| Juliana II | |
|---|---|
| Queen of the Netherlands Antilles and Chairwoman of CARICOM | |
| |
| Reign | 2005-Present |
| Coronation | 2005 at Pietermaai Cathedral in Willemstad |
| Predecessor | Beatrix I (as Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) |
| Full name | |
| Juliana Edenia Antonia Guillermo | |
| House | House of Orange-Nassau |
| Father | Jorge Guillermo |
| Mother | Princess Christina of the Netherlands |
| Born | October 8, 1981 Utrecht, Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Religion | Christianity (Roman Catholic) |
Overview[]
Her Majesty Queen Juliana II is a constitutional monarch, and the current head of state of the Netherlands Antilles. She is also the inaugural chairperson of post-Doomsday version of CARICOM. In her role as the head of state for the Netherlands Antilles, she has become the Kingdom's chief cultural ambassador, and has become a figurehead for the global Dutch diaspora.
Queen Juliana has worked to promote education, stability, and development within her Kingdom. She has also worked to promote Dutch Caribbean culture. Once CARICOM was reaffirmed in 2020, she took on a similar role for the Caribbean Sea region as a whole, though she remains committed above all to her Kingdom, and has been a proponent of the Antilles' attempts to gradually assert control over the old Netherlands in Europe, though this has been (and will continue to be) a very gradual process, due to the massive flooding of the homeland on and after Doomsday.
Since her selection as CARICOM Chairwoman in 2020, Queen Juliana has also been active in work on behalf of the whole region.
Due to her increasingly prominent diplomatic and cultural role thanks to chairing CARICOM and representing the bloc in diplomatic summits, her popularity has increased beyond the Netherlands Antilles, and newspapers in the region have dubbed her the "Caribbean Queen."
Pre-Doomsday[]
Her Majesty's parents, Princess Christina of the Netherlands and Jorge Guillermo, at their wedding in 1975.
Queen Juliana was born as Juliana Edenia Antonia Guillermo in Utrecht in 1981.
Her parents were Princess Christina of the Netherlands and her husband, Cuban exile Jorge Guillermo. Although Dutch society was becoming more tolerant, Guillermo's status as a Roman Catholic had necessitated Princess Christina's renunciation of her own and her children's claim to the Dutch throne. However, this would eventually be overturned by the Kingdom's Parliament when Juliana was later located and offered the throne.
Princess Christina and Mr. Guillermo were eventually married in June 1975 in a civil ceremony in Baarn, followed by an ecumenical religious ceremony in the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht.
The couple frequently moved during the early years of their marriage. They initially lived in New York City, before returning to the Netherlands.
By 1983, young Juliana was living with her parents in North America, a twist of fate that would ultimately save her life...and begin her road to the throne.
Doomsday[]
When the alert came from Dutch government channels that a nuclear exchange was beginning, the Dutch diplomatic team in New York City quickly boarded a set of helicopters to evacuate the city and alerted the Royals, who were living in an apartment on the Upper West Side. On their way out, one of the choppers stopped at their rooftop to pick up Princess Christina and Jorge Guillermo, along with their baby daughter Juliana. The convoy of helicopters were able to reach the open seas before the first atomic bomb hit Midtown Manhattan.
The helicopters were eventually forced to land along the coastline the next day due to dwindling fuel. The Dutch dignitaries sheltered in place for a time before eventually negotiating for a boat ride to the Bahamas, and from there to northern Mexico.
Ascension to the Throne[]
Juliana Guillermo in her 20s shortly before her accession
In the years after Doomsday it became known that all members of the Dutch royal family had died during the attack on Rotterdam or because of the radiation following the event. It was for a long time assumed that the country being a kingdom would be even more "symbolic" than in most modern constitutional monarchies. When this issue was, almost jokingly, raised by an affluent Antillian businessman to a Mexican colleague of his, the latter remarked that he did know of a relative of late Queen Juliana living in northern Mexico, having survived the attacks on the United States. After having received word of this, the Antillian federal government sent an envoy to Mexico to see whether this was true. After a year or so the mission proved successful, and later Queen Juliana II, daughter of Princess Christina of the Netherlands, was found living with her father in a town in Northern Mexico. Though she wasn't strictly speaking a member of the Dutch royal family and not eligible to accede the throne, another joint session of the three functioning parts of the Kingdom was held, and it was decided to invoke the right the parliament had to appoint a successor to the throne if no legitimate heir is present. Finally in 2005 the inauguration of Queen Juliana II. took place at Pietermaai Cathedral.
The inauguration of Queen Juliana II, who could solely speak Spanish at the time, was even done almost completely in that language, with some Papiamento verses being sung as only exception.
Reign[]
Queen Juliana attending to her royal duties at a ceremony on Aruba.
The Dutch Antillian public was initially very divided on the topic of the monarchy at the time of Juliana's accession to the throne. However, she gradually earned the respect of the Antillian people and won over most of her skeptics. Like Elizabeth II of the old UK, Queen Juliana has come to be seen as a source of stability above the fray of politics and as a promoter of national culture .
In August 2010, Queen Juliana II traveled across the Atlantic Ocean with a delegation to officially christen the first new military base in the southwestern region of the old Netherlands, marking the formal start of the Kingdom's efforts to begin reclaiming the old motherland. The Netherlands Antilles formally claims the entirety of the old Netherlands as its territory, though in practice much of this territory remains submerged. However, it is hoped that the Kingdom can gradually salvage more and more of its land and resources in the coming decades.
Queen Juliana has elevated Roman Catholicism to the role of state religion in the Netherlands Antilles, as the overwhelming majority of the population is Catholic, including the Queen herself.
The flag of CARICOM
Chairwoman of CARICOM[]
The 2020's would see Queen Juliana take on a new role.
In 2020, the various nations of the Caribbean Sea region decided to reaffirm the pre-Doomsday bloc CARICOM, in order to provide a peaceful forum for regional disputes as well as provide for mutual defense and a single economic market.
While political power in the bloc is mainly wielded by a Secretary-General (who resides at Colgrain House in Georgetown, Guyana Cooperative and runs the day-to-day work of CARICOM), the grouping also would once again have a chairperson. It was decided that Queen Juliana, as a well-respected constitutional monarch who already had experience promoting her islands while remaining "above the fray of politics," would be a popular choice to be the inaugural CARICOM chairperson of the post-Doomsday era.
In this new role, the Queen has served as a roving ambassador for CARICOM, frequently touring the Caribbean region (inevitably doubling as an ambassador for Dutch Caribbean culture as well, elevating her importance to her own country) as well as other nations. Shortly after her accession to Chairwoman of CARICOM, Queen Juliana made a well-received speech at the opening of the 2020 session of the League of Nations on Tonga. Her dramatically increased global profile and popularity combined with her work as a spokeswoman for the Caribbean nations has resulted in newspapers across the world dubbing her "the Caribbean Queen," a nickname which was also helped by her actual Caribbean heritage, with her father being Cuban.
Although she initially spoke mostly Spanish rather than Dutch, after her accession as Queen she had begun formal education in the Dutch language. During her tenure as CARICOM chair, her now-fluency in Dutch endeared her to the Dutch-speaking Surinamese citizens in the eastern half of the Guyana Cooperative, as well as Dutch survivor villages in the non-submerged fragments of the Old Netherlands
As of the 2020's, Queen Juliana is continuing in her roles of Dutch monarch and CARICOM Chairwoman, while promoting education and various charities.