The territory of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
has been ruled successively by
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...
s,
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...
s and
grand dukes. It was part of the medieval
Kingdom of Germany
The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom ( la, regnum Teutonicorum "kingdom of the Germans", "German kingdom", "kingdom of Germany") was the mostly Germanic-speaking East Frankish kingdom, which was formed by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, espec ...
, and later the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...
until it became a
sovereign state in 1815.
Counts of Luxembourg
House of Ardenne–Luxembourg
House of Luxembourg–Namur
House of Hohenstaufen
House of Luxembourg–Namur
House of Luxembourg–Limburg
Dukes of Luxembourg
In 1354 the county was elevated to a duchy.
House of Luxembourg-Limburg
As Elisabeth had no surviving children, she sold Luxembourg to
Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1441 but only to succeed upon her death. Philip captured the city of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
in 1443, but did not assume the ducal title because of conflicting claims by
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unt ...
, the closest Luxembourg relative.
Claimants
House of Valois-Burgundy
In 1467, when
Elisabeth II of Austria, last rival claimant to the title, renounced her rights, Philip III's son,
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, assumed the title of duke of Luxembourg, making it a subsidiary title of the
Duke of Burgundy.
House of Habsburg
In 1482 Luxembourg passed to the House of Habsburg. After the abdication of Emperor Charles V, the duchy of Luxembourg fell to the Spanish line of the House of Habsburg.
During the
War of Spanish Succession, 1701–1714, the duchy was disputed between
Philip of Anjou
Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mona ...
, grandson of
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of ...
, of the
House of Bourbon; and
Charles of Austria, son of
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, of the
House of Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
. In 1712
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
and
Namur were ceded to
Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian, Maximillian or Maximiliaan (Maximilien in French) is a male given name.
The name "Max" is considered a shortening of "Maximilian" as well as of several other names.
List of people
Monarchs
*Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459– ...
by his French allies, but at the end of the war in 1713 with the
Treaty of Utrecht Maximilian Emanuel was restored as Elector of Bavaria. In 1713 the duchy fell to the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg.
House of Bourbon
House of Wittelsbach
House of Habsburg
Luxembourg was occupied by French revolutionaries between 1794 and 1813. At the
Vienna Congress
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
, it was elevated to a grand duchy and given in personal union to
William I of the Netherlands.
Grand Dukes of Luxembourg
The Grand Duke of Luxembourg (or Grand Duchess in the case of a female monarch) is the
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...
of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
. Luxembourg is the world's only extant sovereign
grand duchy
A grand duchy is a country or territory whose official head of state or ruler is a monarch bearing the title of grand duke or grand duchess.
Relatively rare until the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the term was often used in th ...
, a status to which Luxembourg was promoted in 1815 upon its unification with the Netherlands under the
House of Orange-Nassau.
The
Luxembourg constitution defines the
grand duke's position:
House of Orange-Nassau
House of Nassau-Weilburg
Under the 1783
Nassau Family Pact, those territories of the Nassau family in the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...
at the time of the Pact (Luxembourg and
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
) were bound by semi-
Salic law, which allowed
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Of ...
by females or through the female line only upon extinction of male members of the
dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
. 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
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
, who married
Felix of Bourbon-Parma, a prince of the former
Duchy of Parma. Charlotte's descendants have since
reign
A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Buddhism ...
ed as the continued dynasty of ''Nassau''.
Timeline of Grand Dukes of Luxembourg since 1815
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20
AlignBars = late
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:15/03/1815 till:01/01/2022
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1820
Colors =
id:orange value:rgb(1,0.75,0.5) legend:Orange-Nassau
id:nassau value:rgb(0.8,0.8,0.9999) legend:Nassau-Weilburg
Legend = columns:2 left:50 top:24 columnwidth:150
BarData =
barset:PM
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
barset:PM
from: 15/03/1815 till: 07/10/1840 color:orange text:"Guillaume I
William Longsword (french: Guillaume Longue-Épée, nrf, Willâome de lon Espee, la, Willermus Longa Spata, on, Vilhjálmr Langaspjót; c. 893 – 17 December 942) was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942.Det ...
" fontsize:10
from: 07/10/1840 till: 17/03/1849 color:orange text:" Guillaume II" fontsize:10
from: 17/03/1849 till: 23/11/1890 color:orange text:" Guillame III" fontsize:10
from: 23/11/1890 till: 17/11/1905 color:nassau text:" Adolphe" fontsize:10
from: 17/11/1905 till: 25/02/1912 color:nassau text:" Guillaume IV" fontsize:10
from: 25/02/1912 till: 14/01/1919 color:nassau text:" Marie-Adélaïde" fontsize:10
from: 14/01/1919 till: 12/11/1964 color:nassau text:"Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
" fontsize:10
from: 12/11/1964 till: 07/10/2000 color:nassau text:" Jean" fontsize:10
from: 07/10/2000 till: end color:nassau text:"Henri
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Mon ...
" fontsize:10
See also
*
Coat of arms of Luxembourg
The coat of arms of Luxembourg has its origins in the Middle Ages and was derived from the arms of the Duchy of Limburg, in modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands. In heraldic language, the arms are described as: ''Barry of ten Argent and Azure, ...
*
Duchy of Luxembourg
*
Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg
*
History of Luxembourg
*
Line of succession to the throne of Luxembourg
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.
Line of succession
* ''Grand Duchess Charlotte (1896–1985)''
** ...
*
List of consorts of Luxembourg
The consort is the spouse of a reigning Grand Duke of Luxembourg. The consort of the current monarch is Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Princess Stéphanie is expected to become the next royal consort upon the accession of Guillaume ...
*
List of prime ministers of Luxembourg
Footnotes
References
*
*
External links
History of titles of the counts and dukes of Luxembourg based on contemporary documents (before 1467)*
ttp://eurulers.altervista.org/luxembourg3.html History of titles of the grand dukes of Luxembourg based on contemporary documents (since 1814)
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Monarchs Of Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
Luxembourg history-related lists
*
Monarchs of Luxembourg
House of Ardennes
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
fr:Liste des comtes et ducs de Luxembourg