This is a mandatory requirement in many European courts. For their 18th birthday, the heirs and heiresses to the thrones of the old continent celebrate their coming of age with a ball. Crown Prince Christian of Denmark had the right to do so in 2023. The previous year, it was Princess Ingrid Alexandre of Norway who invited crowned heads, notables and friends to the royal palace in Oslo for her birthday. A way to introduce the future face of the Crown to the world.
Catharina-Amalia from the Netherlands, for her part, had to settle for a “modest” garden party at the Huis ten Bosch palace, where only her friends were invited. The heiress of King Willem-Alexander actually celebrated her 18th birthday in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore saw her initial plans scaled back. As she prepares to celebrate her 21st birthday on December 7, the Princess of Orange could well make up for lost time.
The rumor is circulating in the Dutch editorial offices. “A big birthday ball is being considered for the Crown Princess,” a royal columnist who wishes to remain anonymous told us. Information to be used in the conditional, no confirmation having been provided by the Royal House to date. If neither the place nor the date have yet been leaked, it could therefore be that Queen Maxima's daughter surrounds herself, in addition to her friends and family, with the Royal Highnesses of her generation; Christian of Denmark, Elisabeth of Belgium, Ingrid Alexandra of Norway… Enough to make lovers of royal jewels dream of a shower of tiaras in The Hague.
If his father, King Willem-Alexander, did not himself have a birthday ball, we have to go back to 1956 and the 18th birthday of his grandmother, the former Queen Beatrix, for such celebrations take place in the Netherlands. Crowned with the wheat ear tiara from the royal collections, a symbol of fertility, abundance and wealth, Beatrix was then treated to a performance of the London Ballet at the Stadsschouwburg, the municipal theater of Amsterdam.
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