What is the difference between the Royal Family and the Royal House?

A distinction is made in the Netherlands between the Royal Family and the Royal House. Not all members of the Royal Family are also members of the Royal House. Under the Membership of the Royal House Act (2002), the members of the Royal House are the monarch, the former monarch (on abdication) and the monarch’s siblings and grandparents/children. Until 2002, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, and great-grandparents/children were also members of the Royal House. Under the 2002 Act, they will keep their membership until Prince Willem-Alexander succeeds to the throne. The husbands and wives of the members of the Royal House are also members. The monarch is the head of the Royal House.

The present Royal House consists of Queen Beatrix, her sons Prince Willem-Alexander and Constantijn, their wives and children, the Queen’s younger sister Princess Margriet, her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven, and two of their sons and daughters-in-law.

Apart from the members of the Royal House, the Royal Family also includes Prince Friso and Princess Mabel, Prince Pieter-Christiaan and Princess Anita, Prince Floris and Princess Aimée, Princesses Irene and Christina, and their children and son and daughters-in-law.