Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
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Adolphe Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau Reign 23 November 1890 - 17 November 1905 Born 24 July 1817(1817-07-24) Birthplace Biebrich Palace Died 17 November 1905 (aged 88) Place of death Hohenburg Castle Buried Notre-Dame Cathedral Predecessor William III Successor William IV Consort i) Elizabeth Mikhailovich of Russia ii) Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau Offspring William IV Frederick Marie Franz Hilda Royal House House of Nassau-Weilburg Father Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau Mother Luise of Saxe-Altenburg

Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg Houses of Nassau and Bourbon Adolphe Children    William IV    Hilda, Grand Duchess of Baden William IV Children    Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde    Grand Duchess Charlotte    Hilda, Princess of Schwarzenberg    Antonia, Crown Princess of Bavaria    Princess Elisabeth    Princess Sophie Marie-Adélaïde Charlotte Children    Grand Duke Jean    Elisabeth, Duchess of Hohenberg    Princess Marie-Adélaïde    Princess Marie Gabrièle    Prince Charles    Alix, Princess of Ligne Grandchildren    Princess Charlotte    Prince Robert Jean Children    Princess Marie Astrid    Grand Duke Henri    Prince Jean    Princess Margaretha    Prince Guillaume Grandchildren    Princess Marie Gabrièle    Prince Constantin    Prince Wenceslas    Prince Carl Johann    Prince Paul-Louis    Prince Léopold    Princess Charlotte    Prince Jean Henri Children    Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume    Prince Félix    Prince Louis    Princess Alexandra    Prince Sébastien

Adolphe I, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (Adolph/Adolf Wilhelm August Karl Friedrich of Nassau[-Weilburg]) (Biebrich, 24 July 1817 – Schloss Hohenburg, 17 November 1905) was the last Duke of Nassau, and the fourth Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

He was a son of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1792 - 1839) and his first wife Charlotte Luise Friederike of Saxe-Altenburg. Adolphe's half-sister, Sophia of Nassau, married King Oscar II of Sweden.

Adolph became Duke of Nassau on 20 August/30 August 1839, after the death of his father. He supported the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. After Austria's defeat, Nassau was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia and he lost his throne on 20 September 1866.

In 1879, Adolphe's niece Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the daughter of another of his half-sisters, married her distant relative King William III of the Netherlands. In 1890, their only daughter Wilhelmina succeeded on his death without surviving male issue to the Dutch throne, but was excluded from the succession to Luxembourg by the Salic Law. The Grand Duchy, which had been linked to the Netherlands since 1815, passed to the Dutch royal family's distant relative - the dispossessed Duke Adolphe - on 23 November 1890, in accordance with the Nassau family compact. The Grand Dukes of Luxembourg are still descendants of Adolphe, although through female lines, since the actual independence of the Grand-Duchy required an alteration of the succession laws at the absence of male heirs.

On 31 January 1844, Adolph married firstly in St. Petersburg Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia, niece of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. She died less than a year afterwards in childbirth with a stillborn daughter.

On 23 April 1851, he remarried in Dessau Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau (Dessau, 25 December 1833 - Schloss Königstein, 24 November 1916), a daughter of Friedrich, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau. They had five children, of whom only two lived to the age of eighteen and to become prince and princess of Luxembourg:

• William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (1852–1912)
• Prince Friedrich Paul Wilhelm of Nassau (Biebrich, 23 September 1854 - Biebrich, 23 October 1855)
• Princess Marie Bathildis of Nassau (Biebrich, 14 November 1857 - Biebrich, 28 December 1857)
• Prince Franz Joseph Wilhelm of Nassau (Biebrich, 30 January 1859 - Vienna, 2 April 1875)
• Princess Hilda Charlotte Wilhelmine (1864 - 1952), married HRH Friedrich II, Grand Duke of Baden.

In 1892, Grand Duke Adolphe conferred the hereditary title Count of Wisborg on his Swedish nephew, Oscar, who had lost his Swedish titles after marrying without his father's approval. Wisborg (also spelt Visborg) was the old castle in the citry of Visby within Prince Oscar's lost Dukedom of Gotland, but the title itself was created in the nobiliy of Luxembourg.

Ancestors

External links

• Grand-Ducal House of Luxembourg and Ducal House of Nassau
• Ducal House of Nassau
• Imperial House of Russia
• Ducal House of Anhalt-Dessau

v • d • e Grand Dukes of Luxembourg House of Orange-Nassau (1815 – 1890) William I • William II • William III House of Nassau-Weilburg (1890 – present) Adolphe • William IV • Marie-Adélaïde • Charlotte • Jean • Henri Until 1890, Luxembourg was in a personal union with the Netherlands, ruled by the King-Grand Duke.