or sports heroes -- honored rather than revered; listened to rather than obeyed; first among equals.
Holland has been ruled by councilors longer than by kings. Its monarchy was something of an afterthought; it is drawn from the House of Orange, which led the 16th century independence revolt against Spain, but was begun only when Napoleon's empire in the Low Countries was collapsing in 1813.
Many Dutchmen shrug off the powerless monarchy as irrelevant, but prefer to keep the tradition rather than trade it in for a figurehead president.
Even die-hard republicans, who want the monarchy dismantled and who plan to hold demonstrations on the wedding day, admit Maxima has given the royals renewed sparkle and popularity.
"Maxima has set us back 20 years," said professor Arend Jan Dunning, the most noted Dutch anti-monarchist.
With all the pomp that the Royal Court can muster, the eldest son of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus rode from Amsterdam's 594-year-old Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, with his bride in the same horse-drawn gilded carriage used 100 years earlier for the wedding of his great-grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina.
It's a marriage that recalls ancient times, but also reflects modern tragedies.
Maxima's father, Jorge Zorreguieta, is a wealthy rancher and businessman who served as agriculture minister in the Argentine regime that jailed, killed or kidnapped thousands of political opponents who were never seen again.
The royal family thought they had put the issue to rest when Maxima, appearing in public for the first time at the formal engagement last March, denounced the Videla regime and said her father would not attend the wedding.
During that televised news conference, Maxima surprised viewers with fluent Dutch, which she had secretly been learning, and managed to appear charming, assertive and self-effacing, all at once.
"That was the turning point. It went from one minute to the next. Suddenly, you saw more acceptance," said Cor de Horde, editor of the monthly magazine Vorsten and a leading royal watcher.
Later, the government had to quash another budding scandal when Maxima asked her family's Roman Catholic priest to say a prayer at the Protestant ceremony. A Dutch magazine dug up old articles by the priest, the Rev. Rafael Braun, expressing admiration for Videla.
"The government has checked whether there are facts or circumstances that could stand in the way" of Braun's participation at the church, said a statement. "None have been found."
The fact that a Catholic could be the next queen has provoked surprisingly little protest, even though the Protestant-Catholic divide was once a defining feature of Dutch nationhood.
In the 1960s and 1970s, two of Beatrix's sisters surrendered their birthrights to marry Catholics, anticipating disapproval by Parliament, which must give its formal assent to a royal marriage.
Parliament has yet to decide whether Maxima will have the title of queen when her husband ascends the throne, or remain a princess, the title she is granted on her wedding day. She will not be in line to become sovereign, but could become regent if Willem-Alexander died without a grown-up heir. Otherwise, the crown would pass to his brother.
Many Dutchmen see Maxima as a Princess Diana figure. Graceful and popular, she married a prince often seen as lacking charisma and commonly described as "not very clever."
"Willem has been stumbling through life," said de Horde, whose magazine closely follows royalty around the world. "He wasn't a good student. He liked going out, drinking, behaving like a normal Dutchman, not like the crown prince."
On the Net
Royal family site:
http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/UK/wedding
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