We’re now into April, the weather is finally going to start to warm up in the next few days (so they promise us – but with much rain initially), and it’s a fine April indeed to be in the Netherlands! We’ve got a big party scheduled for just next Saturday when, after a ten-year renovation, the Rijksmuseum will be reopened and will be free for everyone (for that initial day). Then there is another special party due at the end of the month. Yes, April 30 has officially been Queen’s Day for a long, long time, held to celebrate the birthday of Queen Beatrix, but this time Queen’s Day will officially and permanently turn into Kings Day as our new King, Willem-Alexander, is crowned that day in the Nieuwe Kerk on the Dam.

So what’s this discordant note that I see emanating from one of the country’s main papers?

“It is 2013 – high time to stop with the monarchy”! Can it be that the Dutch royal house enjoys less support among its native populace than is supposed?

Probably not – but that does not mean that there is not a good case for abolition nonetheless. The tweet links to the Volkskrant article laying out the republican case by Max Westerman, a former reporter for Dutch TV, but this time all my dear readers are in luck, as that is just a translation back into Dutch of the original English piece that was published in the Wall Street Journal.

I do recomment that you take a look at the latter, if you have any interest at all in Dutch affairs. For it is certainly true that the history of the Netherlands is by far that of republicanism, i.e. of operating without a king, and it was only the European Great Powers after Napoleon’s defeat who foisted a king on the nation, and at a relatively late point in the history of kingship (1813) at that.

OK, the Bin Laden thing continues to dominate headlines, but let’s leave the macabre and go back just a short way to happier times – back to Will and Kate! At least Presse Nachrichten (normally just a German on-line outlet for company press-releases) is Will-ing:

Here’s their lede:

Kate Middleton met her prince. Would you like to get to know your prince? Then forget kissing frogs, and instead start thinking strategically, i.e. visit University (ideally Cambridge), do sports (ideally tennis), look for the right job (media or entertainment industry) and pick out carefully the right countries (Scandinavia or Monaco).

All this comes from the social networking site (yet another!) Badoo.com, whose management apparently commissioned a study precisely on winning your own royal prince – as a clever marketing ploy, of course.

Still – you do probably want to know the “7 Golden Rules” they came up with, right? I’ll translate them for you.

1. Think international – almost 50% of all princes marry a foreigner.
   
2. Stay focused on Europe – ideally on Monaco or Scandinavia. [Why? Probably because that’s where the most – the best? – of the eligible princes come from, although the study here does implicitly give up on the British Royal Family as too high a goal.]
   
3. Study – universities are the new royal marriage-market.
   
4. Get out your party-pumps – princes like to carouse.
   
5. Be sporty – ideally, play tennis.
   
6. Find a job – ideally in media or the entertainment industry.
   
7. It can’t hurt to be famous – do it and increase your chances.
   

One thing not on this list, you’ll notice, is birth: no need to have any noble blood yourself, since the trend is noticeably towards princes marrying commoners (as was Kate Middleton herself, of course, before she became the Duchess of Cambridge).

And finally: Don’t worry, there are plenty of princes out there! The Badoo.com-sponsored research identified 33 royal families, on four continents, from whose loins – so to speak – they can spring.