List of Grand Dukes of Luxembourg

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign extant Grand Duchy, a status to which Luxembourg was promoted in 1815 upon its unification with the Netherlands under the House of Orange-Nassau.

The Luxembourgian constitution defines the Grand Duke's position:cquote|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. [fr icon cite web | url=http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/textescoordonnes/recueils/constitution_droits_de_lhomme/CONST1.pdf | title=Constitution de Luxembourg | accessdate=2007-07-01 | format=PDF |publisher=Service central de législation ]

House of Orange-Nassau

Houses of Nassau-Weilburg & Bourbon-Parma

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 to use Salic law, which forbade inheritance by the female line. 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 could not pass to a woman, leaving the House of Orange-Nassau without a male heir. As a result, the throne went to Adolphe, the dispossessed Duke of Nassau and head of the House of Nassau-Weilburg.

At the death of his uncle, Nikolaus-Wilhelm in 1905, Guillaume IV changed the laws of succession and named his daughter as his heir; the only other male, male-line, descendant of the House of Nassau-Weilburg was Guillaume's cousin, Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, the product of a morganatic marriage. So, in 1907, Guilliame declared the Counts of Merenberg non-dynastic, naming his own eldest daughter Marie-Adélaïde as heir to the throne. She became Luxembourg'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 Duchy of Parma. Charlotte's descendants have reigned until the present day under the name "Nassau" and are also members of the House of Bourbon-Parma.

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20AlignBars = late

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyyPeriod = from:15/03/1815 till:01/01/2007TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1820

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from: 15/03/1815 till: 07/10/1840 color:orange text:"William I" 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:"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" fontsize:10 from: 12/11/1964 till: 07/10/2000 color:nassau text:"Jean" fontsize:10 from: 07/10/2000 till: 01/01/2007 color:nassau text:"Henri" fontsize:10

ee also

* List of Counts and Dukes of Luxembourg
* Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg
* Line of succession to the throne of Luxembourg

Footnotes

References

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*/de icon cite web | url=http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/a/index.php |title=Archives of Mémorial A |accessdate=2007-07-01 | publisher=Service central de législation