King and Queen of the Netherlands visit Abbey
Tuesday, 23rd October 2018
The King and Queen of the Netherlands visited Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 23rd October as part of Their Majesties’ State Visit to Her Majesty The Queen.
Prayers were said at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior and King Willem-Alexander laid a wreath in honour of the fallen of the two World Wars and more recent conflicts, before he and Queen Máxima were escorted on a tour of the Abbey by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, and members of the Abbey Chapter.
The King and Queen viewed the graves of William III and Mary II in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel. William, Prince of Orange, and his wife Mary, daughter of James II, were offered the English crown in 1689, after the deposition of James II in 1688, and their joint coronation took place in the Abbey two months later. Their bodies lie in a vault below the Lady Chapel.
