Editing House of Orange-Nassau (section)

== Royal family versus royal house ==
{{Main|Dutch royal house}}

{{Dutch Royal Family}} 

Under Dutch law, there is a distinction between the royal family and the [[Dutch royal house]]. Whereas 'royal family' refers to the entire Orange-Nassau family, only a small subgroup of it constitutes the royal house. By the Royal House Membership Act 2002, membership of the royal house is limited to:<ref name="koninklijkhuis">{{cite web|title=The Official Website of the Dutch Royal House in English |url=http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/globale-paginas/taalrubrieken/english/news/ |access-date=26 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530175348/http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/globale-paginas/taalrubrieken/english/news |archive-date=30 May 2013 }}</ref><ref name="WLKH">{{cite web|url=http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013729/geldigheidsdatum_09-05-2015|title=wetten.nl – Regeling – Wet lidmaatschap koninklijk huis – BWBR0013729|website=wetten.overheid.nl}}</ref>

The royal house and family is the Orange-Nassau family. <ref>{{cite web | title = The Official Website of the Dutch Royal House in English| url = https://www.royal-house.nl/topics/themes/history | accessdate = 9 January 2024|quote = "The Royal House of the Netherlands is the House of Orange-Nassau."}}</ref>

* (Article 1) the reigning monarch (King or Queen);<ref name="WLKH"/>
* (Article 1a) the members of the royal family in the line of [[succession to the Dutch throne]], limited to the second degree of sanguinity reckoned from the reigning monarch;<ref name="WLKH"/>
* (Article 1b) the heir presumptive of the reigning monarch;<ref name="WLKH"/>
* (Article 1c) the former monarch (upon abdication);<ref name="WLKH"/>
* (Article 2) the spouses of the above, even if the above die.<ref name="WLKH"/>
* (Article 3) H.R.H. [[Princess Margriet of the Netherlands]], (for whom an exception was made);{{cn|date=October 2022}}

Members of the Royal House lose their membership (and thereby, designation as prince or princess of the Netherlands) if they lose the membership of the Royal House on the succession of a new monarch (not being in the second degree of sanguinity to the monarch anymore, Article 1a), or by royal decree approved by the Council of State (Article 5).<ref name="WLKH"/> This last scenario could happen, for example, if a royal house member marries without the consent of the Dutch Parliament.{{cn|date=October 2022}} For example, this happened with [[Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau|Prince Friso]] in 2004, when he married [[Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau|Mabel Wisse Smit]].{{cn|date=October 2022}}