French court says Croys are German

The Duke and Duchess of Croy wanted their children to be "reared as French," but are destined to remain as Germans, according to the New York Times on February 11, 1921.

Although the origin of the Croy family is Belgian and French, many members of the family have interests and property in Germany.  Moreover,  the Duke of Croy and his two brothers fought in the Germany army during the war, which did not help their case in a French court at Valenciennes.

The Duke of Croy and his two brothers, Engelbert and Antoine, filed suit in France to recover their property and to "establish anew their French citizenship."   They presented a case based on the fact that their grandfather was a French noble.  The French court countered with the statement that the three Princes were French, but lost their citizenship "by serving in the German army." 

Although the court would not allow the citizenship to be restored, they would examine the question of the contested property.


The marriage between the Duke of Croy and Nancy Leishman ended in divorce in 1922.   She remarried in 1936 to Andreas Markus Oldenburg, the Danish ambassador to France.  He died in 1939.