The Grand Duke of Luxembourg ( lb, Groussherzog vu Lëtzebuerg, french: Grand-duc de Luxembourg, german: Großherzog von Luxemburg) is the

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

ical

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 ...

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 has been a

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 ...

since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former

Duchy of Luxembourg The Duchy of Luxemburg ( nl, Luxemburg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg; lb, Lëtzebuerg) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg, now Duke of Limburg, b ...

. It was in

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interli ...

with the

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden; french: Royaume uni des Pays-Bas) is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed between 1815 and 1839. The United Netherlands was cr ...

until 1890 under the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau ( Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherland ...

. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign grand duchy and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

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 ...

Constitutional role

The constitution of Luxembourg defines the

grand duke Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approx ...

's position: :The grand duke is the head of state, symbol of its unity, and guarantor of national

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

. He exercises

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive di ...

power in accordance with the constitution and the laws of the country. After a constitutional change (to article 34) in December 2008 resulting from Henri's refusal to assent to a law legalizing

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

, laws now no longer require the grand duke's formal assent (implying "approval") 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. In 2017, the Luxembourg budget included €10.1 million for the grand duke's household costs.

Succession

Succession to the throne was governed by Salic law, as dictated by the Nassau Family Pact, first adopted on 30 June 1783. The right to reign over Luxembourg was until June 2011 passed by

agnatic-cognatic primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

within the House of Nassau, as stipulated under the 1815 Final Act of the

Congress of Vienna 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 ...

and as confirmed by the 1867 Treaty of London. 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 Count of Merenberg (German: ''Graf von 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 Wi ...

branch of the House, which was descended from a morganatic marriage. An

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

may be granted the style 'hereditary grand duke'. The current heir apparent is

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume Prince Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg (''Guillaume Jean Joseph Marie''; born 11 November 1981), is the heir apparent to the crown of Luxembourg since his father's accession in 2000. Early life and education Prince Guillaume was ...

. In June 2011, agnatic primogeniture was replaced with

absolute primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

, allowing any legitimate female descendants within the House of Nassau to be included in the line of succession.

Full titles

The traditional titulatures of the grand duke are ''

By the Grace of God By the Grace of God ( la, Dei Gratia, abbreviated D.G.) is a formulaic phrase used especially in Christian monarchies as an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch. For example in England and later the United Kingdom, the phrase was f ...

, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of

Sayn Sayn was a small German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rheinland-Pfalz. There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closely associated with the County ...

, Königstein,

Katzenelnbogen Katzenelnbogen () is the name of a castle and small town in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the '' Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Aar-Einrich. History Katzenelnbo ...

and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Idstein Idstein () is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt (Old Town) it is part of the ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'' ...

, 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

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 The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Ducato di Parma e Piacenza, la, Ducatus Parmae et Placentiae), was an Italian state created in 1545 and located in northern Italy, in the current region of Emilia-Romagna. Originally a realm of the Farnese ...

. 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'', and also constitute a

cadet branch In history and heraldry, 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— realm, t ...

of the House of Bourbon-Parma. 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(0.9999,0.7,0.5) 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:"

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

" fontsize:10 from: 07/10/1840 till: 17/03/1849 color:orange text:" William II" fontsize:10 from: 17/03/1849 till: 23/11/1890 color:orange text:" William 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:" William 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:"

" fontsize:10 from: 12/11/1964 till: 07/10/2000 color:nassau text:" Jean" fontsize:10 from: 07/10/2000 till: 30/07/2020 color:nassau text:"

" fontsize:10

Grand ducal consorts

Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia Princess Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine of Prussia (3 July 170914 October 1758) was a princess of Prussia (the older sister of Frederick the Great) and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of ...

(first wife of Grand Duke William I) * Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia (wife of Grand Duke William II) * Princess Sophie of Württemberg (first wife of Grand Duke William III) * Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont (second wife of Grand Duke William III) * Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau (wife of Grand Duke Adolphe) * Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal (wife of Grand Duke William IV) * Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma (husband of Grand Duchess Charlotte) *

Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a s ...

(wife of Grand Duke Jean) * María Teresa Mestre y Batista (wife of

Grand Duke Henri Henri (french: Henri Albert Gabriel Félix Marie Guillaume, ; born 16 April 1955) is the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He has reigned since 7 October 2000. Henri, the eldest son of Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, is a f ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Duke Of Luxembourg 1815 establishments in Germany