House of Nassau-Weilburg
Under the 1783 Nassau Family Pact, those territories of the Nassau family in the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the Pact (Luxembourg and Nassau) were bound by semi-Salic law, which allowed inheritance by females or through the female line only upon extinction of male members of the dynasty. When William III died leaving only his daughter Wilhelmina as an heir, the crown of the Netherlands, not being bound by the family pact, passed to Wilhelmina. However, the crown of Luxembourg passed to a male of another branch of the House of Nassau: Adolphe, the dispossessed Duke of Nassau and head of the branch of Nassau-Weilburg.
In 1905, Grand Duke Adolphe's younger half-brother, Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau, died, having left a son Georg Nikolaus, Count von Merenberg who was, however, the product of a morganatic marriage, and therefore not legally a member of the House of Nassau. In 1907, Adolphe's only son, William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, obtained passage of a law confirming the right of his eldest daughter, Marie-Adélaïde, to succeed to the throne in virtue of the absence of any remaining dynastic males of the House of Nassau, as originally stipulated in the Nassau Family Pact. She became the grand duchy's first reigning female monarch upon her father's death in 1912, and upon her own abdication in 1919, was succeeded by her younger sister Charlotte, who married Felix of Bourbon-Parma, a prince of the former Duchy of Parma. Charlotte's descendants have since reigned as the continued dynasty of Nassau, and also constitute a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon-Parma.
Name | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death | Succession right |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adolphe 23 November 1890 – 17 November 1905 |
24 July 1817 Wiesbaden (Prussia) |
(1) Grand Duchess Elizabeth 31 January 1844 (2) Grand Duchess Adelheid-Marie 23 April 1851 |
17 November 1905 Colmar-Berg |
Nephew of William III |
|
William IV 17 November 1905 – 25 February 1912 |
22 April 1852 Wiesbaden (Prussia) |
Grand Duchess Marie Anne |
25 February 1912 Colmar-Berg |
Son of Adolphe |
|
Marie-Adélaïde 25 February 1912 – 14 January 1919 (abdicated) |
14 June 1894 Colmar-Berg |
Unmarried |
24 January 1924 Lenggries (Germany) |
Daughter of William IV |
|
Charlotte 14 January 1919 – 12 November 1964 |
23 January 1896 Colmar-Berg |
Prince Felix 6 November 1919 |
9 July 1985 Fischbach |
Daughter of William IV / Sister of Marie-Adélaïde |
|
Jean 12 November 1964 – 7 October 2000 |
5 January 1921 Colmar-Berg |
Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte 9 April 1953 |
Living | Son of Charlotte |
|
Henri 7 October 2000 – Present |
16 April 1955 Betzdorf |
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa 4 February/14 February 1981 |
Living | Son of Jean |
Read more about this topic: Counts Of Luxembourg, Grand Dukes of Luxembourg
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