The grand ducal court of Luxembourg has announced that Countess Alix de Lannoy, whose daughter Stéphanie is engaged to Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, died from a stroke yesterday. She was 71.
A Belgian citizen, Alix Marie Isabelle Louise Ghislaine della Faille de Leverghem was born in Louvain on 20 September 1941. In 1965 she married Count Philippe de Lannoy, who celebrated his ninetieth birtday on 14 August this year. The couple had eight children: Jehan (1966), Christian (1968), Nathalie (1969), Gaëlle (1970), Amaury (1971), Olivier (1974), Isabelle (1976) and Stéphanie (1984).
On 26 April this year, Stéphanie became engaged to Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg. The couple will marry on 19 October, followed by a religious blessing the next day.
Quite sad news for the family.
ReplyDeleteThe press reports led me to wonder about her title. I have read that following marriage, Belgian women retain their own surnames legally, and that socially, most hyphenate their surnames with those of their husbands or retain their own surnames (though I have not been able to locate statistics).
Does the same hold true for Belgian noblewomen or women who marry Belgian noblemen? I see that the Luxembourgish press refers to the mother of Countess Stéphanie as Countess Alix de Lannoy or Alix, Countess de Lannoy, but the Belgian press refers to Princess Mathilde's mother as (Countess) Anna Komorowska, not Countess Anna d'Udekem d'Acoz.
On a related tangent, do you know whether "Countess Alix de Lannoy" or "Alix, Countess de Lannoy" is the more correct style (or are they interchangeable)?
I am no expert on Belgian noble titles, but to the best of my knowledge the title and the name go together, so that for instance Alix della Faille de Leverghem could not become Countess Alix della Faille de Leverghem by marrying Count Philippe de Lannoy. I imagine the same applies to Princess Mathilde's mother, and believe that the title precedes the name in Belgian titles.
DeleteThank you for that, but I am afraid I have no information about what is normal for Belgian noblewomen to do.
ReplyDeleteHowever, part of my point was that I do not think that one can use one's own "ordinary" name with the noble title of one's husband, so that it would for instance not be possible to be called "Countess Anna Maria Komorowska" if one is born Miss Komorowska and a countess by marriage. (The Belgian royal website by the way refers to Princess Mathilde's parents as "Graaf en Gravin Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz").
I suppose that the Belgian press sometimes refers to Mathilde's mother as Countess Anna Komorowska because of the Komorowski family's former comital status in the now abolished Polish nobility, falling in with what seems to be the Western European norm of continuing to use abolished titles for the male-line descendants of formerly noble or royal families. (A practice which I find quite strange, and should you ever address the reasons for this in your blog, I would be quite interested to read it.)
ReplyDeleteThe Belgian royal website by the way refers to Princess Mathilde's parents as "Graaf en Gravin Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz"
ReplyDeleteI was unaware of this, but I wonder whether it truly reflects how she styles herself. In a country where many women retain their own names following marriage, this form of address seems strange. I believe that, although the official title of Prince Alexandre's widow is Princess Alexandre, she is popularly known as Princess Léa for this reason.
I suppose that the explanation may perhaps be that her official title is "Countess Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz", but that this seems somewhat oldfashioned and that the press therefore refers to her, like Princess Alexandre/Léa, by her own name. However, then I would find it more natural if they had referred to her as "Countess Anne Marie d'Udekem d'Acoz", but I suppose that might have implied that she was a Countess d'Udekem d'Acoz by birth rather than by marriage.
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