Friday, June 1, 2012

Supporting Belgian-Luxembourgish Relations

Yesterday, the Hereditary Grand Duke alongside Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este attended a gala concert at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg organised by the Union Royale Belge. The association has bought together Luxembourgish people and Belgians living in the Grand Duchy for the last 100 years. Too bad Luxembourg's latest Belgian score wasn't present for the occassion. Pictures, without the countess, are available over on the website of the cour.


Source: CGD

2 comments:

  1. I guess this is OT, but I'm still trying to understand why Archduke Lorenz and his children are Prince/Princess of Belgium, rather than Archdukes/Archduchess of Austria-Este? In comparason to HRH The Princess Anne, her children bear their father's last name and so do King Juan Carlo's daughter's grand-children. It just seems something pretentious to me. Maybe I'm wrong.

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  2. The surname of members of the Belgian RF is fixed by law. They are members of the Belgian RF and therefore use the surnames prescribed for members of the RF.

    Prince Lorenz and his family do have their traditional Austrian titles but use their Belgian titles. In 1995 Lorenz was created a Prince of Belgium by royal decree. He has duties and supports his wife. This seems perfectly logical if he has official duties that he should have a Belgian title after the change to gender neutrality.

    In 1991 his children with Princess Astrid were elevated to HRH Prince/ss of Belgium because of the change to the succession. Belgium has gender neutral succession and inheritance of title. They gained their succession rights automatically after the changes to the succession and were properly elevated(by decree). Prior to 1991 the children only had Austrian titles and used these the same for Prince Lorenz except he wasn't a Prince of Belgium until 1995.

    I don't find this pretentious. It just seems like leveling the field and making the treatment of her spouse and children the same as those for her brothers. Everything is now gender neutral.

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