Queen Marks 400th Anniversary of Church of England in Amsterdam

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the Netherlands Monday to mark the 400th anniversary of the Church of England in Amsterdam.

|PIC1|The Queen was accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, and together they were met by Queen Beatrix at Rotterdam airport.

The small chapel in which they joined for the service is one of Amsterdam's oldest buildings, and was built in the 15th century for local Catholics but was left deserted for a number of years after Protestants took control of Amsterdam in 1578.

The building was handed to Amsterdam's English-speaking Protestants, many of whom lived in the busy trading city, in 1607 and they came together for their first service there on 5 February 400 years ago.

Currently, hundreds of people attend English-language services at the church each week.

Queen Elizabeth was also scheduled to make stops at the Amsterdam Historical Museum and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, whose president is currently a British judge, Rosalyn Higgins.

Prince Philip was to skip the visit to the ICJ, the highest judicial organ of the United Nations, in order to hand out a medal at the Dutch branch of the International Awards for Young People.