It is not every day that you run into King Willem-Alexander, and certainly not that you can also give him a special souvenir from Den Bosch. It happened to Bosschenaar Robert van Straaten on Thursday on Gouvernementsplein in Curaçao. “I had brought the Bossche Epiphany emblem especially for this.”
Enjoying his vacation on Curaçao, Robert still had a plan to share the entry from Den Bosch with the king. “I knew he would come here while we were here,” he says. “So I should have brought the carnival emblem.” With the emblem in his pocket, he went to a small-scale ceremony to take his chance.
During his visit to Curaçao, the royal party was present in the Punda district to mint a commemorative coin in honor of Willemstad’s 25th anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “I was only a few meters away from him, it was not busy,” said the inhabitant of Bossche.
“We have three kings, you are my fourth king.”
“Your Majesty, may I offer you something?” he said after the ceremony. “The king came to me right away, he was very relaxed.” Robert says he immediately made a joke of it: “We have three kings, you are my fourth king.” Willem-Alexander then put the emblem in his pocket with a smile.
Robert is the chairman of Driekoningen Den Bosch, where an entry has been held every year since 1930. In the entry you can see that the three wise men Caspar, Baltazar and Melchior from the East pass through the city with camels, sheep and horses, and thus go to the stable to visit the Christmas child.
“I’m going to try again next year.”
Every year the organization gives away about three hundred emblems, and now King Willem-Alexander also has one. And Robert intends to continue this tradition. “Next year I will try again to give him a copy.”
Nothing is known yet about whether the king will ever visit the Epiphany, but there is always hope for Robert. “We would love it if he came by.” And if he had clammy hands while shaking? “No. I wasn’t nervous, it was just a unique experience.”
