Dutch mourn Queen Juliana at funeral

NETHERLANDS: Thousands thronged Dutch streets for former Queen Juliana's funeral yesterday as the "Mother of the Netherlands…

NETHERLANDS: Thousands thronged Dutch streets for former Queen Juliana's funeral yesterday as the "Mother of the Netherlands" was interred alongside 16th-century dynastic founder William of Orange in a church in Delft.

Princess Juliana, who died this month at the age of 94, reigned from 1948-80, when the Netherlands emerged from post-war gloom into an era of prosperity, granting independence to its colonies and cementing its reputation for tolerance.

Pall-bearers carried her coffin, draped in the blue, white and red Dutch flag, out of Noordeinde Palace in The Hague to a hearse that bore her body to the Nieuwe Kerk church in the central town of Delft. Dubbed "the people's queen", she won popularity by striving to make the royals less aloof by shopping at her local supermarket, and sent her children to state school.

King Juan Carlos of Spain and Britain's Prince Philip were among mourners from more than a dozen royal families to join Queen Beatrix, Crown Prince Willem Alexander and Juliana's German-born husband Prince Bernhard at the funeral.

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Queen Beatrix and many other royals were dressed in white, to symbolise hope, in accordance with the late Queen Mother's wishes. - (Reuters)