Childhood and Family
Princess Irene is a descendant of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, via her great-granddaughter Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange. Among her godparents was Queen Elizabeth, who was Queen consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom at the time of her birth.
The princess was born in Soestdijk Palace. At the time of her birth, war was a distinct possibility but, because her parents hoped for a peaceful solution, they chose to name their new daughter for the Greek goddess of peace. She has three sisters, the eldest of whom is the current monarch of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix; the two younger ones are Princess Margriet and Princess Christina.
Because of the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany during World War II the Dutch royal family first fled to the United Kingdom. Irene was not yet a year old when the family was forced to leave the Netherlands; she was christened in the Chapel-Royal of Buckingham-Palace in London, the wife of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth being one of her godparents. As the family was leaving the Netherlands, the port where they were boarding the British warship was fiercely attacked by a German air raid; one of the German bombs exploded within 200 yards of the family. Irene was placed in a gasproof carrier to guard the child against chemical warfare.
Princess Juliana and her daughters again took flight when the London Blitz began, this time to exile in Ottawa, Canada, where her younger sister, Margriet, was born and where Irene attended Rockcliffe Park Public School. As a teenager, she was dubbed by the Dutch press "the glamorous Princess of the Netherlands." During the war, the Royal Dutch Brigade (the formation of Free Dutch soldiers that fought alongside the Allies) was named for Princess Irene. This was continued after the war as the Regiment Prinses Irene.
Always an independent person, Irene was thrilled to receive a sports car from her father, one of the gifts he had been presented with. Irene's happiness was short-lived; when she opened the hood of the automobile, she noticed that the car was sporting in appearance only, having an ordinary car's engine. She asked her father for permission to turn the vehicle into a true racing-type auto, which Prince Bernhard refused to allow.
She was a bridesmaid at the 1962 wedding of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark.
Princess Irene studied at the University of Utrecht, then went to Madrid to learn the Spanish language and became proficient enough to become an official interpreter.
Read more about this topic: Princess Irene Of The Netherlands
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