Juliana, the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, studied law at the University of Leiden (1927–30) and in 1931 helped form the Nationaal Crisis Comité to foster measures by private enterprise to alleviate the economic depression. She married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1937 and gave birth to four daughters: Beatrix (1938), Irene (1939), Margriet (1943), and Christina (1947). During World War II, Juliana took refuge in Ottawa while her husband remained with Queen Wilhelmina's government, which had relocated to London.

After returning to The Netherlands in 1945, Juliana acted as regent (October–December 1947 and May–August 1948) during Wilhelmina's illness and was inaugurated as queen on September 6, 1948, following her mother's abdication two days earlier. Juliana's employment of a faith healer in the 1950s to tend to Christina, who had been born almost totally blind, caused public concern, and the marriages of Princess Irene to a Spanish Carlist prince (1964) and Princess Beatrix to a German diplomat (1966) aroused political controversy stemming from Dutch memories of World War II. Another crisis involved Prince Bernhard's acceptance of huge sums of money from the U.S. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in 1976. Juliana withstood these dissensions, however, owing largely to her great popularity. She endeared herself to the Dutch public with her modesty—she sent her children to public schools, shopped at the local supermarket, and abolished such formalities as the curtsey—and her efforts to promote social welfare. On April 30, 1980, Juliana, by her own wish, abdicated in favour of Beatrix. She continued, however, to maintain an active public life until the late 1990s, when her health declined.