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Prince Alexander, Prince of Orange

The Hague, 25 Aug 1851 – The Hague, 21 Jun 1884

8 facts3 sources

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 25 Aug 1851

    Born in The Hague

  2. 21 Jun 1884

    Dies in The Hague, aged 32

Family

See the tree

Parents

During his lifetime

He lived through 4 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around The Hague.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1850s · Prince is born in The Hague

In the news1854

Amsterdam Introduces Piped Drinking Water

In 1854, Amsterdam became the first large municipality in the Netherlands to introduce a piped drinking water system to address health concerns from urban crowding.

What people wore

Stuffed rolls for fashionable hips

To achieve the fashionable wide-hip silhouette, women of the working class and rural areas wore a stuffed roll called a beuling or wijvenspek tied around their waist. Wealthier women sometimes used reed or horsehair structures called paniers instead to achieve the same effect.

At the table

Bread prices dropped after 1856 tax repeal

After the government abolished the tax on milling in 1856, the price of a loaf of fine wheat bread in Haarlem dropped from 47 cents in December 1855 to 34 cents in February 1856.

In the news1855

Opening of Amsterdam-Utrecht Railway

In 1855, the Amsterdam-Utrecht railway line began operating, marking a significant step in the nationwide expansion of rail transport that boosted mobility and industrialization.

Getting around

Transition from canal boats to steam trains

In the mid-19th century, common people typically traveled between towns using horse-drawn canal boats (trekschuiten), which cost about one guilder per day for a worker, or by diligence on paved roads. By 1850, steam trains were rapidly replacing these older methods, offering faster travel at competitive prices, such as the 2-hour-and-45-minute journey between Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

In Europe1845–1852

The Great Famine in Ireland

Potato blight ruined harvests: a million Irish people died and a million more emigrated, many to America.

Daily life

Children worked instead of schooling

Education was not compulsory, and many working-class children worked in factories or on farms; around 450,000 children were recorded as working daily in 1859.