Can anyone tell me what Jonkhur or the female version, Jonkhvrow, mean?
Jonkheer is an honorific predicate held by members of the untitled nobility in Belgium and the Netherlands. The predicate is inherited by both male and female descendants, but can be transmitted in male line only, i.e. all children of a
Jonkheer are
jonkheren ou
jonkvrouwen, but a
Jonkvrouw does not transmit the predicate to her respective children.
When a family was admitted into the nobility of the Netherlands, all its male line descendants by default became
Jonkheren or
Jonkvrouwen, unless a title such as count, viscount or baron was also created or recognized for that particular family. Sometimes, when a new title was created, the legal instrument creating the title stipulated that it could only be inherited by the first-born son of the original title holder or by the "head of the family". In that case, all other children of the title holder and their respective descendants in male line would be also entitled to the
Jonkheer/Jonkvrouw predicate, whereas the first-born son, if he survived his father, would inherit the title properly.
For example, before she got married, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians was a
Jonkvrouw, having inherited the predicate from her father, who was a
Jonkheer. Mathilde's grandfather, however, was a baron. The title passed in that case to Mathilde's uncle, who was her father's older brother. When she got married however, King Albert II decided to elevate Mathilde's entire family, including her father and siblings, to the rank of count/countess, with the title extending to all male or female descendants in male line.
