Thierry, Count of Limburg Stirum

Thierry de Limburg Stirum (Antwerp 11 April 1827 - Brussels 6 March 1911) was a Belgian historian, and Senator.

Family

Count Thierry Marie Joseph de Limburg Stirum was the son of Willem de Limburg Stirum (1795–1889) and Albertine de Pret de Calesberg (1800–1856). Willem, of Dutch and Gelders origin, served in the French imperial army and later in the Dutch army after 1815. Following the creation of Belgium, Thierry received Belgian citizenship in 1841.

He married in 1856 Countess Marie-Thérèse de Thiennes Leyenburg et de Rumbeke (Ghent 1828 - Brussels 1909), daughter of Count François de Thiennes, Chamberlain of King Guillaume of the Netherlands and Baroness Asterie de Draeck.

They had four children, among whom were Henri de Limburg Stirum (1864–1953), mayor of Rumbeke and Evrard de Limburg Stirum (1868–1938), mayor of Huldenberg, who both had numerous descendents.

Life

Thierry de Limburg Stirum was Doctor in Law (KU Leuven) and Belgian senator for the department of Ostende-Veurne-Diksmuide from 1878 to 1900.

He was president of the Conseil Heraldique and president of the Royal Commission for Ancient Laws and Ordinances.

In 1870 he became a member of the Society for History of Bruges, known under the name 'Société d'Emulation'. From 1891 until his death he was president of that Society.

Publications

• Description des sceaux de quelques seigneurs de Flandres, Brugge, 1869
• La Cour des Comtes de Flandre, leurs officiers héréditaires, Ghent, 1878.
• Codex Diplomaticus Flandriae, 1296-1327, Brugge, 1879-1889.
• Flandriae inde ab anno 1926 ad usque 1325 (...), Brugge, 1879.
• Le Cartulaire de Louis de Male, comte de Flandre, Brugge, 1893–1901

Ancestry

Thierry's ancestors in three generations

Thierry de Limburg Stirum	Father: Willem Bernard, Count of Limburg Stirum (1795-1889), settles in Belgium and takes Belgian nationality	Paternal Grandfather: Samuel John, Count of Limburg Stirum (1754-1824), General-Major, Member of the 'Notabelenvergadering' (1814), Member of the Senate, Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grd Cross of the Military William Order	Paternal Great-grandfather: Albert Dominique, Count of Limburg Stirum
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Elisabeth Gratiana Sayer
		Paternal Grandmother: Johanna Sara, Jonkvrouw Reynst (1762-1837)	Paternal Great-grandfather: Vice-Admiral Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Reynst, Admiral of Holland and West-Friesland
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Johanna Sara Bicker
	Mother: Albertine de Pret Roose de Calesberg (1800-1856)	Maternal Grandfather: Jacques Paul Joseph de Pret Roose de Calesberg, Lord of Calesberg (1762-1817)	Maternal Great-grandfather: Arnould François Joseph Bruno de Pret
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Marie Pétronille Moretus
		Maternal Grandmother: Jeanne Marie Josephe, Countess Roose de Baisy	Maternal Great-grandfather: Jean Alexandre Joseph Roose, Count of Baisy and Baron of Bouchout (1724-1784)
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Marie Anne van de Werve (1742-1798)

Literature

• Viscount TERLINDEN, Thierry de Limburg Stirum, in: Biographie nationale de Belgique, Tome XXXIII, 1965, col. 443-446.