Duchess of Cambridge begins career as solo royal with call to King of Netherlands

Royal visit: the Duchess of Cambridge with Dutch King Willem-Alexander
Peter Dejong/AP
Robert Jobson11 October 2016

The Duchess of Cambridge started her career as a solo royal today when she paid a courtesy call with The King of the Netherlands.

Catherine, wearing a Catherine Walker suit, curtseyed to King Willem-Alexander because he is a more senior rank than her.

They met at his private residence for 45 minutes at Villa Eikenhorst, the royal residence he shares with wife Queen Maxima and their three daughters, Princess Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane.

Their family home is on the forested De Horsten estate in Wassenaar near The Hague.

Greeting: Catherine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander
Peter Dejong/AP

Her overseas visit is being trumpeted as a move by the Government to use the royals to woo EU countries post Brexit.

Despite being a private residence the Dutch monarch sometimes hosts foreign guests there.

Solo engagement: Catherine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander
Peter Dejong/AP

Art is one of Catherine's passions and later than afternoon she will travel to the Mauritshuis art museum in The Hague to see an exhibition featuring Dutch old masters loaned by the Royal Collection.

The highlight of the attraction for The Duchess, who is patron of the National Portrait Gallery, will be Vermeer's The Music Lesson.

Significantly The duchess was accompanied by Sir Christopher Geidt, the Queen's Private Secretary, her most senior aide.

He joined then Duchess in the entourage on her visit to the art gallery in his capacity as a trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, that had leant paintings to the museum.

But the fact that he was there shows the Queen was lending her most experienced aide to Catherine on her first solo royal overseas tour.

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