For those who care more for royalty than for politics it might be of interest to note that Walburga Habsburg Douglas, a former Archduchess of Austria-Hungary, was re-elected to the Swedish Parliament in yesterday’s election.
Douglas, who is the daughter of the last Austro-Hungarian crown prince and former MEP Otto von Habsburg and the late Archduchess Regina, played a minor but interesting part in the events of 1989. She later moved to Sweden when marrying a Swedish nobleman, Count Archibald Douglas.
She was first elected to Parliament in 2006, representing the conservative Moderate Party from the county of Sudermania (Södermanland). In 2006 she was the second candidate on the party’s list in that county, where the Moderates back then won two mandates. In this election she had been demoted to third place on the list, but the Moderates doing their best election ever also meant their winning three seats in Parliament from Sudermania. Although the personal votes have not yet been counted she is not in danger of losing her seat that way.
During the previous Parliament (2006-2010) Walburga Douglas sat in the Committee on Foreign Affairs and was leader of the Swedish delegation to OSCE.
Monday 20 September 2010
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It is interesting, sir, that you use the phrase "former Archduchess" for someone who was born long after laws were passed to abolish the titles.
ReplyDeleteShould you not either use the title without the modifier -- or not the title at all?
No, I should not.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the Republic of Austria does not recognise the titles of the former imperial house it is common usage to refer to them as for example "Archduke Georg" - in the same way as we write "Princess Theodora of Greece" although she was born after her father was deposed and the Greek monarchy abolished.
However, if Austria-Hungary had still existed as a monarchy, Archduchess Walburga would have ceased being styled archduchess when she married a count from a family which was not on the Habsburgs' list of "acceptable families".
Further, she does not herself use the title Archduchess anymore and obviously consider herself a Swedish commoner - I have seen her dropping a deep curtsey to Princess Christina, Mrs Magnuson.
One could refer to her as countess, but as we all know noble titles are not commonly used in Sweden, except in the society pages of Svensk Damtidning.
Thus her name is Walburga Habsburg Douglas, her title is Countess and she is a former archduchess.
Fair enough, sir.
ReplyDelete