Queen invites King and Queen of Netherlands for state visit – but Meghan is not invited
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The Queen has invited King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Máxima for a state visit
THE Queen has invited the King and Queen of the Netherland to Buckingham Palace for a state visit later this year when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are abroad.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be in Sydney, Australia for the Invictus Games from October 20 to 27 before embarking on a Commonwealth tour.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Máxima have been invited to stay at Buckingham from October 23 to 24.
A Buckingham Palace statement said: “Their Majesties The King and Queen of the Netherlands have accepted an invitation from The Queen to pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom from 23rd to 24th October 2018.
“The King and Queen of the Netherlands will stay at Buckingham Palace.”
The Queen has hosted two previous state visits from the Netherlands during her reign.
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The last state visit from the Netherlands was by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands in November 1982.
In April 1972, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard paid a state visit to the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile the Queen and Prince Philip paid a state visit to Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in March 1958.
The news comes after Queen Maxima cancelled a string of engagements last month to fly home to her native Argentina to mourn the loss of her younger sister, Ines Zorreguieta.
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Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander visiting the Queen in 2013
The Dutch royal at the time was said to be very “shocked and sad” following the death 33-year-old sister, who was found dead at her apartment in Argentina on June 6.
A statement from the Royal House of the Netherlands read: “Following the death of her sister Inés Zorreguieta, Queen Máxima will not be accompanying King Willem-Alexander on the state visits to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.”
Queen Maxima visited the Queen in Windsor Castle in 2013, after King Willem-Alexander ascended to the Dutch throne.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands
It was the pair’s first official visit to the UK since Willem-Alexander ascension and according to sources, the meeting was a joyous one.
The Dutch royals are very close to the British Royal Family and Queen Maxima also attended Kate and Prince William's wedding in 2011, when she was known then as Princess Maxima.
Then in 2015 Queen Maxima joined Kate, Duchess of Cambridge for the annual Remembrance Sunday Service in Whitehall, London.
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Queen Maxima and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge in 2015
King Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima has been invited to mark the 70th anniversary of their country's liberation at the end of World War 2.
The Queen who was joined by her husband Prince Philip and grandson Prince William laid a wreath of poppies at the Cenotaph in tribute to the war dead.
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