His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands will pay a state visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The state visit is set to take place on 23 and 24 October 2018. The King and Queen will be accompanied on their visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stef Blok. The King and Queen will spend the night at Buckingham Palace.Â
The state visit reaffirms the excellent ties between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as ‘North Sea neighbours’, based on shared values in the past, present and future.
There have been just two previous state visits from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. The last visit took place from 16 to 19 November 1982 and was by then Queen Beatrix and her husband, Prince Claus. The very first visit took place from 11 to 15 April 1972 and was by then Queen Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernhard. Meanwhile, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh visited Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard in the Netherlands in March 1958.
The Duchess of Cambridge met King Willem-Alexander when she made her first solo overseas to the Netherlands in 2016.
King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty The Queen are distantly related. The King is a descendant of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach. He was removed from the line of succession to the throne of the United Kingdom after he married a Roman Catholic. He was restored to his (distant) succession rights by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. King Willem-Alexander succeeded his mother as King of the Netherlands upon her abdication in 2013. He has been married to Queen Máxima since 2002, and together they have three daughters, The Princess of Orange (born 2003), Princess Alexia (born 2005) and Princess Ariana (born 2007).Â
