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A HOUSE DIVIDED
The Dutch royal house has held sway almost without interruption for 400 years, and—according to the constitution—the Queen can do no wrong. That document makes no mention of her husband, however. Amid charges that Prince Bernhard took $1.1 million from Lockheed, Queen Juliana of The Netherlands and the House of Orange face their most serious crisis since World War II. (The three-man commission appointed to investigate the charges is not expected to reach a verdict for two months or so.) "The prince has been rather clumsy, that I won't deny," says a court official. "But the Lockheed allegations are absolutely 100% untrue." Even if the prince should be found guilty, the Dutch speculate, he will merely be reprimanded and forced to resign as inspector general of the Dutch armed forces, but Juliana will not abdicate.
The royal predicament strikes to the heart of Dutch life.
Since the founding of the Union of Utrecht by William the Silent in the 16th century, The Netherlands has been "a republic under the House of Orange." Even though Parliament took over effective power in 1848, the monarchy has remained a unifying factor in a country that is divided almost equally between Catholics and Calvinists and politically split by 14 parties.
The erect, blue-eyed Queen, who will celebrate her 67th birthday this week, was drilled from earliest childhood in the three tenets of monarchy as defined by Queen Victoria: protocol, public service and duty. The royal motto: Je main-tiendrai (I shall maintain). Juliana studied law, literature, economics and Islamic history at Leiden University. Queen since 1948, she has kept extremely well informed about Dutch and world affairs and enjoys close relations with Socialist Premier Joop den Uyl. "Her understanding of her task," the Premier has observed, "has won the Dutch monarchy a new and acceptable tenure in our modern democracy." Juliana receives a tax-free allowance of $1.3 million (Bernhard is paid $262,000) and has a private fortune estimated at $12 million.
Initially, the Dutch were less than enthusiastic about the marriage of their princess to Bernhard in 1937. A member of an obscure German princely family, he had served briefly in the Hitler Youth Movement. However, he won the respect of the Dutch in World War II, when he got his fighter pilot's wings with the R.A.F. and later returned in triumph to The Netherlands as head of the free Dutch forces and the resistance movement.
For the past three decades, while the Queen usually stayed home in their rambling Soestdijk mansion, the prince, now 64, has served as supersalesman for Dutch goods abroad. The royal couple seem happily matched. "My wife is head of state," Bernhard explains. "I am boss in the house."
Juliana's heir is Crown Princess Beatrix, 38, whose imperious ways have not endeared her to the Dutch. She made an unpopular marriage in 1966 to a German, Claus von Amsberg. However, Prince Claus, now 49, surprised royalty watchers by learning to speak