On 28 January, the anniversary of the death of Charlemagne and Henry VIII, it was announced that Europe would have a new king. What makes it exceptional is that the Netherlands’ reigning monarch heralded her successor. Most monarchs ascend on the death of their predecessor, but not in Holland. Queen Beatrix is the third successive queen to abdicate in favour of her heir, making it almost de rigueur for the House of Orange-Nassau. The accession of Beatrix’s eldest son, Willem-Alexander, has given the Netherlands its first king since 1890. While the dynasty can be traced to the tenth century and…