Archduchess Marie Christine and Count Rodolphe of Limburg-Stirum

[Stefan]

Another great-grandchild of Emperor karl and Empress Zita has got engaged. Archduchess Marie-Christine, daughter of Archduke Carl Christian and Princess Marie Astrid of Luxemburg is engaged to Comte Rodolphe de Limburg-Stirum

source: Marlene on the BRMB

[Marengo]

Well, not very surprising that the couple's daughter is marrying a nobleman IMO.
I checked the online gotha, count Rodolphe is the son of Count Christian of L-S and countess Colienne d'Oultremont. His fathers brother is the late count Evrard of LS, who married Princess Helene of France (Orleans)

[HMTLove23]

i read awhile back something about a Brazilian prince and her. what happened with that?

[Marengo]

I am not sure but I believe that was more wishful thinking than anything else. The Brazilian prince lived in Luxembourg and as his branch of the family needs to marry equaly some assume(d) that he was also sent to Europe n the hope he would find a royal or noble girl. And likewise, considering the marriage of MC's parents people assumed that they would encourage their daughter to marry a royal too. So adding 1 and 1 together ...
I can not recall any more serious rumours about the matter though.

[Stefan]

She would also be pretty close related to the brazil Princes in question (if we talk about of one of the sons of Prince Antonio) as his mother is Princess of Ligne and her mother is a princess of Luxemnburg. Thus her maternal grandfather wpould be a silbling of Marie-Christine's paternal grandmother and aqlso her maternal grandfather is a sbling of his maternal grandmother.

[Marengo]

Rex has some small images of the engaged couple and their parents.

Look here.

Courtesy: Janet at the BRMB

[Stefan]

more and bigger pictures at BelgaPicture - Quick search

[Marengo]

Thanks Stefan, I uploaded them:

Count Christian and Countess Colienne

The engaged couple and Archduches Yolande

The engaged couple with their parents and grandparents

Simular picture

Marie-Christine and Grand Duke Jean

Count Rodolphe with his parents and siblings

Rudolphe and Marie-Christine

Mother and daughter

Marie-Christine and siblings

Hand in hand

Parents in the same pose

Engaged couple and Countess Madelaine d'Oultremont de Wegimont (nee Countess Liederkerke de Pailhe)

Carl-Christian, Marie-Astrid, Marie-Christine and Rodolphe

Engaged couple and mutual parents

Rodolphe and Marie-Christine 1

Rodolphe and Marie-Christine 2

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Note that the grandmother of Count Rodolphe was identified by Belga as Archduchess Yolande and later as Countess Marie of Limburg-Stirum. Since Archduchess Yolande looks rather different (and was present too) AND since Countess Marie of LS died a few years ago I gather it must be Rudolphe's maternal grandmother, countess Madelaine d'Oultremont de Wegimont.

According to the caption of the pictures the wedding will be on 6 December 2008 in Mechelen, Belgium, so on St. Nicholas Day (not unimportant in the Benelux ).

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Apparently the official engagement was on 21st of June 2008 in Releghem (Zemst), near Antwerp. The count works for an international financial organization.

[pamk]

How old are they? I love December weddings!

Great family pictures! Marie Christine has always looked like such a sweet, down-to-earth young lady --- her parents were a true love match ---
Grand Duke Jean looks very, very frail ...

[Odette]

Such a lovely couple. Marie Christine's parents always looked so happy and in love. The whole family is so discreet. Rodolphe also looks gorgeous. What a match!

[Lindy]

Originally Posted by pamk

How old are they? I love December weddings!
...

Marie-Christine d'Autriche (née à Bruxelles le 31-7-1983), is 24 years old.

Comte Rodolphe de Limburg-Stirum (née à Uccle le 20-3-1979), is 29 years old.

BTW, Hello! magazine says that Marie-Christine's family is now based in Belgium. The wedding will take place in the historic Belgian town of Mechelen. Does anyone know why they moved from Geneva and the significance of the wedding site?

[Shikha Pal]

here is a article about the Engagement of Archduchess Marie Christine and Count Rodolphe of Limburg Stirum along with a picture of both the families and the church where they will tie the knot (click on the pictures to enlarge).
Archduchess Marie-Christine is betrothed to fellow aristocrat

[stephanievl]

Article and pictures of engagament
SE ANUNCIA UNA NUEVA BODA REAL PARA DICIEMBRE

[BMC]

I agree with pamk, Grand Duke Jean is looking very frail. I hope he has not been ill. Perhaps it just old age- I believe he is in his late 80s.

Congratulations to the young couple- may they have a long & happy life together.

[pamk]

Doesn't Marie Christine's dad work in banking or the financial world --- maybe he was transferred by his company to Belgium for his job?

[stephanievl]

Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria was born in Brussels on 31 July 1983, as the daughter of archduke Carl Christian of Austria and princess Marie-Astrid of Luxemburg, sister of grandduke Henri.
Her paternal grandparents are archduke Charles and archduchess Yolande of Austria, née princesse de Ligne. Marie Christine's grandfather died on 11 December 2007. His funeral took place at the cathedral of Vienna. (He's buried in the Crypte des Capucins, near to his mother empress Zita. Emperor Karl, beatified by pope John Paul I, is buried on the isle of Madeira).

Her maternal grandparents are grandduke Jean (87 years old) and grandduchess Joséphine Charlotte, sister of king Baudouin and king Albert. She died in 2005.

Archduchess Marie Christine is the eldest of five children. She has 3 brothers (Imre, Christoph and Alexander) and a sister (Gabriella).
She did her primary and secundary studies in Switzerland, in Geneva where her family has been living for 20 years, and in England.
Afterwards she spent several months in the south of Chili, helping the poor populations, as part of a humanitarian program.
She then went on to study psychology (specializing in psychomotricity) at the Institut Marie Haps in Brussels. For her study she worked 5 months with children suffering from serious physical problems.

In 2007 she worked several months in Beirut (Lebanon), in an institute for handicapped children.

She likes sports, nature and travelling. She's fluent in English, French, German and Spanish.

The mariage will take place on 6 December in Mechelen, Belgium.

Note: the institut libre Marie Haps is a catholic school where princess Mathilde and her sister Elisabeth graduated as speech therapists.

Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum was born 20 March 1979 in Brussels. His parents are count Christian and countess Colienne de Limburg Stirum, née countess d'Oultremont. One of their sisters in law is princess Hélène of France. They live in the family property of Huldenberg, near Brussels.

His paternal grandparents are count Thierry de Limburg Stirum (knight of the golden leece) and countess Marie, née princess Marie Immaculée de Croÿ.

His maternal grandparents are count Eugène d'Oultremont and countess Madeleine, née countess de Liedekerke.

Count Rodolphe is the eldest of four. He has a sister, Marie, and two brothers, Philippe and François-Guillaume.
He did his primary and secondary studies in Huldenberg and close to Bruges, in Dutch.

In the summer of 1996 he organizes and takes part in a humanitarian trip to Bosnia Herzegovina to rebuild houses that were destroyed in the war.

In the summer of 1998 he leads a group of 15 young Belgians to Mexico, to help a local charity organisation build medical posts.

In 2004 he gets his degree at the Vesalius College of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (bachelor degree in international affairs and economics).

He starts to work as a marketing asistant for a large Belgian company in Leuven, moves on to consulting company Deloitte and finally Dexia bank in Paris. He's now working for a big international bank in Brussels.

He likes skiing, tennis and swimming. He's fluent in Dutch, French, English and German.

Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum is the founder of "Super day", organisation that offers moments of joy and magic to poor children. The organisation works together with "toiles enchantées", an asociation that builds little cinemas in hospitals.

[Marengo]

I am sure the young couple is much more admirable than I am, but all these perfect smiles, perfect coiffures, perfect poses, perfect schools, perfect resumee's, perfect devotion, perfect charities and in the future undoubtably a perfect villa in Ukkel or St-Lambrechts-Woluwe with 4 or 5 perfect children seems a bit suffocating to me.

[Odette]

Oh Marengo. They are so discreet we will not know any of their admirable and perfect deeds until their 4-5 children get engaged. Then they will run a list of their accomplishments. Unless one or more of their children do a Harry or an Albert on us to keep us entertained.....

[BMC]

Oh I don't know I find it rather refreshing to read/see nice things about nice people for once. It makes a nice change from the usual dirty linen that is usually the focus of the media.

I'm not saying that Marie-Christine & her future husband are perfect, I am sure they are not. However they apparently have had the sense & self control not to do anything to put themselves in a bad light. And that IMHO is a good thing.

[Marengo]

Well, one wonders how much of this perfect lifestyle was actually their own choise and how much of it was pressure from their parents/social group etc. The Belgian nobility is a rather peculiar group who do not believe in mingling with people outside their circle and they put their children all on the same schools, same clubs, etc. and they mainly clutter together in a few outskirts in Brussels, and even have an associastion that organises outings like Rally's and picnics for them, all so their children won't commit the horror of marrying a mere commoner.

All the good causes the Archduchess and her husband-to-be are supporting are admirable indeed but it seems their life has been rather limited and controlled by their parents who made sure that the children would not escape the noble mould. Of course I do not know them so I base my opinion on the general view I have of the Belgian nobility, which is not too positive.