Monarchy of Luxembourg

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Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Groussherzog vu Lëtzebuerg
Grand-duc de Luxembourg
Greater coat of arms of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (2000).svg
Arms of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Standard of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.svg
Standard of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Saeimas priekssedetajs Edvards Smiltens tiekas ar Luksemburgas lielhercogu - 52744479271 (cropped).jpg
Incumbent
Henri
since 7 October 2000
Style His Royal Highness
Type Head of state
Residence Berg Castle, Colmar-Berg
Seat Grand Ducal Palace, Luxembourg City
Constituting instrument Constitution of Luxembourg
First holder William I, King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Succession Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Website monarchie.lu/en

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg [a] 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.

Contents

Constitutional role

The constitution of Luxembourg 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]

After a constitutional change (to article 34) in December 2008 resulting from Henri's refusal to assent to a law legalizing euthanasia, laws now no longer require the grand duke's formal assent (implying "approval") [2] but his task of promulgating the law as chief executive remains.

Compensation

The grand duke does not receive a salary, but the grand ducal family receives annually 300,000 gold francs (€281,000) for grand ducal functions. [3] In 2017, the Luxembourg budget included €10.1 million for the grand duke's household costs. [4]

Succession

Succession to the throne was governed by Salic law, as dictated by the Nassau Family Pact, first adopted on 30 June 1783. [1] The right to reign over Luxembourg was until June 2011 passed by agnatic-cognatic primogeniture within the House of Nassau, as stipulated under the 1815 Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and as confirmed by the 1867 Treaty of London. [1] The Nassau Family Pact itself can be amended by the usual legislative process, having been so on 10 July 1907 to exclude the Count of Merenberg branch of the House, which was descended from a morganatic marriage. [5]

An heir apparent may be granted the style 'hereditary grand duke'. The current heir apparent is Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. In June 2011, agnatic primogeniture was replaced with absolute primogeniture, allowing any legitimate female descendants within the House of Nassau to be included in the line of succession. [6]

Full titles

The traditional titulatures of the Grand Duke are By the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of Sayn, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Merenberg, Limburg and Eppstein .

It should, however, be noted that many of the titles are held without regard to the strict rules of Salic inheritance and that most, save for Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Duke of Nassau, are simply not used.

List of Grand Dukes

House of Orange-Nassau

ImageNameDate of birthDate of deathReignRelationship with predecessor
William I of the Netherlands.jpg
William I
Willem Frederik
(Prince William VI of Orange)
24 August 177212 December 184315 March 1815

7 October 1840
Francis' third cousin
and
Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg's direct descendant
WillemIINL3.jpg
William II
Willem Frederik George Lodewijk
6 December 179217 March 18497 October 1840

17 March 1849
Son of William I
Willem III (1817-90), koning der Nederlanden, Nicolaas Pieneman, 1856 - Rijksmuseum.jpg
William III
Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk
17 February 181723 November 189017 March 1849

23 November 1890
Son of William II

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 and reignPortraitBirthFamily and MarriagesDeathSuccession right
Adolphe
23 November 1890 –
17 November 1905
Adolfluxembourg1817-6.jpg
24 July 1817
Wiesbaden (Prussia)
(1) Grand Duchess Elizabeth
31 January 1844
[1 child (stillborn)]
(2) Grand Duchess Adelheid-Marie
23 April 1851
[5 children]
17 November 1905 (88 years)
Colmar-Berg
Third cousin of
William III
William IV
17 November 1905 –
25 February 1912
Guillaume IV of Luxembourg.png
22 April 1852
Wiesbaden (Prussia)
Grand Duchess Marie Anne
[6 children]
25 February 1912 (59 years)
Colmar-Berg
Son of
Adolphe
Marie-Adélaïde
25 February 1912 –
14 January 1919
(abdicated)
Marie-Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg 2.jpg
14 June 1894
Colmar-Berg
Unmarried
[childless]
24 January 1924 (29 years)
Lenggries (Germany)
Daughter of
William IV
Charlotte
14 January 1919 –
12 November 1964
(abdicated)
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.jpg
23 January 1896
Colmar-Berg
Prince Felix
6 November 1919
[6 children]
9 July 1985 (89 years)
Fischbach
Daughter of
William IV /
Sister of
Marie-Adélaïde
Jean
12 November 1964 –
7 October 2000
(abdicated)
GD Jean 1967.jpg
5 January 1921
Colmar-Berg
Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte
9 April 1953
[5 children]
23 April 2019 (98 years)
Luxembourg City
Son of
Charlotte
Henri
7 October 2000 –
present
Saeimas priekssedetajs Edvards Smiltens tiekas ar Luksemburgas lielhercogu - 52744479271 (cropped).jpg
16 April 1955
Betzdorf
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa
4/14 February 1981
[5 children]
Living (69 years)Son of
Jean
Henri, Grand Duke of LuxembourgJean, Grand Duke of LuxembourgCharlotte, Grand Duchess of LuxembourgMarie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of LuxembourgWilliam IV, Grand Duke of LuxembourgAdolphe, Grand Duke of LuxembourgWilliam III of the NetherlandsWilliam II of the NetherlandsWilliam I of the NetherlandsMonarchy of Luxembourg

Grand ducal consorts

See also

Notes

  1. Luxembourgish: Groussherzog vu Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-duc de Luxembourg, German: Großherzog von Luxemburg

Related Research Articles

The grand ducal family of Luxembourg constitutes the House of Luxembourg-Nassau, headed by the sovereign grand duke, and in which the throne of the grand duchy is hereditary. It consists of heirs and descendants of the House of Nassau-Weilburg, whose sovereign territories passed cognatically from the House of Nassau to the House of Bourbon-Parma, itself a branch of the Spanish royal house which is agnatically a cadet branch of the House of Capet that originated in France, itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians and the Karlings and the founding house of the Capetian dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg</span> Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1890 to 1905

Adolphe was Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 23 November 1890 to his death on 17 November 1905. The first grand duke from the House of Nassau-Weilburg, he succeeded King William III of the Netherlands, ending the personal union between the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Adolphe was Duke of Nassau from 20 August 1839 to 20 September 1866, when the Duchy was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg</span> Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1964 to 2000

Jean was the Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1964 until his abdication in 2000. He was the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg of French agnatic descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg</span> Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1905 to 1912

William IV was Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 17 November 1905 until his death in 1912. He succeeded his father, Adolphe. Like his father, William mostly stayed out of politics despite being vested with considerable power on paper by the Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg</span> Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1919 to 1964

Charlotte was Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 14 January 1919 until her abdication on 12 November 1964. Her reign is the longest of any Luxembourgish monarch since 1815 when the country was elevated to a Grand Duchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Félix of Luxembourg</span> Luxembourgish prince (born 1984)

Prince Félix of Luxembourg, Prince of Bourbon-Parma and Prince of Nassau is the second son of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. He is currently fourth in the line of succession to the throne of Luxembourg.

A cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons (cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets have historically been passed from a father to his firstborn son in what is known as primogeniture; younger sons, the cadets, inherited less wealth and authority to pass on to future generations of descendants.

The Nassau Family Pact was a mutual pact of inheritance and succession made in 1783 by princes of the House of Nassau. It confirmed that Salic Law was to operate in favor of all the agnatic lines of the family, specifically the two senior surviving lines which had originated in the Middle Ages, the Walramian and the Ottonian. The pact chiefly provided that in case of one of these lines becoming extinct, the other would succeed in its hereditary Nassau lands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria</span> European royal, Luxembourg Archduchess

Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria is the elder daughter and eldest child of Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, and the wife of Archduke Carl Christian of Austria, grandson of the last Austrian Emperor, Karl I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Count of Merenberg</span>

Count of Merenberg is a hereditary title of nobility that was bestowed in 1868 by the reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, George Victor, upon the morganatic wife and male-line descendants of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau (1832–1905), who married Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina (1836–1913), former wife of Russian general Mikhail Leontievich von Dubelt.

Since 2011, the crown of Luxembourg descends according to absolute primogeniture among Grand Duke Henri's descendants and according to agnatic primogeniture among other dynasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William, Duke of Nassau</span> Duke of Nassau

Wilhelm was joint sovereign Duke of Nassau, along with his father's cousin Frederick Augustus, reigning from 1816 until 1839. He was also sovereign Prince of Nassau-Weilburg from 1816 until its incorporation into the duchy of Nassau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau</span> Chivalric order in Luxembourg and Netherlands

The Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau is a chivalric order shared by the two branches of the House of Nassau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Bourbon-Parma</span> Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon-Anjou

The House of Bourbon-Parma is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the French Capetian dynasty in male line. Its name of Bourbon-Parma comes from the main name (Bourbon) and the other (Parma) from the title of Duke of Parma. The title was held by the Spanish Bourbons, as the founder Philip, Duke of Parma was the great-grandson of Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. The House of Bourbon-Parma is today the Sovereign House of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (agnatically) and all members of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg are members of the House of Bourbon-Parma with the title of "Princes/Princesses" and the predicate of Royal Highness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau</span> Prince of Nassau

Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau was a German prince, military officer and parliamentarian. He was the youngest son of William, Duke of Nassau, and the only son by his second wife Princess Pauline of Württemberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau</span> Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1890 to 1905

Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau was a Princess of Anhalt-Dessau and member of the House of Ascania. As the wife of Adolphe of Nassau, she was Duchess of Nassau from 1851 until 1866 and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1890 until 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countess Clotilde of Merenberg</span> German psychiatrist and last patrilineal descendant of the House of Nassau

Clotilde Gräfin von Merenberg is a German psychiatrist and the last patrilineal descendant of the House of Nassau. She is a descendant of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Robert of Luxembourg</span> Luxembourgish prince (born 1968)

Prince Robert of Luxembourg, Prince of Bourbon-Parma, Prince of Nassau, is a member of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg. He is a paternal first cousin of Henri, the reigning grand duke of Luxembourg.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Constitution de Luxembourg" (PDF) (in French). Service central de législation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  2. "Luxembourg strips monarch of legislative role". The Guardian. London. 12 December 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  3. "Le budget | Cour grand-ducale".
  4. "Richest royals: what Europe's royal families get from their taxpayers – Business Insider". Business Insider .
  5. (in French and German) "Mémorial A, 1907, No. 37" (PDF). Service central de législation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
  6. "New Ducal succession rights for Grand Duchy". Luxemburger Wort. 21 June 2011. Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2011.