3 . t h e b i rt h o f p rovo
( m ay-j u ly 1965)
And Klaas came ! As Harry Mulisch, a leading Dutch novelist and es sayist , noted, " Klaas came and was called Claus . " His full name was Claus Von Amsberg, a 37-year-old Ger man diplomat and member of the minor German nobility who at the age of 1 7 had served in the German Army alongside the other boys Hitler conscripted at the end of the war to defend the fatherland. This otherwise-obscure foreigner was catapulted to fame overnight by virtue of becoming the fiance of Princess Beatrix, the oldest of Queen Juliana 's four daughters and heiress to the Dutch throne . The official announcement of the engagement came on June 2 8 , 1 965 a s the much-awaited climax o f a hectic seven-week period of wild speculation and veiled disclosure . And with his " Claus is Coming ! " prophecy realized, Grootveld's prestige soared to new heights . It now seemed as if the stage had been set and the actors were being prompted by fate to speak their lines. Because she was single and 2 7 , there had been much me dia speculation about Beatrix's future . The Dutch government is responsible for the succession to the throne , and initially the politi cians handled her engagement to Claus Von Amsberg secretively, which only inflamed the negative sentiments they wished to keep dormant . In 1 964, Beatrix's younger sister Irene had married Prince Charles Hugues de Bourbon-Parma, a pretender to the then-vacant Spanish throne . Irene 's union had been unpopular because of wide spread aversion to the fascist regime of Generalissimo Franco , and it was unacceptable to the Dutch law of succession because it ne cessitated her conversion to Catholicism. The Dutch royal family, the House of Oranje (pronounced Oh-Ran-Yeh, meaning " orange " ) , i s required b y " constitutional tradition " to belong to the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church, a historical holdover from the Nether lands' successful struggle for independence against Catholic Spain in the 1 6th century. Irene 's secret conversion became public when
••••••• provo: amsterdam's anarc hist revo lt •31
