The future Queen Emma of the Netherlands was born in Arolsen (Germany) on 2 August 1858, a daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his wife, Princess Helena Wilhelmina Henrietta of Nassau. Her sister, Helena Frederica, would become the wife of Queen Victoria's son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.
She married King William III of the Netherlands in 1879, after his first wife, Princess Sophie of Württemberg, had died two years earlier. In 1880 Emma and Wilhelm had their only child, the future Queen Wilhelmina.
When William died in 1890, Emma became queen regent for her underaged daughter. She would stay queen regent until Wilhelmina's eighteenth birthday in 1898.
Queen Emma stayed a popular member of the Dutch royal family. She died in 1934 and was buried in Delft.
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