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Queensday (oftewel Koninginnedag)

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     The Dutch are celebrating Koninginnedag since 1885, starting with the 5th birthday of the popular princess Wilhelmina, although at that time it was called "Princessedag", as she only became Queen on her 18th birthday, when that day was ofcourse changed to "Queensday".      The reader must realize that the Dutch are anything but royalists by nature. As soon as we shook off the shackles of the Spanish royal tyranny in 1581, we became a constitutional republic (a lot of the US constitution is based on the Dutch and French versions). We still claim to be "the oldest republic" in the world. In doing so one has to ignore the anomaly of San Marino, (whoever heard of them?) which was declared independent from the Roman empire in 301. And to be candid, we continued in 1813 the Monarchy that Napoleon forced on us in 1806, effectively ending our Republic.      Anyway our mindset is still republic-minded, while to the rest of the world we claim to be fiercily l