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Crownprince Willem Alexander (The Netherlands)

Last modified: 2019-05-25 by rob raeside
Keywords: willem alexander | maxima |
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See also:

Prince Willem-Alexander and his brothers (Prince Johan Friso and Prince Constantijn)

Standard prince Willem-Alexander image by Mark Sensen, 30 March 2004
Adopted 26 April 1985

Finally, a bit of vexillography. I have made my own hypothesis for Prince Willem-Alexander's standard, considering/supposing that (a) princes use 5:6 rectangular flags, while princesses use swallow tailed ones and that (b) princes and princesses of the blood use a blue cross on orange with a hunting horn in the upper hoist and their parental arms in the lower hoist, while princes-consort use an orange cross on blue with the Orange-Nassau lion in the upper hoist and lower fly and their own Arms in the other cantons.
Santiago Dotor, 16 February 2000

This speculation on the flag of the King as a prince, and of his now departed brother, and his youngest brother, can now be confirmed from https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/encyclopedie/monarchie/koninklijke-vlag/onderscheidingsvlaggen/:

een oranje vlag met een Nassaublauw kruis en in het midden het gekroonde Rijkswapen. Linksboven en rechtsonder staat de jachthoorn uit het wapenvan het Huis Oranje, rechtsboven en linksonder de witte burcht uit het wapen Van Amsberg."
(an orange flag with a Nassau blue cross and in the centre the crowned National Arms. Upper left and lower right is the bugle from the arms of the House of Orange, upper right and lower left the white castle from the arms of Van Amsberg.)
The flag of Prince Claus suggests that the white castle should be depicted as a tower. Thus, we can now consider the speculation to be the actual flag. (Of course we already knew this flag existed, since we already list the adoption date.)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 April 2019

Princess Maxima flag

[Maxima's personal flag] image by Mark Sensen, 2 February 2002

Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is now happily wed with his Máxima Zorreguieta - congratulations to all Dutch! According to the newspaper De Telegraaf, the Crown Princess has (not surprisingly) even been granted a personal Coat of Arms and a flag by the Queen.
From the text below, it seems that the flag has an orange cross on blue, with the hunting horn and a castle (probably the one from her family Coat of Arms that also forms the heart shield of her new Coat of Arms). This is all the newspaper tells us, but I suppose there will also appear the state arms in the center, as on the other royal flags. No idea about the shape; probably swallow-tailed, as for other princesses?

The following text and a picture of the Coat of Arms can be found at this webpage (possibly outdated, ed.) (translated)
"On the advice of the High Council of Nobility a special Coat of Arms was designed for Máxima, drawn by P. Bultsma from Kollum. The Coat of Arms consists of 4 parts:
I and IV a golden Dutch lion
II and III a hunting horn
As heartshield the Coat of Arms of Máxima Zorreguieta shows a castle with two cypresses and two black wolves. On the swallow-tailed blue flag with orange cross, which Princess Máxima will from now on use on her car, only the hunting horn of Orange and a castle will be seen."
Marco Pribilla, 2 February 2002

The flag and coat-of-arms were adopted 25 January 2002, and published in Staatsblad nr. 42.
From the given description and patterns from the other royal Dutch flags, I made the attached image. But note that this is only a provisional image meant to give you an idea how the flag will *probably* look like!
Piet Bultsma, who made the drawings, is member of the Dutch Association of Vexillology (NVvV).
Mark Sensen, 2 February 2002

In reality, as with the flag of Princess Laurentien, both charges are yellow on a blue field. See photograph of car flag at Peter Smulders: http://www.petersmulders.nl/preview.php?id=2387. Mark's image definitely matches the description.

The announcement in Staatsblad nr. 42 can now be found at: http://krant.telegraaf.nl/krant/archief/20020202/teksten/bin.wapen.maxima.artikeltekst.html, where it says: "Een ingehoekte blauwe vlag met een oranje kruis, waarop het gekroonde Rijkswapen, met in het veld linksboven (het broektopkanton) de hoorn van Oranje en in het veld linksbeneden (het broekhoekkanton) een burcht met deur en drie kantelen." (A forked blue flag with an orange cross, on which the crowned Royal Arms, with in the upper left field (the top hoist canton) the bugle of Orange and in the lower left field (the bottom hoist canton) a stronghold with door and three merlons.)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 April 2019

It's interesting to see that the couple each have a tower as their distinguishing charge. The pattern of the flags would still not allow for a flag with all towers, though. But, should the couple live to see Queen Amalia ascend to the throne, they might get a combined flag like Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard had.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 April 2019


Flag of Princess Laurentien

[Flag of Princess Laurentien] image by Mark Sensen, 30 March 2004
Adopted 15 January 2003

By Order in Council of 15 January 2003 a flag is adopted for Princess Laurentien, wife of the third son of Queen Beatrix, Prince Constantijn. (According to the official text this came effective on the day of marriage. This was 17 May 2001, 20 months earlier!)
The flag is "Nassau" blue in proportions 5:6, with a triangle 1/3rd  of the length cut out of the fly. At 5/12th of the flag length an orange cross, 1/5th of the flag height wide. At the center of the cross the shield of the royal arms, covered with the royal crown. In the canton a yellow bugle-horn (Oranje/Orange). In hoist bottom a yellow diamond (Brinkhorst, she's a daughter of Cabinet Minister Brinkhorst)..
Mark Sensen, 8 February 2003