Royal Summer Weddings

This seems to be the summer of royal and noble weddings, non? Belgium, Isenburg, Ysenburg, Oettingen, Habsburg, Castell - and the summer is far from over. This past weekend, Prince François d'Orléans married Theresa von Einsiedel in Straubing near Munich, Germany. While the groom is a nephew of the Orléanist claimant to the defunct French throne, the bride has some very royal connection very relevant to this blog herself. Through her mother Princess Amélie of Urach, whose mother was Princess Iniga of Thurn und Taxis, she is a great-granddaughter of Princess Elisabeth of Luxembourg, sister of Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde and Grand Duchess Charlotte.

Probably more due to friendly ties instead of this relation, Princess Maria-Anunciata, elder daughter of Prince Nikolaus and Princess Margaretha, was among the guests of the wedding. Also present were Prince Gundakar, second cousin of Liechtenstein's head of state and his siblings, and his wife Princess Marie, a first cousin of the groom who actually introduced the newly weds to each other at a ball in Vienna. Prince Gundakar and Princess Marie were already among the guests of the wedding of Magdalena Habsburg-Lothringen, or Archduchess Magdalena of Austria if you want, and Sebastian Bergmann in Bad Ischl the weekend prior.

For more information and pictures of the Einsiedel/Orléans wedding, check out Royal Travel and Events. A big Dankeschön to Stefan for letting me use his pictures!

Friday Flashback: Future Grand Duchesses

Photo: Ch. Bernhoeft

Princess Marie-Adélaïde and Princess Charlotte, the two eldest daughters of Grand Duke Wilhelm IV and Grand Duchess Maria-Ana, at a time when probably nobody expected either them to ever inherit the Luxembourgish throne. As history went, Marie-Adélaïde became Luxembourg's first female ruler at the age of 17. After the end of the First World War and a perceived pro-German attitude of her's, Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde abdicated in favour of her younger sister in January 1919. Grand Duchess Charlotte went on to become the Grand Duchy's longest ruler and had she not abdicated under very different circumstances in favour of her oldest son, Grand Duke Jean, she would have reigned Luxembourg for a total of 66 years and 173 days.

Friday Flashback: Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg in 1916

Grand Duchess Maria-Ana and Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde, as well as Princess Hilda and Princess Sophie behind them, on their way from the palais grand-ducal to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame for the celebrations of the Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg in 1916.

Luxarazzi 101: The House of Nassau

On Tuesday, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will be abdicating in favour of her oldest son, the current Prince of Orange, who will ascend to the throne as King Willem-Alexander. There are a whole lot of events planned for the occassion, for any details simply have a look at the website of Het Koninklijk Huis.

Most important for all Luxaholics will be the dinner hosted by Queen Beatrix on Monday evening, as well as the inauguration events of the new King on 30 April. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie will be the ones representing Luxembourg at the events.

To gear up for the historic event - the Netherlands will get a king for the first time since 1890 - we will have our own little look at Dutch-Luxembourgish relations. Though I'm sure that you could write one, or rather many, posts about the two countries who were founding members of what has become the European Union and, together with Belgium, are often simply described as the Benelux countries. We are going to have a very royal look at things.

Once upon a time, there was a count who had many children. Two of those sons followed in their father's footsteps by sharing the rule over his realm in 1247. Eight years after taking over, they decided to divide their inheritance. Today that act is known as the Great Division of the House of Nassau, forming the senior Walram line and the junior Ottonian line. Fast forward almost 800 years, one of the lines reigns over the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the other one over the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

But let's start at the beginning. The first known member of the House of Nassau was Count Dudo of Laurenburg (ca. 1060 - ca. 1123) who is considered its founder. The family's properties at the time were located close to the Lahn river, an eastern tributary of the Rhine river in Germany. They took their first name from the Burg Laurenburg in today's north-east corner of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1159, a dispute with the cathedral chapter of Worms was settled and the family received the Burg Nassau above Nassau, which, founded in AD 915, was the name given not only to the House of Nassau but thus various other places around the world.

Burg Nassau (Photo: Geo)

The aforementioned count was Count Heinrich II of Nassau, also called 'the Rich'. His two sons were Count Walram II and Count Otto I who co-reigned for eight years before deciding to divide their territory. The Lahn river served as the border and Count Otto I got Siegen, Herborn, Dillenburg and Ginsberg north of the river, while Count Walram II got Weilburg, Idstein and Sonnenberg, which at the time was pledged to Otto I, located to the south. They continued to co-own a few properties such as Nassau and Laurenburg.

Even though the House was divided into different branches - at times more, at other times less - they always considered themselves to be part of a larger dynasty. The House of Nassau was considered one of the biggest but due to its many branches enormously weakened dynasty in Europe.

There were the Nassau-Weilburg, the Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein, Nassau-Saarbrücken and Nassau-Usingen and more in the Walramian line, and the Nassau-Dillenburg, Nassau-Beilstein, Nassau-Hadamar, Nassau-Siegen and Nassau-Dietz plus a few others in the Ottonian. All the branches intermarried and died out, lines merged or new ones emerged; it would simply be too complicated to cover it all.

Grand Duke Adolph

The two most important branches of the House of Nassau were the House of Nassau-Weilburg, descending from the Walram line, and the House of Orange-Nassau, stemming from the Ottonian line. Because of aforementioned complicatedness and length, we will have a look at the history of the two branches in fast motion to give you a general idea.

At the end of the 13th century, the Nassau-Weilburg line provided a Roman-German king. Four centuries later in 1806, the counties of Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg merged under the pressure of Napoleon into the Duchy of Nassau. The Duchy was co-reigned by the head of the Usingen branch, Friedrich August who became the Duke but had no heirs, and the head of the Weilburg branch, Friedrich Wilhelm who was given the title Prince of Nassau. Friedrich Wilhelm's son, Wilhelm, being the heir of both branches, would become the first Duke of Nassau from the House of Nassau Weilburg in 1816.

Duke Wilhelm's oldest son and heir Duke Adolph sided with the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and after Austria had lost the war, the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia. But fate intervened and after many years, in 1890 Adolph became Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The year 1890 might sound familiar to you as it has actually been mentioned in this post before. It was the year that the Netherlands last had a king.

The House of Orange-Nassau was as a result of the marriage of Hendrik III of Nassau-Breda (also Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz) and Claudia of Châlon-Orange. In 1530, their son René inherited the Principality of Orange from his uncle though, as per his uncle's wish, he continued to use the name Châlon-Orange. It was his cousin and heir Willem I, Prince of Orange from the House of Nassau-Dillenburg who was the first one to call his line Orange-Nassau.

King-Grand Duke William III

In 1815, Willem VI, Prince of Orange declared himself King Willem of the Netherlands and the very same year the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to be governed in personal union with the Netherlands, was been formed during the Congress of Vienna. King Willem I as well as his son Willem II and his grandson Willem III thus governed both countries.

In 1890, King-Grand Duke Willem III died without a male heir. While the Kingdom of the Netherlands was inherited by his daughter Wilhelmina, the Grand Duchy of Nassau went to his seventeenth cousin once removed, the former Duke Adolph of Nassau thus dissolving the personal union between the two monarchies due to different laws of succession.

Already in 1783, the two lines had formed the Nassauischer Erbverein, a family pact, which covered the areas of inheritance and succession. It stated that if one line of the House of Nassau became extinct in male line, the other one succeed. It was also agreed that the pact would be applied to those territories owned or acquired in the then Holy Roman Empire. Even though Luxembourg had been acquired after the pact was formed and even after the Holy Roman Empire came to its end, it was still part of the German Confederation which was considered as the Empire's successor.

On this basis, the Grand Duchy was inherited by the House of Nassau-Weilburg. While there were efforts to change the Luxembourgish law of succession so that a female could inherit the throne, it is generally said that King Willem III's wife, Queen Emma, a niece of Duke Adolph had campaigned against such a change so that her uncle would once again become a sovereign.

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, Queen Beatrix, Grand
Duchess Maria Teresa and Grand Duke Henri last year
(Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand ducale)

In 1912, when Grand Duke Adolph's son Grand Duke Guillaume IV died without leaving a male heir, the House of Nassau-Weilburg died out in male line as well. After changes in the Luxembourgish laws were made, his oldest daughter succeeded him on the throne as Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde who was followed on the throne by her sister, Grand Duchess Charlotte, who was succeeded by her son Grand Duke Jean and then Grand Duke Henri.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina was succeeded by her daughter Queen Juliana who was followed by her daughter Queen Beatrix. On Tuesday, the country will once again get a king, the first one in 123 years when the House of Nassau-Weilburg became regents of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Luxarazzi 101: Abdication and Accession in Luxembourg

In the light of the recent events in the Netherlands - earlier today Queen Beatrix has announced that she will abdicate and that the Prince of Orange will become King of the Netherlands on 30th April - we will have a look at similar events in the Grand Duchy.

Queen Beatrix's abdication follows the example set by her mother and grandmother, so it can be regarded as something of a tradition. A tradition that does not only exist in the Netherlands but in another country ruled by another branch of the House of Nassau, Luxembourg.

Neither in Luxembourg nor in the Netherlands abdication has quite the same connotation like it has in most other European monarchies. Over the past century or so, it has become something like a tradition for the head of state to step down at one point and to hand over their powers to their heir. It is not seen as a shocking and profound abandonment of one's royal duties but rather a very normal thing to trustingly hand over one's power to a new generation.

It certainly did not start out this way when the very first abdication in the House of Nassau-Weilburg happened in 1919.

Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide

Seven years earlier, Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide had ascended to the throne at the tender age of 17 upon her father's death. From the very beginning she had done something that both her father, Grand Duke Wilhelm IV, and her grandfather, Grand Duke Adolph, had avoided - to mingle in politics. She had not been trained by her father in statecraft as he had been ill for a very long time. This, combined with the young Grand Duchess's strong Catholic faith, often led to clashes between her and the government as well as the political scene as a whole.

Even though Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide carefully kept within the boundaries created by the constitution, her enemies, who often were also against the church, tried to take advantage of her lack of experience to create sentiment against her. The outbreak of the First World War and the following occupation of Luxembourg by German troops did not help the cause of the Grand Duchess either.

After initially having protested against the occupation, the Grand Duchess had tried to keep Luxembourg's neutrality throughout the War. After it's end, she was accused of having collaborated with the Germans. The perception of the Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide as "pro-German" made her unpopular both within the population as well as on political level. On January 14, 1919 she gave in to the national and international pressure by abdicating from the throne and handing over powers to her younger sister, who would one day abdicate under very different circumstances.

[More on Marie-Adelaide's life in one of our future editions of Luxarazzi 101, a post about her is currently in the works.]

Grand Duchess Charlotte in 1919

After her sister's abdication, Grand Duchess Charlotte's reign was off to a rough start as she had to face a referendum about the future of the Grand Duchy. In September 1919, 77.8 percent of the Luxembourgish population voted for the continuation of a Grand Ducal monarchy with Charlotte as head of state.

The new Grand Duchess decided not to meddle in politics - much of the power her sister still had, had been taken from the head of state due to an amendment of the constitution anyway - and over the next decades she would become a very much beloved figure. During the Second World War she became strong symbol for national unity, resistance and freedom.

On April 28, 1961, Grand Duchess Charlotte appointed her oldest son, then Hereditary Grand Duke Jean, Lieutenant Representative. While the Grand Duchess remained the nominal head of state, the Hereditary Grand Duke assumed most of the constitutional power. On May 4 that same year, he took the oath.

Then Hereditary Grand Duke
Jean becomes his mother's
Lieutenant Representative
(Photo: Photothèque
de la Ville de Luxembourg)

After having reigned for 45 years, she signed the declaration of abdication in which she renounced the Crown of the Grand Duchy in favour of her oldest son Jean on November 12, 1964. 

"I feel I have reached the age to retire, and I think that Jean is the age to take over. After all, I am 68 now."

Maybe she had not expected to reach the age she eventually reached. Had Grand Duchess Charlotte not abdicated and reigned until her death, she would have reigned for a total of 66 years and 173 days.

Later on November 12, Grand Duke Jean took the oath as the new Grand Duke in a solemn ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies. 

A very similar pattern can be found in the events leading up to Grand Duke Jean's abdication in 2000. On March 4, 1998, the then Hereditary Grand Duke Henri was appointed Lieutenant-Representative by his father.

About one and a half years later, Grand Duke Jean announced his intention to abdicate in favour of his eldest son on December 24, 1999. That day a special meeting of the parliament had taken place in which prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker had announced the Grand Duke's decision. Grand Duke Jean commented on the matter during his annual Christimas speech as following,

"I'm deeply convinced that it is a wise decision to retire from the business of state after 35 years of reigning on the eve of a new millenium."

Grand Duke Jean signs the
abdication decree (Photo: SIP)

The actual abdication was delayed due to car accident of Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla in which the prince was seriously injured and remained in a coma for three weeks.

On October 7, 2000, Grand Duke Jean eventually signed the Grand Ducal Abdication Decree at the Grand Ducal Palace and thus handed powers over to his oldest son.

The first article of the decree states:

Nous renonçons à la Couronne du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg en faveur de Notre Fils bien-aimé, le Grand-Duc héritier HENRI.

(We renounce the Crown of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in favour of Our dear son, the Hereditary Grand Duke HENRI.)

The second article deals with the procedure.

Following the signing of the decree, prime minister Juncker held a speech in which he paid tribute to both Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte.

Grand Duke Henri is sworn in
(Photo: SIP)

Later that same day, the swearing-in ceremony took place at a solemn sitting of the Chamber of Deputies. Grand Duke Henri took the oath according to Article 5 of the constitution at around 11am. 

"I swear to observe the Constitution and the Laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to maintain the national independence and integrity of the territory, as well as public and individual liberties."

Afterwards, he delivered the enthronement speech. (You can find an English version here.) The event was attended by members of the Grand Ducal Family as well as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and King Albert II and Queen Paola of the Belgians.

After the ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies, the new Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa and their children walked back to the palais where they appeared on the balcony together. During the course of the day another few events like a church service as well as receptions took place.

Once the time comes, we can expect similar things to happen on the day and in the lead up to Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume's accession to the throne.

Luxarazzi 101: The Grand Duchess Adelaide Tiara

Princess Tessy arrived at the dinner gala after The Hereditary Grand Duke's civil wedding wearing a diamond and sapphire tiara. This was the first time that she has worn this historic family jewel.

The tiara is made of diamonds with a large central sapphire. The cushion-cute sapphire can be removed but no one appears to have worn the sapphire separately in decades. Both the diamonds and the pale blue sapphire are set in white and yellow gold. The tiara is often listed as one of several floral tiaras that the family possesses. However, there are no flowers on the tiara. There are only leaves and berries made of brilliant and rose-cut diamonds. Two loops on the base of the tiara allow an additional element to be attached.

Little is known about the history of the tiara. The jewel was created between 1865 and 1870 by an unknown (to me) jeweler. It may have been part of the trousseau of Grand Duke Adolphe's second wife Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau (m. 1851). She is the first woman of the family recorded to have worn or owned the tiara. Many of the loveliest tiaras owned by the family are either part of the trousseau of a foreign princess or are wedding gifts.

In any case, Grand Duchess Adelaide is the first lady of the family who wore this tiara. It is fitting that the finely crafted tiara became a favorite of her granddaughter and namesake, Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide. It is she that is most closely associated with the history of the tiara. During her brief and tragic reign it was this jewel that she decided to wear when she sat for photographs and paintings.

Later on the cold and foggy morning of January 28, 1919 Marie-Adelaide passed her jewels and finest possessions onto her sisters and her loyal lady-in-waiting. It is noted that she divided her jewelry among them based on who had made long forgotten compliments about different pieces, saving the tiara(s) for Charlotte. It was on this morning that Grand Duchess Charlotte likely took possession of this tiara. It was also the last day that Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide ever spent inside the Grand Duchy.

Grand Duchess Charlotte, Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa

While the tiara is known almost exclusively by some variant of the name 'Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide's Tiara' it could be better named the 'Grand Duchess Adelaide Tiara' given the history of the jewel. Thankfully, this tiara is now part of the family's jewelry trust and cannot be sold.

This is the first of a multi-part series on tiaras owned by the family beginning with those worn during the recent wedding events.


Photo: RTL, Cour grand-ducale