Big change is coming to Luxembourg in just a few weeks! On Monday, the grand ducal court released a new set of official portraits of Guillaume and Stéphanie, who will step into the roles of Grand Duke and Grand Duchess in October—with Stéphanie wearing heirloom emeralds beloved by grand duchesses for generations.
The abdication of the current Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henri, is scheduled to take place on October 3. He has been head of state of the tiny grand duchy since his father’s abdication on October 7, 2000. Now, after 25 years on the throne, he has decided to pass the job on to his eldest son, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. The process of the transition of power began a year ago, when Henri made Guillaume his Lieutenant Representative. The role allowed Guillaume to exercise many of the royal duties and responsibilities of the head of state ahead of his planned accession.
Now, the abdication of Grand Duke Henri and the accession of Grand Duke Guillaume is just weeks away. Guillaume, 43, has been married to Stéphanie de Lannoy, a Belgian-born countess, since October 2012. They have a pair of young sons, five-year-old Prince Charles and two-year-old Prince François. Stéphanie, who is 41, will step into the role of Grand Duchess, serving as the grand duchy’s first lady and taking on an increased program of charitable work and public events.
The jewelry that Stéphanie wears in the new joint portrait of the couple emphasizes her transition from Hereditary Grand Duchess to Grand Duchess. With a white dress, she wears gold jewelry set with diamonds and emeralds. Her earrings and her bracelet, partially obscured but still visible on her left wrist, both come from the family vaults.
The earrings and bracelet have been favorite jewelry pieces of Stéphanie’s mother-in-law, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. The family has an impressive collection of emeralds, thanks to inheritances from Grand Duchess Charlotte and from Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte’s mother, Queen Astrid of Belgium. Maria Teresa has often worn the earrings, which pair pear-shaped emeralds with diamond scroll designs, and the bracelet, which features oval and rectangular emeralds in diamond clusters, with Grand Duchess Charlotte’s iconic emerald and diamond tiara.
The emerald and diamond earrings have been with the family for at least three generations. Over the years, Maria Teresa has worn them for a whole range of occasions. She’s also paired them with other family jewels, including the Empire Tiara, the Belgian Scroll Tiara, and Queen Astrid’s Emerald Choker.
The diamond and emerald bracelet has been with the family for at least a century. In the mid-1920s, Grand Duchess Charlotte posed for a memorable series of official portraits wearing her Chaumet Emerald Tiara with numerous other pieces of family jewelry. In this image, the diamond and emerald bracelet is front and center on Charlotte’s left wrist, worn over her glove.
Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte was the next wearer of the bracelet. She also liked to wear it with Charlotte’s emerald tiara, but she often mixed in emerald pieces inherited from her mother, the late Queen Astrid. Here, for a banquet in Norway in 1990, she pairs the tiara and bracelet with her peacock necklace, made from Astrid’s emeralds, as well as Astrid’s emerald earrings and an emerald brooch that belonged to her grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden.
The next custodian of the emerald bracelet was Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, who has kept them in her jewelry box since the 2000s. Here, she wears the bracelet and the earrings with the Belgian Scroll Tiara during the Belgian state visit in 2019. She has also loaned the earrings and the bracelet to other family members on occasion. Her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, wore the jewels with the emerald tiara for the New Year Gala in 2023.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa also loaned the emeralds to Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie on one previous occasion. Stéphanie wore the earrings and the bracelet with the Chaumet tiara in February 2024 for a state banquet at the Grand Ducal Palace in honor of the visiting President of the Czech Republic.
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