Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau (Mabel Martine Wisse Smit; born Mabel Martine Los, 11 August 1968), more commonly known as Mabel van Oranje,[1][2] is the widow of Prince Friso and sister-in-law of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. She spends her time in human rights activities such as co-founding War Child Netherlands, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.
She was born Mabel Martine Los in Pijnacker, the Netherlands. Her parents were Hendrik Cornelis Los (27 April 1944 – 18 February 1978) and his wife Florence Malde Gijsberdina Kooman (b. 1944). When she was 9 years old, Mabel's father died as a result of a drowning incident after trying to save his neighbor, who fell into a hole in the ice while skating. In 1984, her mother remarried to Rabobank executive Peter Wisse Smit (15 October 1939 – 11 November 2000), whereupon Mabel and her younger sister, Nicoline (1970–2023), took their stepfather's surname. Princess Mabel also has a younger half-sister, Eveline Wisse Smit (b. 1982).[4]
During her university years, she showed special interest in human rights situations around the world, and later specialised in Balkan diplomacy and international relations. In 1995 she was present at the peace conference in Dayton, Ohio.[citation needed]
Work and activism
Wisse Smit was co-founder of the European Action Council for Peace in the Balkans in 1994, which was a non-governmental organisation that strove for peace, democracy, and stability in the Balkans, and had Margaret Thatcher, Simon Wiesenthal, and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing among its members.[citation needed]
In 1995, she was one of the co-founders of War Child Netherlands; she was on the Trustee Board until 1999. In 1997, she was appointed director of EU affairs of the Open Society Institute (OSI) in Brussels, founded by George Soros.[5]
From 2002 to 2008, she worked in the London branch of the Open Society Institute as the International Advocacy Director to help coordinate all international OSI advocacy activities aimed at international policy change.[6]
From July 2008 until May 2012, she was the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Elders, a group of eminent individuals convened by Nelson Mandela to use their wisdom, independent leadership, and experience to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. She oversaw the day-to-day operations for the Elders.[8] In May 2012, Mabel van Oranje resigned as CEO of The Elders following the February 2012 accident in which her husband, Prince Friso, was caught in an avalanche and remained hospitalised until his death on 12 August 2013.[9] She continues to be involved with The Elders as a member of its Advisory Council as Advisory Committee Chair of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.
In 2015, she was one of 35 signatories to an open letter addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, heads of the G7 in Germany and the African Union (AU) in South Africa, respectively, from the ONE Campaign. As the G7 and AU prepared for the United Nations summit later that year, the letter called for them to put women and girls at the heart of international efforts to combat hunger and misery.[10]
Controversy
After announcing the engagement of Prince Friso with Mabel in June 2003, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende wrote in a letter to parliament that Mabel Wisse Smit had given "incomplete and incorrect information" about the duration and extent of her contacts with known drug lord Klaas Bruinsma,[11][12] and that because of this, the government had decided not to seek permission for the marriage from parliament.[13][14]
In a letter to the Prime Minister dated 9 October,[15] Prince Friso stated the couple had given some incomplete information, but had not given any incorrect information nor did they lie. The couple admitted that the sailing friendship with Bruinsma was indeed closer than had been mentioned, but denied a love or sexual relationship. This was later repeated by Wisse Smit in a number of interviews.[16]
According to Dutch law, the government had to submit the couple's marriage request to parliament for its approval, a prerequisite for succession to the throne. Prince Johan Friso said he would marry Smit regardless, and as a result lost his right to become king. He had been second in the order of succession, after his older brother, Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange.[citation needed]
In a report later issued by the Stichting Nederlandse Nieuwsmonitor (Dutch News Monitor Foundation),[17] it was alleged that the Dutch media had contributed to blowing things out of proportion after the prime minister made 'unnuanced' comments during two news conferences. During this period, she garnered further negative publicity by revelations about an affair, circa 1993, with married Bosnian UN Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey.
Mabel Wisse Smit and Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau married at Oude Kerk (Delft) on 24 April 2004. The couple has two daughters:
Countess Emma Luana Ninette Sophie of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, born 26 March 2005 in London, her godparents are Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands (paternal uncle), Eveline Wisse Smit (maternal half-aunt), Baroness Sophie von der Recke (paternal first cousin once removed), and Emma Bonino (parent's friend). She attended Sevenoaks School, a coeducational private school in Kent, England.[18][19]
Countess Joanna Zaria Nicoline Milou of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, born 18 June 2006 in London, her godparents are Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (paternal uncle); Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi (her father's maternal first cousin), Nicoline Wisse Smit (maternal aunt), Ruben Amerling (parent's friend), and Maria Luz Luano (parent's friend).
As he had not asked the Dutch parliament for permission to marry, Friso ceased being a member of the royal house and forfeited his and his future children's succession rights. Therefore, neither his wife nor daughters are members of the royal house. They remained, however, one of the richest families in the Netherlands.
Prince Friso died in 2013.
Titles, style, and names
Since her marriage, Mabel uses the style of Royal Highness and the courtesy titles of Princess of Orange-Nassau, Countess of Orange-Nassau, and Lady van Amsberg. Although she was not legally created a princess in her own right (a rare privilege in any royal family), it is customary for wives and widows of male members of the Dutch royal family to be accorded the female counterparts of their husbands' titles. It was decided that their children each would receive the titles of Count or Countess of Orange-Nassau and Jonkheer or Jonkvrouw van Amsberg.
In 2014, Princess Mabel of Orange was nominated for the Toastmasters' Communication Award by the Dutch chapter of Toastmasters International for her performance at TEDxAmsterdam.
Princess Mabel was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from the Glasgow Caledonian University in 2018, in recognition of her contribution to human rights across the world and her commitment to non-profit organisations.[21]
Related Research Articles
The House of Orange-Nassau is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, particularly since William the Silent organised the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) led to an independent Dutch state. William III of Orange led the resistance of the Netherlands and Europe to Louis XIV of France and orchestrated the Glorious Revolution in England that established parliamentary rule. Similarly, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was instrumental in the Dutch resistance during World War II.
Beatrix is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013.
Willem-Alexander is King of the Netherlands.
Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau was the second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Claus von Amsberg, and younger brother of King Willem-Alexander. Friso was a member of the Dutch Royal Family, but because of his marriage without an Act of Consent in 2004, he lost his membership of the Dutch Royal House and was no longer in the line of succession to the throne.
Máxima is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander.
Prince of Orange is a title associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by the stadtholders of, and then the heirs apparent of, the Netherlands.
Since 1983, the crown of the Netherlands passes according to absolute primogeniture. From 1814 until 1887, a monarch could only be succeeded by their closest female relative if there were no eligible male relatives. Male-preference cognatic primogeniture was adopted in 1887, though abolished when absolute primogeniture was introduced in 1983. Proximity of blood has been taken into consideration since 1922, when the constitution was changed to limit the line of succession to three degrees of kinship from the current monarch. In a situation where the monarch is succeeded by an eligible aunt or uncle, persons previously excluded could be reintroduced into the line of succession.
Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands is the wife of Prince Constantijn and sister-in-law of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.
Count Claus-Casimir of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg, is the second child of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands and their only son. He is a member of the Dutch royal family and is sixth in the line of succession to the Dutch throne.
Countess Eloise of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, in the media often styled as simply Eloise van Oranje, is the first child and daughter of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. She is the first grandchild of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands. She is a member of the Dutch royal family and currently fifth in the line of succession to the Dutch throne.
In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional office and is controlled by the Constitution of the Netherlands. A distinction is made between members of the royal family and members of the royal house.
Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia was the consort of William V of Orange and the de facto leader of the dynastic party and counter-revolution in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of Prince Augustus William of Prussia and Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Wilhelmina was the longest-serving princess consort of Orange.
Countess Leonore of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, is the third child and second daughter of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. She is a member of the Dutch royal family and currently seventh in the line of succession to the Dutch throne.
Anna van Egmont, mainly known as Anna van Buren, was a Dutch heiress who became the first wife of William the Silent, Prince of Orange.
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The style of the Dutch sovereign has changed many times since the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands due to formations and dissolutions of personal unions, as well as due to marriages of female sovereigns and cognatic successions.
This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2003.
Maria of Nassau or Maria of Orange-Nassau was a Dutch princess of the house of Orange and by marriage pfalzgräfin or countess of Simmern-Kaiserslautern.
The wedding of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, and Máxima Zorreguieta took place on 2 February 2002 at the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. Willem-Alexander and Máxima became king and queen on 30 April 2013 after the abdication of his mother, Beatrix.
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