Gustav Adolf of Nassau-Saarbrücken (27 March 1632, Saarbrücken – 9 October 1677, Strasbourg) was Count of Saarbrücken and

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

at the

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of the

Holy Roman Empire of German Nation 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 unti ...

. He was the third son of Count William Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1590 – 22 August 1640) and Countess Anna Amalia of Baden-Durlach (1595–1651), who named him after king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, who was still alive at the time. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

(1618–1648), the family fled to

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, where his father died in 1640. In 1643 his mother returned to Saarbrücken with the children. From 1645 to 1649 he studied in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. He then fought on the French side against Spain. In 1658 he fought against Denmark in the service of the Swedish king Charles X Gustav, who was a duke of the house Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Later, he served in the imperial army, possibly until 1659. Until 1651 his mother had been Regent of his behalf; from 1651 to 1659, his older brother John Louis had been regent. In 1660, Gustav Adolf and his brothers John Louis and Walrad divided the territory and Gustav Adolf took up the reign of the counties of Saarbrücken and Saarwerden. He set about rebuilding the war-ravaged country, brought back refugees and recruited settlers for agriculture and skilled workers for the glass industry in Klarenthal. Adolf could not resist King

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

's " reunion policy". He refused to swear the required oath of fealty from the king, even when he was captured in 1673 by the French and taken to Metz. After his release the following year, he was not allowed to return to his country. Adolf enrolled in the imperial army in 1676 and participated in the battle of Philippsburg in the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

in 1677. He died of injuries suffered in combat on Mount Kochersberg (northwest of Strasbourg). He was finally buried, after several temporary graves, in the St. Thomas Church at Strasbourg. His mummified corpse was on display there from 1802 to 1990 in a glass sarcophagus. His body was transferred and buried in the tomb erected by his wife in the castle church in Saarbrücken in 1998. Saarbrücken Schlosskirche (7)

Marriage and issue

On 14 June 1662 he married Landgravine Eleonore Klara of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein (1632–1709), daughter of the Count Crato of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein, with whom he had seven children: * Louis Crato (1663–1713) * Charles Louis (1665–1723) * Sophie Amalia (1666–1736), married to Albert Wolfgang, Count of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. * Gustav Adolph (1667–1683) * Sophie Eleonore (1669–1742) * Sophie Dorothea (1670–1748) * Philip William (1671–1671)

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gustav Adolf # Nassau Saarbrucken House of Nassau 1632 births 1677 deaths Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken