Princess Amalia turns one year old

7 December 2004

AMSTERDAM — Princess Amalia, the future queen of the Netherlands, turned one year old on Tuesday. But in honour of the death of her great grandfather, Prince Bernhard, flags continued flying at half-mast across the country.

Princess Amalia is the first child of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima. She is second in line to the Dutch throne behind her father, whose mother, Queen Beatrix, will celebrate her 25th year of her reign in 2005.

Amalia was born in the Bronovo hospital in The Hague at 5.01pm on 7 December last year and Willem-Alexander registered the birth in The Hague two days later, officially naming his daughter Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria.

But in a strange twist, the media got hold of the name the day before by discovering the royal family had registered internet addresses under the name Catharina-Amalia.

Prince Willem-Alexander managed a smile however when announcing to the press the not-so-secret name when officially registering his daughter’s birth with the Mayor of The Hague, Wim Deetman.

Subject: Dutch news