On National Day, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg announced that, on the 1st of October, he would undertake the first step towards a change at the head of the country’s Monarchy.
This means that, in the next few years, the small European country could have a new Grand Duchess, and one that will make history in more ways than one.
Born Countess Stéphanie Marie Claudine Christine de Lannoy, she is the last of the eight children that came into the world from the marriage of Count Philippe de Lannoy and Baroness Alix de la Faille de Leverghem.
Her noble origins mark the first element of her historic mark on this historic change: Luxembourg will become the first country to go back to a consort with noble origins after having a commoner on the throne. Current Grand Duchess Maria Teresa was born in Cuba as Maria Teresa Mestre, daughter of a wealthy middle class family who fled the island and settled in New York following the installation of the Castro government.
Stéphanie was born and educated in Belgium, meaning that she grew up speaking Dutch, French and German – two of which are official languages of Luxembourg as well. Her academic journey brought her first to Sancta Maria de Ronse, a Dutch-language school, and then to France, where she studied at Collège Saint-Odile.
Back in Belgium, she attended L’Institut de la Vièrge Fidele, and then UCLouvain (a name also known in Royal circle, as it was also Queen Mathilde’s alma mater), where she earned a degree in German philology, after having spent a year in Moscow studying Russian literature.
She then moved to Berlin’s Humboldt University, where she earned a master’s degree, while also interning at Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency, under the sponsorship of the Belgian Embassy. She then returned to Belgium, where she worked for a company dealing in investment funds.
While she was studying in Berlin in 2004, she met Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg for the first time. However, it wasn’t until after their second meeting in 2009 that the two began dating.
Their romance had been going off for about two years when the Grand Ducal Palace formally announced their engagement, on the 26th April 2012. The couple married both in a civil ceremony at Luxembourg’s Town Hall on the 19th and in a big religious ceremony at Our Lady Cathedral of Luxembourg on the 20th of October 2012, in front of members of their respective families, as well as of many European Royal Families.
Their first child wouldn’t be born until the 10th of May 2020, and it was announced that he would be called Charles Jean Philippe Joseph Marie Guillaume. Their second child, also a son, was born on the 27th of March 2023 as Prince François Henri Louis Marie Guillaume.
Shortly before the Court announced her first pregnancy, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie had returned from London, where her husband underwent a post graduate course at the Royal College of Defence Studies, while she attended an art history course at the Sotheby’s Institute.
Her work focuses on some key pillars, like culture, medical research and assistance, and, since the pandemic, the care of the elderly.
It seems pretty clear that she will bring a lot of her love for the humanities into her new role, as well as her love and care for the many facets of the society that so warmly welcomed their future Grand Duchess.
