Friday, March 21, 2014

Friday Flashback: Little Snow Princess

Photo: Cour grand-ducale / Collection privée
Princess Claire playing in the snow at the age of one. The former Claire Lademacher celebrates her 29th birthday today - All Guddes, Altesse! - and might soon have a little snow princess of her own. In January the cour grand-ducale announced that Princess Claire and her husband Prince Félix are expecting their first child to be born in June.

3 comments:

  1. I have a question. Tessy was not royalty, and her marriage to Prince Louis was morganatic. Stephanie was a duchess, so no problem there. But why is Claire automatically a princess? Is it because her family is wealthy and Tessy's was not?

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  2. There are no morganatic marriages in Luxembourg. There are only marriages that are made with consent or without. There is no requirement of equality only consent.

    Tessy did not become a princess automatically because her marriage to Louis did not receive consent. Stephanie was a countess by birth but it she acquired the use of her husband's titles at marriage because Henri gave consent to her marriage with Guillaume.

    Claire, like Stephanie, acquired the use of her husband's titles because Henri gave consent to her marriage to Felix.

    It has nothing to do with wealth or title. It has to do with the different circumstance of their marriages. Stephanie and Claire both dated their princes for many years, didn't have children out of wedlock and married without any pressure. Most importantly they married with the full consent of the Grand Duke.Tessy and Louis, while seemingly happy, married with the burden of pressure, bad press and having an illegitimate child. Henri may have approved of Louis' marriage to Tessy as a father but approving as Grand Duke was another matter altogether.

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  3. Thank you. I was misled by Wikipedia which said Louis' marriage was "initially morganatic". Now I understand.

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