I received this reply from the Netherlands a while ago. This reply is extra special for two reasons. 1) The Netherland Royals changed their policy about what they reply to a few years ago. So, we no longer get replies for Birthdays, Christmas, etc. The last reply I got from them was for Christmas 2020.
2) The 2nd reason this reply is extra special is because I had written to them to share the short story I had written "What Does a Queen Do?". The short story takes place in the Netherlands and references King Willem-Alexander & Queen Maxima. So, I had wanted to share the story with them.
My short story What Does a Queen Do? is a silly, child like story about a little girl from the Netherlands who dreams about being Queen. The short story was published recent in an anthology, The Spaces in Between. You can find the Anthology here.
The letter is similar to the letter I received from the Netherland Royals in 2015. The images doesn't show it, but in the upper right is an embossed coat of arms.
It looks like they have some sort of mail program that they use. Instead of writing and formatting a letter, they fill information into the fields of the program, and it generates the letter. (This would also allows them to easily store the recipient and letter's information in a database. And we know many Monarchies use databases to store information on people.) Everything in Dutch looks to be the pre-printed template. And then the type-writer font is what was put in the various fields.
I doesn't show it clearly in the photo, but there are little dots in the 4 corners of the area for my address. That would probably be used from alignment, so they can ensure the address would be scene through the envelope window.
Service of the Royal House
Miss G.A. Daly
[My Address]
No. 23/mwq
The Hague 13 September 2023
Location - Noordeinde Palace
Dear Miss Daly,Thank you very much for your friendly letter and a copy of your short story What Does a Queen Do? than you recently sent to Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Netherlands.Your kind gesture is much appreciated.Your sincerely,Miss Jacqueline ZaaijerPersonal Advisor to His Majesty the King andHer Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands.
I don't know what the 23/mwq means exactly. But my 2015 letter had 15 at the beginning of the "No." so the first number seems to be the year.
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