In my last blog post I wrote about the history and current state of the Netherlands King's Day and you may recall that it is used by the monarch to honour their peoples with the Order of Orange-Nassau. I therefore thought it made perfect sense to discuss the Order in more detail.
The Order was founded in the last decade of the 1800's by the then Queen Regent in the name of her daughter Queen Wilhelmina whom had not yet reached adulthood. Over the decades this award has been given to Dutch people who has had a positive effect on this country or community not unlike the way the British Order of the British Empire does.
During the Second World War the Order was given to both military and civilians alike of foreign countries who played an active role in the liberation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from Nazi occupation.
The Order is divided into two types - military and civilian from formation. However the classes of membership has changed in recent years. Originally the higher classes of the Order, there were five, was reserved for members of the Dutch and foreign nobility and had a second type of award which was referred to as bronze, silver and gold.
After the Order went through a long period of discussion internally during the latter part of the 1900's it was decided that the Order needed to be seen as more democratic and remove the limitation to award of higher grades of the Order. This change made it possible for any person to achieve the highest but one grade which is limited to the monach.
Normally 4,500 new awards are issued each year while 3,000 previous recepients pass away. Therefore the Order only grows in number slowly.
For people interested in orders of knighthood of other countries a wealth of information can be found online.
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