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Jonkheer (female equivalent: jonkvrouw; in the masculine only; jonkvrouw is used in the feminine, even in French; ) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the lowest title within the nobility system, recognised by the Court of Cassation."Arresten van het Hof van Cassatie", 1927. It is the cognate and equivalent of the German noble honorific Junker, which was historically used throughout the German-speaking part of Europe, and to some extent also within Scandinavia.
The abbreviation of the honorific is jhr., and that of the female equivalent jkvr., which is placed before the given name and titles. When using the French translation écuyer, it is placed after the full name, separated by a comma, like the English esquire, but in Belgium it is not a courtesy title and neither does it indicate a lawyer (for whom the postfix ", avocat" or the prefix "Maître" would be used instead, depending on context).
However, in the Low Countries (and other parts of continental Europe), in most cases the head of most noble families carries a title, inheritance being by male lineage. As a result, most of the nobility is untitled in the Netherlands. Jonkheer, or its female equivalent jonkvrouw, developed therefore quite early into a different but general meaning: an honorific to show that someone does belong to the nobility but does not possess a title. The abbreviation jhr. (for men) or jkvr. (for women) is placed in front of the name, preceding academic but not state titles.
The honorific could be compared more or less with "Edler" in Austria or "Junker" in Germany, though due to circumstances of German and especially history, "Junker" assumed connotations of militarism absent from the Dutch equivalent. Ranking this with the British nobility, it is roughly comparable to "The Honourable" when the untitled person is a son or daughter of a baron, viscount, or the younger son of an earl; or "Lord" or "Lady" when the person belongs to the old untitled but high-ranking (Dutch) nobility from before 1815 (e.g. "Heer van X" or Lord of X).
A female spouse of a jonkheer is not named jonkvrouw but Mevrouw, translated into English as Madam and abbreviated as Mrs. (with the use of her husband's name). However, if she is a jonkvrouw in her own right, she can be styled as such (together with her maiden name), unless she chooses to use her husband's name.
Often however a title of nobility may be claimed by a family whose members are officially recognised only as jonkheeren, the title not being acknowledged by the modern monarchy either because the family is registered as untitled nobility and may thus only use the honorific or predicate, or because the family has not requested official registration of the title, but possesses a Ennoblement which predates the founding of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815.
In Belgium, a number of families may bear the hereditary title of Jonkheer. Some notable examples include Jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz (Queen Mathilde of Belgium) and Jonkvrouw Delphine Boël (Princess Delphine of Belgium).
Unrecognised titleholders use the same coronet of rank as hereditary knights, described above. Unrecognised titles cannot officially use a coronet of rank and thus use the coronet that they have been historically awarded, if any at all.
The word, in reference to Van der Donck, is variously spelled among modern scholars. In Thomas F. O'Donnell's introduction to a translation of Van der Donck's A Description of the New Netherland, it is suggested that Van der Donck was known as "The Joncker". Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World has "jonker", while Edward Hagaman Hall's book on Philipse Manor Hall uses "youncker".
Jonker Street (Jonkerstraat) in Malacca, Malaysia, which derives its name from Dutch language, can be traced back to when the Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1798.
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