Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard was born on 31 January 1938 at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, Netherlands, as the first child of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Beatrix was baptised on 12 May 1938 in the Great Church in The Hague. Her five godparents were King Leopold III of Belgium; Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone; Elisabeth, Princess of Erbach-Schönberg; Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg; and Countess Allene de Kotzebue. Beatrix’s middle names are the first names of her maternal grandmother (the then reigning Queen Wilhelmina) and her paternal grandmother (Princess Armgard of Sierstorpff-Cramm).

When Beatrix was one year old, in 1939, her younger sister Princess Irene was born.

World War II broke out in the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 (Westfeldzug). On 13 May, the Dutch Royal Family evacuated to London, United Kingdom. One month later, Beatrix went to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with her mother Juliana and her sister Irene, while her father Bernhard and maternal grandmother Queen Wilhelmina remained in London. The family lived at the Stornoway residence (now the residence of the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Canada). With bodyguards and ladies in waiting, the family summered at Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, Ontario where four private stone cottages of the resort served as their retreat. While on Bigwin Island, the constitution of the Netherlands was stored in the safe of Bigwin Inn’s Rotunda building. Princess Juliana and her family were remembered for their “down to earth” friendliness, general gratefulness and great reverence for their homeland and people, to whom they paid homage by refraining from all luxuries offered to guests at the resort that was once billed as the largest and most luxurious summer resort in Canada. In order to provide them with a greater sense of security, culinary chefs and staff catered to personal orders at meal time. Upon their departure, the hotel musicians of the Bigwin Inn Orchestra assembled dockside; and at every public performance afterward through to the end of World War II, the Wilhelmus was played. In the years following the shuttering and neglect of the island resort, the “Juliana” cottages were well maintained and preserved in an informal tribute to Princess Juliana and her family. In thanks for the protection of her and her daughters, Princess Juliana established the custom of the delivery to the Canadian government every spring of tulips, which are the centrepiece of the Canadian Tulip Festival.

The second sister of Beatrix, Princess Margriet, was born in Ottawa in 1943. During their exile in Canada, Beatrix attended nursery and Rockcliffe Park Public School, a primary school where she was known as “Trixie Orange”.

On 5 May 1945, the German troops in the Netherlands surrendered. The family returned to the Netherlands on 2 August 1945. Beatrix went to the progressive primary school De Werkplaats in Bilthoven. Her third sister Princess Christina was born in 1947. On 6 September 1948, her mother succeeded her grandmother Wilhelmina as Queen of the Netherlands, and Beatrix became the heir presumptive to the Dutch throne at the age of ten.

In April 1950, Princess Beatrix entered the Incrementum, a part of Baarnsch Lyceum, where, in 1956, she passed her school graduation examinations in the subjects of arts and classics.

In 1954, Beatrix served as bridesmaid at the wedding of Baroness van Randwijck and Mr T Boey.

On 31 January 1956 Beatrix celebrated her 18th birthday. From that date, under the Constitution of the Netherlands, she was entitled to assume the Royal Prerogative. At that time, her mother installed her in the Council of State.

The princess also visited various European and international organisations in Geneva, Strasbourg, Paris, and Brussels. She was also an active member of the VVSL (Female Union for Students in Leiden), now called L.S.V. Minerva, after merging with the Leidsch Studenten Corps (which before then was male-only). In the summer of 1959, she passed her preliminary examination in law, and she obtained her law degree in July 1961.

Her appearance on the political scene was almost immediately marked by controversy. In 1965, Beatrix became engaged to the German aristocrat Claus von Amsberg, a diplomat working for the German Foreign Office. There was a massive protest on their wedding day in Amsterdam on 10 March 1966. Prince Claus had served in the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht and was therefore associated by some of the Dutch population with German Nazism. Protests included such memorable slogans as “Claus ‘raus!” (Claus out!) and “Mijn fiets terug” (“Return my bicycle” – a reference to occupying German soldiers confiscating Dutch bicycles during WWII). A group of Provos threw a smoke bomb at the Golden Coach, resulting in a violent street battle with the police. But as time went on, Prince Claus became one of the most popular members of the Dutch monarchy, and his death in 2002 was widely mourned.

On 28 June 1965, the engagement of Princess Beatrix to the German diplomat Claus von Amsberg was announced. Claus and Beatrix had met at the wedding-eve party of Princess Tatjana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, in summer 1964. Following the consent of Parliament to the marriage, Claus von Amsberg became a Dutch citizen, and upon his marriage became Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg.

Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg on 10 March 1966 in civil and religious ceremonies. The bride wore a traditional gown with train in duchesse silk satin, designed by Caroline Bergé-Farwick of Maison Linette, in Den Bosch, and the Württemberg Ornate Pearl Tiara. The senior bridesmaids were the bride’s youngest sister, Princess Christina of the Netherlands; Princess Christina of Sweden, Lady Elizabeth Anson, Joanna Roëll, Eugénie Loudon and the bridegroom’s sister, Christina von Amsberg. The junior bridesmaids were Daphne Stewart-Clark and Carolijn Alting von Geusau, with page boys Joachim Jencquel and Markus von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff.

On 25 November 1975, Beatrix and Prince Claus attended the independence ceremony of Suriname, held in the new nation’s capital, Paramaribo, representing her mother the Queen.

There was an even more violent riot on 30 April 1980, during Beatrix’s investiture (sovereigns of the Netherlands are not crowned as such). Some people, including socialist squatters, used the occasion to protest against poor housing conditions in the Netherlands and against the monarchy in general, using the slogan “Geen woning; geen Kroning” (No home, no coronation). There were violent clashes with the police and security forces. This event is reflected in contemporary Dutch literature in the books of A.F.Th. van der Heijden.

On 30 April 1980, Beatrix became the monarch when her mother abdicated. She was sworn-in and inaugurated as monarch during a joint session of the two chambers of the States General at a ceremony held in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam later that day.

They lived at Drakensteyn Castle in Lage Vuursche with their children until Beatrix ascended the throne. In 1981, they moved into Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague.

On 1 January 1986, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles and became a separate constituent country in the Dutch Kingdom.

During 1988 Queen’s Day, Queen Beatrix was kissed by a bystander, later identified as Maarten Rijkers, when she walked through the crowd of people at a flea market in the Jordaan. When Beatrix walked alongside Rijkers he said “Give me a kiss, girl”, after which he gave her a hug and two kisses. It received wide media attention and appeared to be an historical moment. An image of this scene was large at the front page of De Telegraaf. It is later seen as an historical moment of the Netherlands. Even 25 years later in 2013, NRC Handelsblad wrote an article about it and the impact of it.

On 6 October 2002, the Queen’s husband, Prince Claus, died after a long illness. A year and a half later her mother died after long suffering from senile dementia, while her father succumbed to cancer in December 2004.

On 8 February 2005, Beatrix received a rare honorary doctorate from Leiden University, an honour the Queen does not usually accept. In her acceptance speech she reflected on the monarchy and her own 25 years as Queen. The speech was broadcast live.

On 31 May 2006 the 6th Polish Air Assault Brigade would receive the Militaire Willemsorde der 4e klasse in The Hague. Beatrix was to tie the prestigious medal to the standard of the incumbents of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade.

On 30 April 2009, the Queen and other members of the royal family were targeted in a car attack by a man named Karst Tates. Tates crashed his car into a parade in Apeldoorn, narrowly missing a bus carrying the Queen. Five people were killed instantly and two victims and the assailant Tates died later. Other victims of the crash were critically hurt. One week after the attack, another victim succumbed to the injuries he had sustained. The royal party were unharmed, but the Queen and members of her family saw the crash at close range. Within hours, Beatrix made a rare televised address to express her shock and condolences. The man reportedly told police he was deliberately targeting the royal family.

In 2009, Forbes estimated her wealth at US$300 million.

On 10 October 2010, the Netherlands Antilles were formally dissolved. The new municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba and the new constituent countries of Curaçao and Sint Maarten were established in its place. The dissolution ceremony in the Netherlands Antilles’ capital, Willemstad, was attended by the then-Prince and Princess of Orange, Willem-Alexander and his wife Máxima, representing the Queen.

Throughout much of her reign Beatrix had a considerable role in the cabinet formation process; notably she appointed the informateur, the person who leads the negotiations that ultimately lead to the formation of a government. However, this was changed in 2012, and now the largest party in the States General appoints a “scout” who then appoints an informateur.

In a broadcast on national media on 28 January 2013, Beatrix announced her intention to abdicate on 30 April (Queen’s Day), when she would have been on the throne for exactly 33 years. Beatrix stated that it was time to “place the responsibility for the country in the hands of a new generation.” Her heir apparent was her eldest son, Prince Willem-Alexander. She was the third successive Dutch monarch to abdicate, following her grandmother and her mother. The broadcast was followed by a statement from Prime Minister Mark Rutte who paid tribute to Beatrix, saying “Since her investiture in 1980, she has applied herself heart and soul to Dutch society.”

The official programme for the abdication and inauguration took place on 30 April 2013. Beatrix signed the instrument of abdication in the Vroedschapkamer (also known as Mozeszaal) in the Royal Palace, Amsterdam at 10:07 a.m. local time. With the completion of her signature, she was no longer monarch. The inauguration of Willem-Alexander as king took place that afternoon in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.