The Dutch royal family has bid farewell to Prince Friso at a private funeral attended by some 100 mourners, after the 44-year-old succumbed earlier in the week to severe brain injuries sustained in an avalanche 18 months ago.
Close friends and family members gathered for the funeral at a 350-year-old church in the tiny forest village of Lage Vuursche, some 30 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam.
The church is near Drakenstyn Castle, where Friso spent much of his childhood and where his mother, Princess Beatrix, plans to retire after having in April abdicated as queen in favour of her son, King Willem-Alexander.
Willem-Alexander, his youngest brother Prince Constantijn and four friends of Friso's carried the coffin from the church to the nearby cemetery.
The family had opted for a private, rather than state, funeral.
Friso died of complications following the severe brain damage he suffered in February 2012, when he was buried under an avalanche while skiing in Lech, the Austrian resort where the Dutch royals traditionally spend their winter holidays.
King Harald V of Norway, Friso's godfather, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino, and several residents of the community were at the funeral. No member of the Dutch government was in attendance.
Friso's long-time friend Florian Moosbrugger, who was skiing off-piste with the prince when the avalanche hit them, was also present.
While Moosbrugger was unharmed, Friso spent was buried under 40 centimetres of snow for at least 15 minutes. During his year and a half in coma, he only showed minimal signs of consciousness.
Friso is survived by his wife, Princess Mabel, and their daughters Luana, 8, and Zaria, 7.
He had renounced his place in the royal line of succession after it became known in 2003 that his fiancee and later wife, Mabel Wisse Smit, earlier had a relationship with a major drug dealer.
His father, Prince Claus, died in 2002 and is buried in the family crypt in Delft, near The Hague.
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