Archduchess Marie Astrid of Austria
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Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria (Marie-Astrid Charlotte Léopoldine Wilhelmine Ingeborg Antoinette Elisabeth Anna Alberta von Habsburg-Lothringen) (born 17 February 1954 at Castle Betzdorf), is the oldest daughter and the first child of Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte. Her godparents are King Leopold III of Belgium (her maternal grandfather), and Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (her paternal grandmother).
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[edit] Biography
In her youth, as one of the few eligible royal princesses from European reigning houses, she was considered an ideal candidate by royal watchers for marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales. Media reports in the 1970s regularly speculated about the prospects of such a marriage, the Daily Express claiming in June 1977 that the couple's engagement was imminent.[1] (Unconfirmed media reports in the British press claimed that Pope Paul VI had prevented a marriage by refusing under Ne Temere to accept that the children of the couple could not be brought up Roman Catholic.) It has been since suggested that the marriage rumours were a result of efforts to detect a leaker in the Privy Council. In reality, a marriage between the British heir and the Roman Catholic princess was unlikely, as the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701 would have had to have been repealed or modified.
The Archduchess studied in Luxembourg and also in Belgium. She received her diploma as a registered nurse in 1974, and finished her education in 1977, with a nursing certificate in tropical medicine from the Prince Leopold Institute.
She has been the President of the Red Cross for Luxembourg Youth since 1970.
[edit] Marriage
On 6 February 1982 she married her second cousin Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria (born 6 February 1954) also known as Christian, younger son of Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria (himself the fourth son of Emperor Charles I of Austria) and his wife Princess Yolande of Ligne, of the prominent Belgian noble family, the House of Ligne. They have five children:
- Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria (31 July 1983) she is engaged to Comte Rodolphe de Limburg-Stirum Paul Theroff's Royal News of 2008
- Archduke Imre of Austria (8 December 1985)
- Archduke Christoph of Austria (2 February 1988)
- Archduke Alexander of Austria (26 September 1990)
- Archduchess Gabriella of Austria (26 March 1994)
Archduchess Marie-Astrid and her family live quietly, occasionally appearing at royal weddings and similar events.
[edit] Ancestry
[edit] References
- ^ the royals and the press. pbs.org.
