Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau (german: Adelheid-Marie; french: Adélaïde-Marie) (25 December 1833 – 24 November 1916) was a
Princess
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subst ...
of
Anhalt-Dessau
Anhalt-Dessau was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire and later a duchy of the German Confederation. Ruled by the House of Ascania, it was created in 1396 following the partition of the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst, and finally merged into t ...
and member of the
House of Ascania
The House of Ascania (german: Askanier) was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt.
The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as ''Schloss ...
. As the wife of
Adolphe of Nassau, she was
Duchess
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...
of
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
from 1851 until 1866 and
Grand Duchess
Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...
of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
from 1890 until 1905.
Birth and family
Adelheid Marie was born in
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
in the
Duchy
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a Middle Ages, medieval country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition.
There once exis ...
of
Anhalt-Dessau
Anhalt-Dessau was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire and later a duchy of the German Confederation. Ruled by the House of Ascania, it was created in 1396 following the partition of the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst, and finally merged into t ...
on
Christmas Day
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...
1833 to
Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau
Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau (german: Friedrich August von Anhalt-Dessau) (23 September 1799 – 4 December 1864), was a German prince of the House of Ascania from the Anhalt-Dessau branch.
Birth and family
Frederick was born in Dessau on ...
and
Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel
Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (9 May 1814 – 28 July 1895) was a member of the House of Hesse-Kassel by birth. Through her marriage to Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau, she became a princess of Anhalt-Dessau.
Family
...
.
Marriage and issue
On 23 April 1851 in Dessau, as his second wife, she was married to
Adolphe of Nassau, Duke of Nassau and later Grand Duke of Luxembourg. They had five children, of whom only two lived to the age of eighteen and to become prince and princess of Luxembourg:
*
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 h ...
(1852–1912), second Grand Duke of Luxembourg
* Prince Frederick of Nassau (28 September 1854 – 23 October 1855)
* Princess Marie of Nassau (14 November 1857 – 28 December 1857)
* Prince Francis Joseph William of Nassau (30 January 1859 – 2 April 1875)
*
Princess Hilda of Nassau (1864–1952), married
Friedrich II, Grand Duke of Baden
Frederick II (9 July 1857 – 9 August 1928; german: Großherzog von Baden Friedrich II.) was the last sovereign Grand Duke of Baden, reigning from 1907 until the abolition of the German monarchies in 1918. The state of Baden originated from the ...
.
Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg
Duke Adolph supported the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
in the
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
of 1866. After Austria's defeat, Nassau was annexed to the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
and Adolph and Marie Adelheid lost their throne on 20 September 1866.
In 1890, King
William III of the Netherlands
William III (Dutch: ''Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk''; English: ''William Alexander Paul Frederick Louis''; 19 February 1817 – 23 November 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death in ...
died. His only daughter,
Wilhelmina, succeeded on his death without surviving male issue to the
Dutch throne, but was excluded from the succession to the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
by the House treaty between the two branches of the House of Nassau. 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 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 survivin ...
. Marie Adelheid now became Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
Death
Marie Adelheid died on 24 November 1916 in
Königstein im Taunus
Königstein im Taunus () is a health spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Owing to its advantageous location for both scenery and transport on the ed ...
,
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
.
Legacy
The Grand Dukes of Luxembourg are still descendants of Adolphe and Marie-Adelheid, although cognatically, since the very independence of the Grand-Duchy required an alteration of the succession laws at the absence of male heirs.
Ancestry
See also
*
Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe The Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe (Grand-Duke Adolphe Prize) is a Luxembourgian art award awarded every year to one or more artists exhibiting at the ''Salon Artistique'' of the ''Cercle artistique de Luxembourg'' (CAL).
The award is named after Grand Du ...
, -
, -
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelheid Marie Of Anhalt-Dessau, Princess
House of Ascania
Grand Ducal Consorts of Luxembourg
1833 births
1916 deaths
House of Nassau-Weilburg
Burials in the Royal Crypt of Weilburg Schlosskirche