阿道夫

生平

1839年父亲威廉死后继承拿骚公爵爵位。他曾在维也纳受教育。他是哈布斯堡王室的忠实盟友，在普奥战争中支持奥地利反对普鲁士。1866年奥地利战败，拿骚被普鲁士吞并。1867年9月9日阿道夫正式放弃拿骚公爵爵位，作为补偿，他得到850万塔勒尔和若干城堡。1889年任荷兰国王威廉三世在卢森堡的摄政。根据1783年拿骚继承协议，阿道夫成为卢森堡自治公国的第一位统治者。

1844年1月31日，阿道夫和俄罗斯女大公伊丽莎白·米哈伊洛芙娜结为夫妇，伊丽莎白在婚后一年就去世了。

1851年4月23日，他第二次结婚，妻子是安哈尔特-德绍的阿德海德·玛丽，他们有五个孩子，但只有两个成为卢森堡王子和公主。

长子威廉·亚历山大（Guillaume Alexandre，1852年4月22日—1912年2月25日）

次子腓特烈·保罗·威廉（Friedrich Paul Wilhelm，1854年9月23日—1855年10月23日），夭折

• 长女玛丽·巴蒂尔迪丝（Marie Bathildis，1857年11月14日—1857年12月28日），夭折
• 三子弗朗茨·约瑟夫·威廉（Franz Joseph Wilhelm，1859年1月30日—1875年4月2日），早逝

次女希尔达·夏洛特·威廉明妮（Hilda Charlotte Wilhelmine，1864年11月5日—1952年2月8日），巴登大公夫人。

Adolphe (Adolf Wilhelm August Karl Friedrich; 24 July 1817 – 17 November 1905) was Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 23 November 1890 to his death on 17 November 1905. The first grand duke from the House of Nassau-Weilburg, he succeeded King William III of the Netherlands, ending the personal union between the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Adolphe was Duke of Nassau from 20 August 1839 to 20 September 1866, when the Duchy was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia.

Adolphe became Duke of Nassau in August 1839, following the death of his father William. The Duchy was annexed to Prussia after Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian War. From 1815 to 1839, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was ruled by the kings of the Netherlands as a province of the Netherlands. Following the Treaty of London (1839), the Grand Duchy became independent but remained in personal union with the Netherlands. Following the death of his sons, the Dutch king William III had no male heirs to succeed him. In the Netherlands, females were allowed to succeed to the throne. Luxembourg, however, followed Salic law which barred females from succession. Thus, upon King William III's death, the crown of the Netherlands passed to his only daughter, Wilhelmina, while that of Luxembourg passed to Adolphe in accordance with the Nassau Family Pact. Adolphe died in 1905 and was succeeded by his son, William IV.

Biography

Born into the House of Nassau, Adolphe was a son of William, Duke of Nassau (1792–1839) and Princess Louise of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Duke of Nassau

Adolphe became Duke of Nassau in August 1839 at the age of 22, after the death of his father. Wiesbaden had by this time become the capital of the Duchy, and Adolphe took up residence in the newly constructed Stadtschloss in 1841. On 4 March 1848 he consented to the population of Nassau's nine "Demands of the Nassauers". A few years later, however, he revoked his liberal views and took a strongly conservative and reactionary course. In general, though, he was seen as a popular ruler. 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.

Grand Duke of Luxembourg

In 1879, Adolphe's niece Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the daughter of another of his half-sisters, married William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In 1890, upon William's death without surviving male issue, their only daughter Wilhelmina succeeded to the Dutch throne, but was excluded from the succession to Luxembourg. The Grand Duchy, which had been linked to the Netherlands in personal union since 1815, passed to Adolphe in accordance with the Nassau Family Pact.

Adolphe was King-Grand Duke William III's 17th cousin once removed through a male-only line, but was also his 3rd cousin as they both descended from William IV, Prince of Orange (he being the paternal great-grandson of William IV's eldest daughter Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau). He had, in fact, taken over the regency of Luxembourg for a short time during William III's illness.

Adolphe was already 73 years old by this time and knew little of Luxembourgish politics. He mostly abstained from day-to-day governing; Prime Minister Paul Eyschen, in office since 1888, took care of the affairs of state. This established a convention that the monarch would remain absent from the politics of the day, despite being vested with considerable reserve powers on paper. In 1902 Adolphe appointed his son William as Lieutenant-Representative.

Personal life

On 31 January 1844, Adolphe married firstly in St.……

Adelsverein

On April 20, 1842, the Adelsverein, Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, was organised in the Grand Duke's castle at Biebrich on the Rhine. He was named the Protector of the organisation. The Verein was responsible for the large emigration of Germans to Texas in the 19th century, and on January 9, 1843, established the 4,428 acre Nassau Plantation in Fayette County, Texas and named it after the Grand Duke.