Monarchy of the Netherlands

The Monarchy of Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of the document explains the succession, mechanisms of accession and abdication to the throne and the roles and duties of the monarch. This includes the formalities of communication between the States-General and the monarch's role in creating laws. The Kingdom of the Netherlands has been an independent monarchy since 16th March, 1815, but its once sovereign provinces had been intermittently "governed" by members of the House of Orange-Nassau and the House of Nassau from 1559, when Philip II of Spain appointed William of Orange as stadtholder, until 1795, when the last stadtholder fled the country. William of Orange became the leader of the Dutch Revolt and of the independent Dutch Republic. Some of his descendants were later appointed as stateholders by some of the provinces. In 1747, the function of stateholder became a hereditary position in all provinces of the thus "crowned" Dutch Republic. The last stadtholder was William V. The cycle of monarchs is described in the first section of Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Netherlands, which is dedicated to the cabinet. Willem-Alexander has been King of the Netherlands since 30 April, 2013. The monarchy of the Netherlands passes by right of succession to the heirs of William I (see House of Orange-Nassau). The heir is determined through two mechanisms: absolute cognatic primogeniture and proximity of blood. The Netherlands established absolute cognatic primogeniture instead of male-preference primogeniture by law in 1983. Proximity of blood limits accession to the throne to a person who is related to the current monarch within three degrees of kinship. For example, the grandchildren of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (sister of Princess Beatrix) have no succession rights because their kinship with Beatrix when she was queen, was of the fourth degree (that is, Princess Beatrix is their parent's parent's parents' daughter).