Spoken in the informal, no-nonsense style, throughout a 31-year reign, Queen Juliana of The Netherlands told a national television audience that she would abdicate on her 71st birthday.

Juliana prepares to step down

“Everyone who is getting old is sooner or later confronted with the sober fact that powers diminish and that one cannot carry out one’s task as one used to. And then there comes a moment when it’s no longer justified to continue carrying out…