List of Grand Dukes of Luxembourg

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The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign extant Grand Duchy, a status to which Luxembourg was promoted in 1815 upon its unification with the Netherlands under the House of Orange-Nassau.

The Luxembourgian constitution defines the Grand Duke's position:

“ The Grand Duke is the head of state, symbol of its unity, and guarantor of national independence. He exercises executive power in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the country.[1] ”

Contents

[edit] House of Orange-Nassau

Image Name Date of birth Date of death Reign Relationship with predecessor
William I
Willem Frederik
(Prince William VI of Orange)		 24 August 1772 12 December 1843 15 March 1815
to
7 October 1840		 his son
William II
Willem Frederik George Lodewijk		 6 December 1792 17 March 1849 7 October 1840
to
17 March 1849		 his son
William III
Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk		 17 February 1817 23 November 1890 17 March 1849
to
23 November 1890		 his son

[edit] Houses of Nassau-Weilburg & Bourbon-Parma

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 the Nassau) were bound to use Salic law, which forbade inheritance by the female line. 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 could not pass to a woman, leaving the House of Orange-Nassau without a male heir. As a result, the throne went to Adolphe, the dispossessed Duke of Nassau and head of the House of Nassau-Weilburg.

At the death of his uncle, Nikolaus-Wilhelm in 1905, Guillaume IV named his daughter as his heir and changing the laws of succession; the only other male, male-line, descendant of the House of Nassau-Weilburg was Guillaume's cousin, Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, the product of a morganatic marriage. So, in 1907, Guilliame declared the Counts of Merenberg non-dynastic, naming his own eldest daughter Marie-Adélaïde as heir to the throne. She became Luxembourg'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 Duchy of Parma. Charlotte's descendants have reigned until the present day under the name Nassau and are also members of the House of Bourbon-Parma.

Image Name Date of birth Date of death Reign Relationship with predecessor
Adolphe 24 July 1817 17 November 1905 23 November 1890
to
17 November 1905		 his nephew
William IV 22 April 1852 25 February 1912 17 November 1905
to
25 February 1912		 his son
Marie-Adélaïde 14 June 1894 24 January 1924 25 February 1912
to
14 January 1919		 his daughter
Charlotte 23 January 1896 9 July 1985 14 January 1919
to
12 November 1964		 her sister
(younger daughter of William IV)
Jean 5 January 1921 Living 12 November 1964
to
7 October 2000		 her son
Henri 16 April 1955 Living From 7 October 2000
(Incumbent)		 his son

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ (French) Constitution de Luxembourg (PDF). Service central de législation. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.

[edit] References

v • d • e
Heads of State of Europe
1 Partially or entirely in Asia, depending on the definition of the border between Europe and Asia.