A new biography by author Anet Bleich claims the Labour politician covered up a bribery scandal involving Dutch Prince Bernhard to enable Queen Juliana to stay on the throne.
Documents proving Prince Bernhard, who was also accused of accepting bribes of £1.1 million in the Lockheed affair in the 70s, was involved in a similar scandal with plane builder Northrop were allegedly kept under wraps by Uyl.
Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reports the book alleges his decision to keep the scandal a secret meant Bernhard was kept out of jail and Queen Juliana remained the country's monarch.
If the documents had been made public, Bleich claims it could have been the end of the monarchy, as Beatrix, who is now the reigning queen, would reportedly refuse to take the throne in those circumstances.
Beatrix has been described as 'quite desperate' about her position during the Lockheed affair - which involved a series of bribes and contributions made by US aerospace company Lockheed between the late 50s and 70s regarding the sale of aircraft.
Dutch Minister of Finance Wim Duisenberg who visited her during the investigations said: 'I found her quite desperate. She had the idea that this opened a sewer of which the stench was unbearable. She was the future queen, but started to doubt whether she should do that, and that would have caused a major crisis in the Netherland.' While the scandal - which caused political controversy in West Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Japan - was never bought to court, it did have consequences for Prince Bernhard, who was forced to resign from all his military functions.
A second scandal would have meant an official lawsuit, and would have doubtless led to the prince going to jail.