Dutch King Willem-Alexander succeeds mother
Updated: 2013-04-30 17:23
(Agencies)
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Rare trip by Japan's princess
Britain's Prince Charles and Japan's Crown Princess Masako, who is making her first foreign trip since falling ill a decade ago, will be among 2,000 visitors at the official investiture ceremony on Tuesday afternoon.
The royal family will head from the palace to the 600-year-old Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, next door in the afternoon where the king will swear an oath to uphold the Dutch constitution before lawmakers.
The Dutch monarch is never crowned, since, in the absence of a state church, there is no cleric available to carry out the coronation. But there is a crown, which will sit on a table next to him throughout the ceremony, along with other regalia that constitute the crown jewels.
Willem-Alexander will wear a royal mantle that has been used for investitures since 1815, although it has been repaired and altered at least twice over the past century, for the investitures of his mother and grandmother.
Celebrations are expected to continue through the evening with a water pageant along the IJ, Amsterdam's historic waterfront.
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