Sir, – Peter Cluskey says that the Dutch love of monarchy “has its roots in the second World War” and that “Queen Beatrix at the time played the same role as Elizabeth II: that of doughty leader . . . sworn to shore up the morale of her subjects in a time of existential peril” (“Prevailing Dutch wind suggests it’s time for royal family to stop reigning”, World, May 5th).
It is certainly correct to say that the then-Princess Elizabeth boosted British morale through her wartime radio broadcasts and her service in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in her late teens. However, Princess Beatrix was just two years old at the time of the Nazi conquest of the Low Countries in May 1940 and was therefore in no position to provide doughty leadership or to shore up morale. She spent the duration of the war with her parents in exile in Canada, and did not accede to the Dutch throne until 1980.
You presumably meant to refer to Beatrix’s grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, who reigned in the Netherlands during both world wars and led a government-in-exile in London during the second war, becoming a symbol of Dutch national resistance for the duration of that conflict. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.