Emmanuel Ignatius of Nassau-Siegen (6 January 1688 - 1 August 1735), was a Fieldmarshal of the Spanish and Austrian Army, and Regent of the Principality of Nassau-Siegen in 1727.
Born in Roermond, he was the twenty-second child of John Francis Desideratus, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, but the ninth born from his third and last marriage with the French Isabella Clara du Puget de la Serre.
A member of the Catholic branch of the House of Nassau-Siegen, his status and that of his full brothers as dynastic members of the family was disputed because their parents' marriage was deemed morganatic. The marriage contract between John Francis Desideratus and Isabella Clara du Puget (signed one month after their marriage, on 13 March) stipulated that their offspring would have no higher rank than that of untitled nobles unless the male descendants of the Prince, through his two previous (and equal) marriages, became extinct. Despite this provision, after the death of John Francis Desideratus on 17 December 1699, Emmanuel Ignatius (who inherited the Barony de Renaix with his older brothers) and his surviving full-siblings assumed the title, name and arms of Nassau-Siegen. Their older half-brother William Hyacinth, Prince of Nassau-Siegen obtained from the Reichshofrat (in 1701) and the Reichskammergericht (in 1709) legal judgments denying dynastic titles of the Princes of Nassau-Siegen to the descendants of the John Francis Desideratus' third marriage on the grounds that the marriage contract signed in 1669 was for a morganatic union. Despite this, Emmanuel Ignatius and his siblings all used the title of Prince or Princess of Nassau, Count or Countess of Katzenelnbogen, Vianden and Diez, Baron or Baroness of Beilstein and Ronse. [1]
In Paris on 14 May 1711, Emmanuel Ignatius married with Charlotte (17 March 1688 - 17 March 1769), daughter of Louis II, Count de Mailly-Nesle. [2] [3] They had two sons, who died in infancy: [4] Charles Nicholas (14 February 1712 - 1 July 1712) and Maximilian (29 August 1713 - 1714).
Almost since the beginning, the marriage was extremely unhappy. In 1716 Emmanuel Ignatius and Charlotte became officially separated; since them, she maintained a dissolute life in Paris, and her husband had her imprisoned in a monastery for adultery.
Emmanuel Ignatius pursued a military career, firstly in the Spanish army and since 1714 in the Austrian army. In 1718 he became a colonel and from 1723 he was Generalfeldwachtmeister , in 1733 being appointed a field marshal. He was also a captain in the army of Archduchess Maria Elisabeth, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands. In 1715 he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of Saint Hubert in 1720.
In 1722 Emmanuel Ignatius and Charlotte were reconciled, and on 25 October of that year, she gave birth to a third son, Maximilian William Adolph, who was initially recognized by Emmanuel Ignatius as his own.
After the death of Frederick William Adolf, Prince of Nassau-Siegen in 1722, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI authorized his fellow Roman Catholics, Emmanuel Ignatius and his two older brothers to receive part of the dynastic Nassau-Siegen inheritance. [1] After expulsion of William Hyacinth, in 1727 the Emperor named Emmanuel Ignatius administrator of the Principality of Nassau-Siegen. However, his power was significantly restricted, because the real government was in the hands of the Electorate of Cologne; soon after, he returned to Brussels without further attempts to exercise authority in the principality. [5]
The hoped for Catholic succession in Nassau-Siegen after the death of Prince Frederick William II in 1734 never took place, because both Emmanuel Ignatius and his brother Francis Hugo died shortly after and within months of each other in 1735. [1]
On 26 August 1734 and close to his death, Emmanuel Ignatius rejected Maximilian William Adolph as his son, declaring him to be adulterous. [1] Despite his posthumous, formal recognition by French courts (sentence du Chatelet, 31 January 1756), he was declared illegitimate in the Holy Roman Empire, within whose boundaries Nassau-Siegen was located, at the request of William IV, Prince of Orange by the Reichshofrat on 17 December 1744, that decision being confirmed by the Emperor on 15 October 1745. [1] After his death in 1748, his pretensions were continued by his son Charles Henry but without results. Nassau-Siegen was eventually inherited by the Protestant Nassau-Diez branch of the princely family.
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The County of Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later part of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, the male line of which is now extinct, was the House of Nassau.
The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been a grand duchy since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former Duchy of Luxembourg. It was in personal union with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1890 under the House of Orange-Nassau. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign Grand Duchy and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the incumbent, Henri.
The House of Nassau is a diversified aristocratic dynasty in Europe. It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With the fall of the Hohenstaufen in the first half of the 13th century royal power within Franconia evaporated and the former stem duchy fragmented into separate independent states. Nassau emerged as one of those independent states as part of the Holy Roman Empire. The lords of Nassau were originally titled "Count of Nassau", subject only to the Emperor, and then elevated to the princely class as "Princely Counts". Early on they divided into two main branches: the elder (Walramian) branch, that gave rise to the German king Adolf, and the younger (Ottonian) branch, that gave rise to the Princes of Orange and the monarchs of the Netherlands.
Nassau-Siegen was a principality within the Holy Roman Empire that existed between 1303 and 1328, and again from 1606 to 1743. From 1626 to 1734, it was subdivided into Catholic and Protestant parts. Its capital was the city of Siegen, founded in 1224 and initially a condominium jointly owned by the archbishopric of Cologne and Nassau. It was located some 50 km east of Cologne, and it contained the modern localities of Freudenberg, Hilchenbach, Kreuztal, Siegen, and Wilnsdorf.
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John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen was a German nobleman and militarist of the 17th century.
John Francis Desideratus was count of Nassau-Siegen and stadtholder of Limburg and Upper Guelders.
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Prince William Hyacinth of Nassau-Siegen was a Prince of Nassau-Siegen. He also claimed the Principality of Orange.
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Prince Frederick William II of Nassau-Siegen, German: Friedrich Wilhelm II. Fürst von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Fürst zu Nassau, Graf zu Katzenelnbogen, Vianden, Diez, Limburg und Bronkhorst, Herr zu Beilstein, Stirum, Wisch, Borculo, Lichtenvoorde und Wildenborch, Erbbannerherr des Herzogtums Geldern und der Grafschaft Zutphen, was since 1722 Fürst of Nassau-Siegen, a part of the County of Nassau. He descended from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau. He was the last male representative of his lineage, with him the Protestant line of the House of Nassau-Siegen became extinct.
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Count Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German: Heinrich Graf von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Graf zu Nassau, Katzenelnbogen, Vianden und Diez, Herr zu Beilstein, was a count from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau. He served the Republic of the United Netherlands in diplomatic missions, as an officer in the Dutch States Army, and as governor of Hulst.
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Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen, was a French-born fortune-seeker and adventurer active in Spain, Poland and the Russian Empire. A controversial figure, he was best known as Catherine II's least successful naval commander.
Prince George Frederick of Nassau-Siegen, German: Georg Friedrich Prinz von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Prinz von Nassau, Graf zu Katzenelnbogen, Vianden und Diez, Herr zu Beilstein, was a count from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau. In 1664 he was elevated to the rank and title of prince. He served as an officer in the Dutch States Army, and was successively commander of Rheinberg and governor of Bergen op Zoom.
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Countess Sophie Polyxena Concordia of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, German: Sophia Polyxena Concordia Gräfin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, official titles: Gräfin zu Sayn, Wittgenstein und Hohenstein, Frau zu Homburg, Vallendar, Neumagen, Lohra und Klettenberg, was a countess from the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein and through marriage Fürstin of Nassau-Siegen.