What if Alexander...

the Media Perfect Prince

It seems my dear prince is very beloved by media people.

the Book: "Alexander - De vergeten kroonprins"
English: "Alexander - The forgotten crown prince"



The first cover was the cover used for the first edition of the book, published in the late 70's of last century. The cover on the right is of the latest edition, published some time around 1997.

This book is the best and the most complete biography you can find on Alexander. There's not that much exciting to find out, Alexander didn't really do much of importance. Great parts of the book are filled with the complete texts from papers. It also includes Alexander's sent in letter as a reaction on an article in a paper and the two following brochures he published to explain his point made in the first mentioned letter. It's an interesting and exhausting read since it's all in old Dutch. But it gives a nice view of how Alexander's brain worked. Pretty well, I must say.

In the second edition is a an intro in which the below series "Wij Alexander" ("We Alexander") is mentioned. According to the author the series says Alexander went mad and got institutionalized, instead of dying in 1884. If the author of the book had watched the series right till the end, or had paid attention right till the end, he would have found out his assumptions of what the series was saying were wrong. To find out what I'm talking about watch "Wij Alexander". The piece of intro I'll add in the next entry.

To buy:

Bol.com     De Boekensalon     Boekmeter

the TV-series: "Wij Alexander"

English: "We Alexander"

Find the

The story plays in 1909 right after the birth of the (then) future Queen Juliana. Doctor Giltay returns to the Netherlands to finish his studies at an institution. In the institution he meets patient #4 who claims to be Prince Alexander, who at that point had been dead for 25 years.

Soon the care of this patient is handed over to Giltay who also gets the assignment to find out about a wooden box (mentioned before on this blog).

The questions are many: Is patient #4 really Prince Alexander? Where's the wooden box and why are people so keen to find it?

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. The story is clever and very respecting towards Alexander. Only facts are presented as facts and rumours remain rumours. If we're not certain about something, neither is the series. In other words, this series doesn't sling any false facts into the world, it merely plays with the already old existing rumours.

Also the pace of the story is right, the acting is superb and it all looks very authentic. Definately recommended.

Bol.com    

the Play: "Alexander - de prins die niet wilde"

English: "Alexander - the prince who didn't want to"

I only found out about this play today. This play was only performed on Texel, I believe, for a small audience and only a few dates. The prince was played by Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling, who unfortunately was very depressed and commited suicide in 2010.

I can't really find much about the play except that it was performed in December (?) 2009 and that it gave a view on the Dutch royals from around 1890 from the viewpoint of Alexander. It was a solo performance.

If I find more, I'll post it here.

My Alexander

This is how I always picture Alexander (in my head).

Just so you know.

This one below, however, is my favourite for obvious reasons (probably not to you, but is to me).

the Dutch Royal Soap Continued

Recently, or lately, or the last few days, or would that rather be the coming few days, or more than one century ago or to come, I get stuck in time a little and I’m not even a time traveler.

Alexander at some point in his life
Could this man be the...?

Even I believe this is getting ridiculous and I indulge myself regurarly in fantasizing up ridiculous things. Out of the Doctor Who fandom into Orange fandom, which quite frankly scares me, has me time traveling more than I did with the Doctor. I mean when fantasizing about the Doctor. Hmmm, I wish. I now know my answer when the Doctor asks me where to go first.

This will be one of these blogs in which I get stuck in gushing about my latest interest. About how I can’t stop thinking about him. About his character flaws, completely forgetting he probably can’t help it (anymore) either.

For my convenience at the bottom some links to sources. These two give you a very complete, though not very detailled, and correct retelling of Alexander’s life.

And now, on with the Royal Soap.

On a forum I read the following:

Mr Hayes wrote:

“Who was the real father of Queen Wilhelmina????? We shall never know…..unless people go into the grave chambers in Delft to examine that (DNA).”

To which 22339 replies with:

“That 29 year old prince (meaning Prince Alexander) of course who did it with his step-mother.”

Wilhelmina age 4/5
Could this girl be...?

That one got me. That was a thought I hadn’t come across yet nor did that sprout from my rich fantasies. It had me mildly shocked, amused, excited and then disappointed when I realized that’s not very likely.
However, let’s examine this thought.

Forget all that talk about him never leaving his palace only to lay flowers at his mother’s and brother’s coffins. Also forget that Alexander couldn’t stand the thought of Emma being his step-mother for accepted (by me) moral reasons.

Let’s adopt the generally approved believes that Emma was a good person with a good feel for human suffering. If we forget and/or accept all above mentioned, it’s not a strange thought that Alexander and Emma hit it off. It’s even possible that Wilhelmina is not Willem III’s child, but Alexander’s. In that case, not only has the throne been semi-legally in the Oranje-Nassau family, but something or rather someone of Alexander lives on right up till this day.

See why I got mildly excited? It certainly put a completey different spin on things. It feeds the bottom from which my trees and flowers of absurd stories sprout.

Emma, 20-something
Could this woman...?

On the other hand, picturing Alexander as Wilhelmina’s father, rather than half-brother, seems a bit gross. I know it’s not really; it would even be a bit less gross than the actual situation. I’m still not willing to picture a sixty-something year old king with a twenty-something year old queen having sex, which, if the history isn’t telling lies, actually happened. It might have saved the monarchy, for what it’s worth, it’s still not a very pleasant thought to me. Emma with Alexander seems more acceptable and suitable in equal measures.

It would have meant not only that Alexander had been with a woman, which pales the gay rumours a little, he would have been with his father new wife, his step-mother. In the light of things disturbing, yet interesting. It definitely would make this horrible royal fairy tale complete. Especially since Alexander never meets his little half-sister/daughter.

So, could Wilhelmina Alexander’s child?

Sources Alexander biography:
http://madmonarchs.guusbeltman.nl/madmonarchs/alexander/alexander_bio.htm
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42952075

Source Alexander’s supposed saviour of the kingdom (a few messages down):
http://www.startrek.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1373