“Thou great Creator of the world,
Why are not thy red lightnings hurled?
Will not the sea at thy command
Swallow up this guilty land?
Why are we left to mourn in vain
The guardian of our country slain?
No place, no refuge, for us left,
Of homes, of liberty, bereft;
Where shall we flee? to whom complain…”
“The Dirge of Llywelyn”
—By Gruffudd ap yr Ynad Coch (Meaning: Gruffudd Son of the Red Judge, Welsh Bard, late 1200s)

King Edward I of England
Steals the Title “Prince of Wales”,
February 7, 1301

he reign of King Edward I of England was made notable and is recalled for many things. His nicknames—those of “Longshanks” and “Hammer of the Scots”—suggest what an imposing figure he was personally while the chronicles of his time tell us of legendary exploits in the Crusades, his conflicts with the French, and his eventual last days spent at enmity with the Scottish hero William Wallace. Considered by many historians to be one of England’s greatest kings—a bold statement regarding a country that produced so many—Edward I was impressive in a ruthless way: wise but also bold, and undeterred by the impossible. He left his mark on the nation he ruled but also on the nations he crushed, often enshrined in history and song as a tyrant.

Edward I (1272-1307)

Talley and the Beacons, Wales

For Wales—one of his more forgotten conquests—the legacy of their subjugation lives on to this day with the stolen title of “Prince of Wales” being passed to incumbent sons in line for the English throne. King Edward I was responsible for this.

Before Edward’s time, the country of Wales—that westward outcrop of Great Britain—was a wild place with a formidable history. It was ruled by various native kings and princes and made up of many separate tribes. Comprised of Briton and Celtic peoples, many of whom had been driven westward by the invasion of the Angles and the Saxons, they had close ties with Ireland and Scotland. They shared attributes with these countries more than with England and predominantly retained their Celtic form of Christianity when the rest of Briton fell back into paganism after the withdrawal of Roman governance in the fifth century.

Celtic village Din Lligwy (pre-Roman) in present-day Anglesey, Wales

When Christianity retook the island of Great Britain, the Welsh could often be found aiding such heroes of the faith as Alfred the Great against the Vikings in the 800s. But this aid was an exception made for fellow Christians to help defeat a barbaric invasion; it did not suggest amiability towards being incorporated into King Alfred’s dream of a unified England.

By the time of the Norman invasion of 1066, Wales had gotten quite comfortable in ruling itself. Divided into four main kingdoms, peace between them was wobbly, yet the Welsh remained self sufficient, formidable and most importantly, distinctly non-English. The Welsh considered their new Norman invaders as “gratuitously cruel” and under the leadership of Irish-born ruler Gruffudd ap Cynan—an erstwhile invader himself—they liberated themselves and were granted autonomy by the Anglo-Norman King Henry II, at the price of paid homage. The following years were filled with infighting and various betrayals. Incursions were made by both Scots and Normans at the invitation of various Welsh princes, and power grabs were common amongst the divided kingdoms. However, any attempt at complete subjugation failed.

Gruffudd ap Cynan (c. 1055 –1137)

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth “The Great” (c. 1173-1240)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (1223-1282)

The Northern kingdom of Gwynedd was the largest and most powerful in Wales, and a few of their Princes began to use the title “Prince of Wales” starting in the late 12th century, less as an act of defiance against England than a means to assert their supremacy over other Welsh rulers. It was in 1194 that the Welsh became truly united under Prince Llewelyn the Great, who drove the English out and kept them out for the entirety of his reign.

Gwynedd following the division of 1247 at the kingdom’s maximum extent

His grandson, Llewelyn II ap Gruffydd, worked to expand his family’s authority in Wales. He forcefully bound together the southern and western kingdoms, uniting them with his northern one, making the unified principality of Wales a political reality and himself their first acknowledged overlord. His reign was further legitimized when the English King Henry III formally recognized his title and authority as Prince of Wales in the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267.

Map of Wales after the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267

The death of King Henry sounded the death knell for this age of Welsh independence and respectful interrelations. In 1272, Henry’s warrior son, Edward I, ascended to the throne of England and soon made clear he had no intention to honor his father’s treaties.

The Welsh prince and his family had become too powerful, accumulating allies and land in England, not always diplomatically. Following Prince Llewelyn’s inflammatory marriage to a lady of the rebellious Monfort family, King Edward demanded Prince Llewelyn’s homage at court in Chester, offering an exchange of ruling Wales for a position as an English lord. Prince Llewelyn and his brother both refused to give up their birthright. Thus, King Edward instigated his crushing invasion of Wales.

Caernafon Castle, Gwynedd, Wales, where Edward II was born and titled “Prince of Wales”

It began in 1277: his armies overwhelmed the poorly equipped Welsh and erected an impregnable line of castles to enforce their occupation. King Edward slew Prince Llewelyn ap Gruffydd and his brother Prince Dafydd, and after their deaths Welsh resistance crumbled. Like any conqueror worth his salt, Edward I had a taste for the theatrical and was keenly aware of the symbolic importance of titles, heraldry and culture to the populace he had subjugated. Just as he took Scotland’s Stone of Destiny back to Westminster as a trophy, Edward’s last crowning touch to his conquest of the Welsh occurred on this day in 1301 when he bestowed the title “Prince of Wales” upon his effeminate son, later King Edward II. Edward II’s own crushing defeat at the hand of Scotland’s King Robert the Bruce thirteen years later at the battle of Bannockburn, and his subsequent overthrow by his own wife, came too late to cheer or liberate the Welsh. Despite various revolts and political movements since, it remains an integral part of the United Kingdom.

Edward I bestowing the title of “Prince of Wales” upon his son, Edward II

England’s Coronation Throne—with a space below for Scotland’s Stone of Scone to be mounted—was commissioned by Edward the I for his coronation as a meaningful statement of Scotland’s subjugation

The title of “Prince of Wales” is now synonymous with British royalty. The position is currently held by Prince William, next in line to the throne. In 1969, King Charles—who himself was Prince of Wales at the time—had his investiture televised with great pomp and symbolic pageantry at the pleasure of the late Queen Elizabeth. He was the 21st heir to the British throne to hold the title. It took place at Caernarfon Castle (birthplace of Edward II, for whom the title was originally stolen) and to the pleasant surprise of his new subjects, Prince Charles addressed the staunchly nationalist crowds in their native Welsh tongue.

A 2019 march for Welsh Independence in Cardiff, Wales

Today the Welsh Nationalist movement is far from dead and has seen many iterations over the generations. The street movement is stronger than ever: September of 2023 saw 10,000 people rallying in support of Welsh independence in the city of Bangor. Like with Ireland’s and Scotland’s own independence movements, however, much of Wales is both influenced and diluted by EU politics. As for the culture, like with Ireland, there has been a resurgence of pride and interest by many in the younger generation—a relief, as even the national language was predicted to be extinguished by the 21st century. According to official statistics, some 880,000 people now speak Welsh in Wales, and the country is well on track to hitting the target of a million speakers by 2030. Younger generations have never known a Wales without Welsh at the forefront, and have a confidence and pride in a language almost unheard a century before.

Population of Wales who speak Welsh, according to the 2011 census

Image Credits: 1 Edward I (wikipedia.org) 2 Talley and the Beacons (wikipedia.org) 3 Celtic Village (wikipedia.org) 4 Gruffydd ap Cynan (wikipedia.org) 5 Kingdom of Gwynedd (wikipedia.org) 6 Treaty of Montgomery (wikipedia.org) 7 Llywelyn The Great (wikipedia.org) 8 Death of Llywelyn (wikipedia.org) 9 Caernafon Castle (wikipedia.org) 10 Edward I & II (wikipedia.org) 11 Coronation Chair (wikipedia.org) 12 Welsh Independence March (wikipedia.org) 13 Percentage of Welsh Speakers (wikipedia.org)

“The education of young citizens ought to form them to good manners, to accustom them to labor, to inspire them with a love of order, and to impress them with respect for lawful authority. Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.” —Gouverneur Morris

American Statesman Gouverneur Morris Is Born,
January 31, 1752

riter of the preamble to our constitution, leading patriot of our revolution, esteemed member of the Continental Congress, wartime minister of the Treasury and American Ambassador—to name only a few of his notable stations—Gouverneur Morris is one of our forgotten founding fathers.

Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816)

Born in New York City at Morrisania Manor house to prosperous and staunchly Tory parents, Morris came from Huguenot and Welsh stock. Although derisively labeled an “aristocrat” by many patriots during the Revolution and a traitor by his old social circle, Morris became convinced of the cause of independence and used his own genius and experience to warn of power imbalances in the Congress and Senate until his death. A colorful figure of great stature and personality—in no way impeded by the necessity of a peg leg to replace a tragically crushed limb—Morris swam in the inner circle of our nation’s founding nexus until his last days, and was both witness to and actor in some of its greatest scenes.

Morris’ wooden leg

There is no more frank telling of our revolution and the days of our establishment than can be found in Morris’ often terse, sometimes exhaustive, but always witty journals. Added to that are the extensive archives of his correspondence, much of which sheds light on dire national struggles as well as the intimate friendships and rivalries that comprised the motley network of soldiers, statesmen and foreign nobles who were instrumental in America’s founding.

The opening page of a letter from Morris to Thomas Pinckney

The closing page of a letter from Morris to Thomas Pinckney

His decline in popularity was a result of both personal antagonism to any form of diplomacy which might endear him to chroniclers, and the purposeful besmirching of his character by political opponents. The latter reached new heights during the vicious fractioning of the Republican and Federalist parties in the 1790s. But perhaps it is best explained by one of his contemporaries, John Jay, who wrote of him:

“Honor obliges me to say that he deserves well of New York and America in general. Yet it has been the uniform policy of some from the beginning of the contest to depreciate every man of worth and abilities who refused to draw in their harness.”

In his own words Morris freely admitted, “I am not a cautious man and zeal always gets the better of Prudence.” Yet still his momentous contributions to our country, driven by that very same zeal, are undeniable and often cost him dearly. His pen wrote not only our preamble but also the final draft of our Constitution. He was called upon by James Madison to exert the full extent of his prodigious vocabulary in prettifying the document, as it was deemed essential for the wording to be not only binding and accurate but also inspiring.

Gouverneur Morris signs the Constitution in the 1925 painting, Foundation of the American Government

He was present at the deathbed of Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, and wrote movingly of Mrs. Hamilton and the children’s despair. He also wrote and delivered the eulogy for his controversial friend:

“Far from attempting to excite your emotions, I must try to repress my own, and yet I fear that instead of the language of a public speaker, you will hear only the lamentations of a bewailing friend. But I will struggle with my bursting heart, to pourtray that Heroic Spirit, which has flown to the mansions of bliss…”

He was required by President Washington at the height of the French Revolution to abandon his personal pursuits in France and replace William Short as American ambassador there. Morris was crucial in establishing precedent for sanctuary and asylum at his embassy where many of America’s French allies flocked at the height of the Terror. Despite the daily threats to his life by Robespierre’s Committee of Public Safety and the abandonment of almost all other diplomatic envoys, Morris doggedly remained at his post through the worst of it. He wrote to Congress begging for clearer direction regarding his assignment and confirming his dedication to it:

Bust of Gouverneur Morris, from a life mask taken June 6, 1792

“I presume that when the President did me the honor of naming me to this embassy, it was not for my personal pleasure or safety, but to promote the interests of my country. These, therefore, I shall continue to pursue to the best of my judgment, and as to consequences, they are in the hand of God.”

These are only a fraction of the events Gouverneur Morris took part in. His ardent appeals against slavery, his prophetic warnings regarding the impending war of 1812, and his work on the Erie Canal all deserve note and further discussion.

The final resting place of Gouverneur Morris—St. Ann’s Church, Bronx, New York, built by his son, Gouverneur Morris, Jr.

For now I will leave you with this testament to his character written by another great American, Theodore Roosevelt, who found Morris worthy of a place in his compiled Hero Tales.

“There has never been an American statesman of keener intellect or more brilliant genius. Had he possessed but a little more steadiness and self-control he would have stood among the two or three very foremost. He was gallant and fearless. He was absolutely upright and truthful; the least suggestion of falsehood was abhorrent to him. His extreme, aggressive frankness, joined to a certain imperiousness of disposition, made it difficult for him to get along well with many of them with whom he was thrown in contact. In politics he was too much of a free lance ever to stand very high as a leader. He was very generous and hospitable; he was witty and humorous, a charming companion, and extremely fond of good living. He was strictly just; and he made war on all traits that displeased him, especially meanness and hypocrisy. He represented better than any other man the clear-headed, practical statesman, who is genuinely devoted to the cause of constitutional freedom. He was essentially a strong man, and he was an American through and through.”

Image Credits: 1 Gouverneur Morris (wikipedia.org) 2 Wooden leg (wikipedia.org) 3 Letter, page 1 (wikipedia.org) 4 Letter, page 2 (wikipedia.org) 5 Foundation of the American Government painting (wikipedia.org) 6 Bust (wikipedia.org) 7 St. Ann’s Episcopal Church (stannssouthbronx.wordpress.com/history)

Robert Burns Is Born,
January 25, 1759

n this date, all over the globe, in royal grandeur and in humbler abodes, “Burns Night” is celebrated. Toasts are drunk, verses recited, odes offered to the famed haggis, and Scotland’s Bard is remembered.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

In doing so, there is recalled another time when prosperity almost drowned out the echo of past heroism and a legacy worth dying for, when one man’s literary contributions to his nation’s fast-diluting culture became integral to its current identity. When you think of Scotland’s lore, for good or ill—be it noble Celts or staunch Covenanters, lost causes or tenacious engineering, majestic, mist-draped Highlands or the fertile, lush Lowlands—the imagery is greatly due to Burns’ own pen.

River Nith at Ellisland Farm, home to Robert Burns

For a country so ardently poetic and proudly lyrical, it is distinction indeed for one to ascend above all others in the national esteem and celebration. Every bit as crucial for his nation’s reputation, Burns’ work has found the same laud in the international sphere. Two thousand five hundred international “Burns Supper” events were recorded to have been held last year, up to nine and a half million people participating, many in countries as dissonant and far removed from heather and claymore as Russia, India, Sri Lanka, Fiji and Kazakhstan.

The traditional spread for a Burns Supper: haggis, neeps and tatties

Program from a ‘Birth of Burns’ Supper, Newcastle, England, January 25, 1859

The very first Burns Night was held by his close friends at his birthplace, Burns’ Cottage, a few years after the poet’s untimely death in 1796. It has continued on ever since, moved only to mark his birth, spreading in popularity while keeping much of the humble form and close camaraderie of the original. Essential to a Burns Night is the reading and singing of his work and the sharing of biographical tidbits of his life—a life too large and tumultuous to be summarized, and rightly overshadowed by his legacy of verse. If ever a poet understood the character of his nation, it was Robert Burns.

Burns Cottage & Museum, birthplace of Robert Burns in Alloway, Scotland

In Burns we see a fierce pride for his country warring with disdain for many of its foundational attributes. We see swelling tributes to Christian principles sitting side-by-side on the page with scathing renouncements of the constraints of morality. Rarely was a man so torn in his admiration, so viciously uncomfortable in his love, or so successful in capturing Scotland’s own torn history. But there is no debate that the Scotland which Robert Burns captured in his writings was a noble, vivid, Christian country.

A 1787 manuscript of ‘Address to Edinburgh’ in Burns’ hand

A young Sir Walter Scott, reading and adulating Robert Burns, was keenly aware of the service the man had rendered his country in his brief life. Burns made it a crusade to preserve old tales and rhyme in their original Broad Scots dialect and get them published. He also wrote new compositions of such genius that even the icy English critics over the border praised and consumed his works with ardor. This crucial revival of Scottish heritage came not half a century after the defeat of the last Scottish king’s attempt to regain the throne. This defeat resulted in the violent suppression of all cultural trappings—the tartan, bagpipes and that old pesky clan system which had proven impenetrable to centuries of invaders.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland was built by Queen Victoria as a royal residence, and one of her favorite places

Where his “romantic” contemporaries and protégés would soon become renowned for their written work and poetry—names such as Scott, Shelley, Byron and Keats among them—Burns’ genius advanced in part due to his astounding ability to combine evocative music with his verse. Between the influence of the two of them—Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott—the effects of this romantic revival reached even to Queen Victoria. Being a young and impressionable woman, she carried her passion so far as to purchase an estate near Lord Byron’s childhood stomping grounds of Aberdeenshire. There she and her husband, Prince Albert, erected the grand Balmoral Castle, the better to spend her holidays amongst what Burns called “the birthplace of valor, the country of worth.”

This watercolor of the new Balmoral Castle under construction—designed by Prince Albert to resemble his native German castles—was painted in 1852 by Queen Victoria

A song sheet for ‘Scots Wha hae’ with lyrics by Robert Burns, the one-time unofficial national anthem of Scotland

Image Credits: 1 & 2 Robert Burns & his signature (wikipedia.org) 3 River Nith (wikipedia.org) 4 Burns Supper Program (wikipedia.org) 5 Burns Supper spread (wikipedia.org) 6 Burns Cottage (wikipedia.org) 7 ‘Address to Edinburgh’ (wikipedia.org) 8 Sir Walter Scott (wikipedia.org) 9 Balmoral Castle (wikipedia.org) 10 Victoria’s Watercolor of Balmoral Castle (wikipedia.org) 11 ‘Scots Wha hae’ (wikipedia.org)

John Wycliffe Begins Translation of the Scriptures into English, January 16, 1382

n Oxford Don possessing great academic prowess and enjoying the perks of royal patronage—the “Morning Star of the Reformation”, as he became known—was an unlikely figure of subversion, and his weapon was none other than the Word of God. It is perhaps testament to both Wycliffe’s doctrinal triumph and his own personal humility that the movement his arguments and translation produced loomed large over his own reputation and fame.

John Wycliffe (c. 1328-1384)

As a new decade dawned in the latter half of the 14th century, worldly prospects were bleak. The Black Death had decimated nearly a third of the world’s population and the Western church was torn apart by the Great Schism with multiple popes laying claim to Saint Peter’s Chair.

A page from the Ellesmere Manuscript edition (c. 1410) of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with a portrait of Chaucer in the page embellishments

John Wycliffe’s own native England had long been consumed with the bloody Hundred Years War against France. The cost of this conflict left England drained of resources and moral surety, governed by a child King whose uncle acted as Regent. So while Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in an effort to reignite some spark of the old chivalry, and Dante imagined his nine circles of hell, John Wycliffe became convinced the anecdote to the despair and collapse all around him was reliance upon the Divine promises of God. Yet how was the Word to be a universal comfort—much less used as a foundation for living—when the general populace and their preachers had no intimate contact with it? Except for the few and privileged, men educated fluently in Greek, Latin or Hebrew and positioned in places such as Oxford where the venerable text was housed, few in that generation had ever seen a copy of the entire canon.

A map of the nine levels of Hell, as imagined by Dante in his Inferno

The beginning of the Gospel of John in a copy of John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible, from a pocket-sized copy which was made in the late 14th Century

While there is much contention regarding what extent of the now eponymous Wycliffe Bible was translated by the man himself or by his students and fellow Lollards, his endeavors brought forth the first complete Bible to be written into middle English, predating William Tyndale’s own extraordinary translation by over one hundred and forty years. Drawn from Jerome’s Vulgate translation, Wycliffe’s Old and New Testaments were completed two years after the project began, although further updated versions were done by Wycliffe’s assistant John Purvey and others in 1388 and 1395, after Wycliffe’s death.

1 John 5 from the 9th Century Vulgate

By that time, and despite being too early to employ the prolific distribution by printing press that Tyndale’s Bible had profited from, these hand-written testaments were spread widely throughout England and eventually Europe.

The opening page to the Gospel of John in a 1526 edition of William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible—cleanly mass-produced with the help of the printing press

The established church was infuriated by these Bibles, and felt threatened by the doctrine their common language suggested. In Wycliffe’s own words the Bible taught:

“Neither place nor human election makes a person a member of the church but divine predestination in respect of whoever with perseverance follows Christ in love . . . Go and preach, it is the sublimest work; but imitate not the priests whom we see after the sermon sitting in the ale-house, or at the gaming table . . . After your sermon is ended, visit the sick, the aged, the poor, the blind and the lame and succour them.”

Wycliffe Giving ‘The Poor Priests’ His Translation of the Bible, by artist William Frederick Yeames (1835-1918)

Wycliffe followed these translations with sharp polemics, calling for the renouncing of sin, reliance solely on Christ for salvation, condemnation for the superstition of transubstantiation and immorality of the clergy, and his denial of the Pope’s authority. All of these later became indisputable tenants of the Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries. Wycliffe’s readers agreed and, driven by the holy zeal of the freshly-awakened, spread what they insisted were not new doctrines but ancient ones—those assurances of Saint Paul and the reasonings of Saint Augustine that had been too long buried under pomp and ignorance.

For more than a hundred years, the bishops harried these Christians out of their parishes, seized their fragments of manuscript Bibles, attempted to force them to recant, forfeited their property and burned many of them at the stake. Wycliffe himself was allowed a peaceful death, despite severe harassment in his lifetime. But his grave was given no such clemency.

The Trial of Wycliffe A.D. 1377, by Ford Madox Brown, a mural at Manchester Town Hall

In 1415, more than thirty years after his death, the Council of Constance formally condemned the forty-five “errors” of Wycliffe, decreeing that all his works were to be burned along with his bones. To quote the eloquent words of a seventeenth-century writer:

“They burned his bones to ashes and cast them into the Swift, a neighbouring brook running hard by. Thus the brook conveyed his ashes into the Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas and they into the main ocean. And so the ashes of Wycliffe are symbolic of his doctrine, which is now spread throughout the world.”

Exhumation of John Wycliffe, from The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, vol. 3, 1837 edition

Unearthing those figures who lit a torch during the “dark ages” is one of the most fascinating and hopeful areas of Reformed study. And while in no way discounting the impact of giants such as Luther, Calvin and Knox, it is emboldening to learn of those who, like Wycliffe and Hus, did not enjoy having the popular tide of opinion on their side but were drawn to the truth centuries before those rewarding days of the Reformation. Their sacrifices, translations and guardianship of the Gospel is indeed our precious inheritance to maintain and defend.

Detail of the Luther Memorial below, portraying John Wycliffe seated at the back right corner of Luther’s pillar, from the viewer’s perspective

Martin Luther Memorial (Lutherdenkmal) in Worms, Germany: Luther’s central statue is surrounded by the figures of his lay protectors and earlier Church reformers including John Wycliffe

Image Credits: 1 Portrait of John Wycliffe (wikipedia.org) 2 Canterbury Tales (wikipedia.org) 3 Dante’s imagination of Hell (wikipedia.org) 4 Wycliffe Bible page (wikipedia.org) 5 Vulgate page (wikipedia.org) 6 Tyndale Bible page (wikipedia.org) 7 Wycliffe and humble preachers (wikipedia.org) 8 Wycliffe’s Trial mural (wikipedia.org) 9 Exhumation of Wycliffe (wikipedia.org) 10 Wycliffe detail (wikipedia.org) 11 Martin Luther Memorial, Worms (wikipedia.org)

Queen Wilhelmina Sentences a Traitor,
January 8, 1948

n January 8, 1948, having been condemned to death for treason against her country, Madame Anna “Ans” van Dijk made a final appeal for clemency to her sovereign, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. A more distinct paradox could hardly be conjured than the wartime disloyalty of the supplicant and the unflinching duty displayed on the part of the Monarch in the recent conflict. However, not a single female Dutch collaborator had been executed as yet, despite many being sentenced to incarceration for up to twenty years for their complicit activity. Upon reviewing the case, Queen Wilhelmina found, just as the courts of her nation had, that Ans van Dijk was guilty of treason and responsible for the deaths of up to 700 Jews and members of the Dutch resistance—including those who had once protected her own Jewish heritage by offering up their homes and their lives to hide her identity. How did it come about that a Jewish woman of well-to-do origins became one of the Gestapo’s leading “Jew Hunters” in Holland during World War II? And by eventual justice the only Dutch woman to be held fully responsible for her crimes?

Ans van Dijk (1905-1948) standing trial in Amsterdam, February 24, 1947

For much of the 1930s, Queen Wilhelmina—who had steered her country through many events including the Boer War and Holland’s tenuous neutrality during World War I—had desperately tried to rouse her ministers to brace for a brewing storm of Nazism in their neighbor Germany and amongst their own populace.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962)

A proud descendent of Protestant heroes such as William the Silent and William of Orange, Queen Wilhelmina was an ardent student of history, ambitious to be foremost in the line of duty and disparaging of all false optimism in regards to Adolf Hitler’s plans for empire. Unfortunately, she was almost alone in this foresight. She wrote: “by the spring of 1938 when Hitler invaded Austria, it was plain to me that German policy would result in a European catastrophe,” but to her despair, the Dutch people and their ministers were “quietly asleep on a pillow called neutrality… Shortly before the war it was necessary for me to point out that our soon-to-be enemy had written a book (Mein Kampf), and that it might be of some use to examine its contents.”

King Williem III (1817-1890) and Queen Emma (1858-1934) of the Netherlands—Queen Wilhelmina was their only child

10th anniversary meeting of the NSB (Dutch national socialist party), 1941

By 1939 Hitler had invaded Poland and caused complete devastation there. Terror fell from the skies on Norway next, in the form of the Luftwaffe’s legendary blitzkrieg. Holland had little time, resources or tactics to deploy before she was under attack along with Belgium and France. Their invaders dropped by the thousands, parachuting into fields carpeted with tulips, overtaking the peaceful streets of Holland. Other than a brief uprising in 1830, the Dutch had been at peace for 125 years. Upon finding themselves suddenly occupied by a ruthless and seasoned enemy, their defenses broke speedily. The German forces quickly seized all vital motorways, government buildings and, after a brief struggle, practically obliterated the Dutch Air Force. Nearly unhindered, they now advanced towards The Hague to carry out their Führer’s explicit order to take Queen Wilhelmina and her family alive. Previous broadcasts made by the Führer to the Dutch royals—appealing shared Aryan blood and other imagined commonalities—had all been derisively ignored. Determined not to be caught alive, Queen Wilhelmina first called the King of England to personally beg for reinforcements. When informed that he had already sent Belgium all he could spare, she readied her family and fled for England.

SS recruiting poster urging Dutch people to join the fight against Bolshevism

A man climbs over a barbed-wire barrier which separates the significant Jewish district of Amsterdam from the rest of the city

Well aware that her abandonment of the country would be devastating for the morale of her people, Queen Wilhelmina arrived in London determined to return a conqueror. She set up headquarters in the bomb-pitted shells of Piccadilly Square, and from there refused to budge, hosting noteworthy exiles such as Charles De Gaulle and the president of Poland, conspiring with them to create an effective league providing supplies and leadership to the resistance cells already forming back home. Such staunch resistors were indeed forming en masse, and while the disorganized initial attempts often led to cruel discovery, eventually a substantial network sprang up in Holland, the tales of which are now notorious and include such heroes as Corrie Ten Boom.

Dutch resistance fighters in Winterswijk, Netherlands, 1941

Using the same “slow boil” method that had crushed Poland, German laws were soon placed on Holland’s economy, religion and most significantly their Jewish population. All detractors were singled out and forced under greater and greater oppression until they were eventually sought out and executed. Ans van Dijk was one of these Dutch Jews discriminated against by the new laws. The milliner shop she ran in Amsterdam along with her female partner was forcibly closed, and as restrictions soon escalated, she found herself depending on resistance members for hiding places to escape discovery and subsequent deportation to the murder camps.

Massive canvassing with the National Socialist (NSB) weekly magazine Volk en Vaderland in Amsterdam by officials, with the slogan: “Our nationalism your salvation, our socialism your future”—the NSB carried out the campaign “The Battle for Amsterdam” for three months, from March to June of 1944

Despite this, Ans van Dijk was caught and arrested in 1943 by Nazi intelligence detective Peter Schaap, of the Office of Jewish Affairs of the Amsterdam police. As per her testimony after the war, she was released after promising to collaborate with the Nazis by infiltrating the same resistance groups that had protected her. Returning to these patriot groups she pretended interest in taking a more active role in the resistance, and so began providing safe houses herself for Jewish refugees, who she would then inevitably betray to her overlords. One hundred and forty-three Jews were sent to their deaths in this manner, including her own brother and his family. She herself was paid handsomely for each innocent man, woman and child she betrayed. It is speculated that amongst her victims were Anne Frank and her relations. Soon, as the war grew more dire, any resistance member who suspected or troubled her was summarily dealt with.

Kamp Schoorl in the Netherlands, photographed sometime between 1940-45

Eventually Holland was retaken, liberated by her Allies. A wave of fury swept the country then as the hunted now became the hunters, ferreting out any who had aided the late savage and vile regime. And worse yet, any who had fed it by craven acts of self protection such as Ans van Dijk.

Members of the NSB (Dutch national socialist party), also called “collaborators”, are rounded up and humiliated (some by having their heads shaved) in 1945 Netherlands

Found living in the Hague on her earned blood money, she was arrested and imprisoned until her trial in 1947 where even her erstwhile Nazi commanders spoke highly of her eagerness to cooperate, defeating her pleas of working under duress. In a court of Dutchmen who had recently lost so many and sacrificed so much under duress themselves, the motive of self preservation was rightfully interpreted as the vice it was: cowardice. She was condemned as a traitor. Ans van Dijk’s last hope was to appeal to Queen Wilhelmina for clemency, but if the traitor thought a comparison could be made or a sympathetic ear reached there, she was gravely disappointed.

Queen Wilhelmina addresses the American Congress in Washington DC, on August 6, 1942

From the day Queen Wilhelmina had fled to England, she took to the BBC to broadcast fiery, achingly human, and most of all, rousing encouragement to her occupied subjects. As Winston Churchill once quipped of her “I fear no man except Queen Wilhelmina.” The mood of her country that had once held animosity for her abandonment soon considered her the exiled light of hope keeping them spurred on and connected to a free and committed outside world. She returned to Holland with a tiny retinue comprising only her daughter and three others before her nation had even been completely liberated. Such devotion and ferocity displayed by their once regal queen of the old order earned her the same respect, loyalty and status amongst her countrymen that had been given her glorious ancestors.

In one of her last acts as Queen, she sentenced Ans van Dijk to death by firing squad—a martial, just and brutal message against those who would embrace pragmatism over love of honor, duty and sacrifice.

Queen Wilhelmina in 1942

Image Credits: 1 Ans van Dijk stands trial (wikipedia.org) 2 Queen Wilhelmina (wikipedia.org) 3 King William III and Queen Emma (wikipedia.org) 4 NSB Meeting, 1941 (wikipedia.org) 5 Recruiting Poster (wikipedia.org) 6 Amsterdam Barrier (wikipedia.org) 7 Dutch Resistance Fighters (wikipedia.org) 8 Amsterdam in 1944 (wikipedia.org) 9 Kamp Schoorl (wikipedia.org) 10 Collaborators (wikipedia.org) 11 Queen Wilhelmina addresses the US Congress (wikipedia.org) 12 Queen Wilhelmina in 1942 (wikipedia.org)