Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Her Serene Highness Princess Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia of Waldeck and Pyrmont (August 2, 1858 - March 20, 1934) was Queen consort of William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. An immensely popular member of the Dutch royal family, she also was Queen regent (1890 - 1898), Queen Mother (1890 - 1934) as well as a passionate woodworker, owning a workshop in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Family

She was born in Arolsen, capital of the small German principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont, on 2 August 1858, a daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his wife, Princess Helena Wilhelmina Henrietta of Nassau. Her brother, Friedrich, was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her sister, Helena Frederica, would become the wife of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, a son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her maternal grandparents were Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau and his second wife Pauline of Württemberg. Pauline was a daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and his wife Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Paul was a son of Frederick I of Württemberg and his wife Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Augusta was the eldest daughter of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales.

Marriage

She married the elderly king, William III, on 17 January, 1879, two years after his first wife, Princess Sophie of Württemberg, had died. The aging, licentious king, once described as "the greatest debauchee of the age", had previously been rejected by Emma's sister Pauline and by Princess Thyra of Denmark. With William, Emma had her only child, the future Queen Wilhelmina, on 31 August, 1880. The king also had three sons from his first marriage, William, Maurice, and Alexander, all of whom died before him. When William died on 23 November, 1890, Emma became regent for her underaged daughter, Wilhelmina, the late king's only surviving child. She would remain Queen regent until Wilhelmina's eighteenth birthday on 31 August, 1898. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which could not be inherited by a woman at that time, passed to their distant cousin Adolf, Duke of Nassau (who was also Queen Emma's maternal uncle). She died in 1934, of complications from bronchitis at the age of 75, and was buried in Delft.

Ancestry