The Grand Duke of

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

is the

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

. 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. Prior to the early 1800s, the only Grand duchy in Europe was located in what is now Italy: Tuscany ( ...

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

Duchy of Luxembourg The Duchy of Luxembourg (; ; ; ) was a Imperial state, state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg became one of the most important political forces in the 14th century, comp ...

. It was in

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

with the

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed from 1815 to 1839. The United Netherlands was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars through the fusion of territories t ...

until 1890 under the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of Or ...

. Luxembourg is the world's only 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. Prior to the early 1800s, the only Grand duchy in Europe was located in what is now Italy: Tuscany ( ...

and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

, Henri.

Constitutional role

The

constitution of Luxembourg The Constitution of Luxembourg (; ; German: ''Luxemburgische Verfassung'') is the supreme law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The modern constitution was adopted on 17 October 1868. Whilst the constitution of 1868 marked a radical change i ...

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. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly: * in ...

'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 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 status of ...

. 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 dir ...

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 : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

, laws now no longer require the grand duke's formal assent (implying "approval") but his task of

promulgating Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect. After a new law i ...

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 franc The gold franc (currency code: XFO) was the unit of account for the Bank for International Settlements from 1930 until April 1, 2003. It was replaced with the special drawing right. It was originally based on the Franc Germinal, and remained a ...

s (€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 The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...

, as dictated by the

Nassau Family Pact 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 surviv ...

, 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 all or most of their parent's estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relat ...

within the

House of Nassau The House of Nassau is the name of a European aristocratic dynasty. The name originated with a lordship associated with Nassau Castle, which is located in what is now Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Nassau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With t ...

, 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, Napol ...

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 branch of the House, which was descended from a

morganatic marriage Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...

. An

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

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

, 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 (, abbreviated D.G.) is a formulaic phrase used especially in Christian monarchies as an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch. In England and later the United Kingdom, the phrase was formally added to the royal sty ...

, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau,

Count Palatine of the Rhine This article lists counts palatine of Lotharingia, counts palatine of the Rhine, and electors of the Palatinate (), the titles of three counts palatine who ruled some part of the Rhine region in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire b ...

, Count of

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

, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

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

Merenberg Merenberg is a municipality in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Merenberg lies on the southern edge of the Westerwald between the district seat of Limburg an der Lahn, Limburg and Weilburg. Neighbouring communities ...

, 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

, those territories of the Nassau family in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

at the time of the pact (Luxembourg and Nassau) were bound by semi-

, 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. Offi ...

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, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

. 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 ''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illici ...

, 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

, 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 Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the Order of succession, succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of ...

in 1919, was succeeded by her younger sister Charlotte, who married Felix of Bourbon-Parma, a prince of the former

Duchy of Parma The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (, ) 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 family after Pope Paul III made it a hereditary duchy for his s ...

. 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., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...

ed as the continued dynasty of ''Nassau'', and also constitute a

cadet branch 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, titles, fiefs, property and incom ...

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:03/10/2025 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 may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

" 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:"

" fontsize:10 from: 17/11/1905 till: 25/02/1912 color:nassau text:"

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

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

Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

" fontsize:10 from: 07/10/2000 till: 03/10/2025 color:nassau text:" Henri" fontsize:10

Grand ducal consorts

* Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia (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 Prince Félix of Bourbon-Parma (later Prince Félix of Luxembourg; 28 September 1893 – 8 April 1970) was the husband of Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and the father of her six children, including her successor Jean, Grand Duke of ...

(husband of

Grand Duchess Charlotte Charlotte (''Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine''; 23 January 1896 – 9 July 1985) was List of monarchs of Luxembourg, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 14 January 1919 until her abdication on 12 November 1964. Her reign is the long ...

) * Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium (wife of Grand Duke Jean) * María Teresa Mestre y Batista (wife of

Grand Duke Henri Henri (; , ; born 16 April 1955) is Grand Duke of Luxembourg, reigning since 2000. He is the eldest son of Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium, Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, a ...

)

Notes

References

External links

*
Official website of the Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Duke Of Luxembourg 1815 establishments in the German Confederation