| William IV |
| Grand Duke of Luxembourg |
 |
| Reign |
November 17, 1905 – February 25, 1912 |
| Born |
April 22, 1852(1852-04-22) |
| Birthplace |
Biebrich Palace, Wiesbaden |
| Died |
February 25, 1912 (aged 59) |
| Place of death |
Berg Castle, Colmar-Berg |
| Buried |
Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg City |
| Predecessor |
Adolphe |
| Successor |
Marie-Adélaïde |
| Consort |
Marie Anne of Portugal |
| Offspring |
Marie-Adélaïde, Charlotte, Hilda, Antoinette, Elisabeth, Sophie |
| Royal House |
House of Nassau-Weilburg |
| Father |
Adolphe |
| Mother |
Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau |
|
|
|
William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, etc (Guillaume Alexandre) (Biebrich, 22 April 1852 – Berg Castle, 25 February 1912) was the eldest child of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He became Grand Duke and titular Duke of Nassau as William IIcitation needed on the death of his father on 17 November 1905.
William IV was a Protestant, the religion of the House of Nassau. He married Marie Anne of Portugal, believing that a Roman Catholic country ought to have a Roman Catholic monarch. Thus since William IV all other Grand Dukes have been Catholic.
At the death of his uncle, Prince Nikolaus-Wilhelm in 1905, the only other legitimate male in the House of Nassau-Weilburg was Guillaume's cousin, Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, the product of a morganatic marriage. So in 1907, Guillaume declared the Counts of Merenberg non-dynastic, naming his own eldest daughter Marie-Adélaïde (1894–1924) as heir to the grand ducal throne. She became Luxembourg's first reigning female monarch upon her father's death in 1912, and upon her own abdication in 1919, was succeeded by her younger sister Charlotte (1896–1985). Charlotte's descendants have reigned until the present day.
Family
On 21 June 1893 in Fischhorn Castle, Zell am See, he married Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal, daughter of the deposed king Miguel I of Portugal and Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. The couple had six daughters, but no sons:
- Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (1894-1924) who remained unmarried and childless
- Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (1896-1985) who married her first cousin Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma, a son of Marie Anne's younger sister.
- Princess Hilda Sophie Marie Adélaïde Wilhelmine (Berg Castle, 15 February 1897 - Berg Castle, 8 September 1979), married in Berg Castle on 29 October 1930 Adolf 10te Fürst zu Schwarzenberg (Frauenberg, 18 August 1890 - Bordighera, 27 February 1950),1 without issue
- Princess Antoinette (1899-1954), who married Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria as his second wife
- Princess Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine (Luxembourg, 7 March 1901 - Schloss Hohenburg, 2 August 1950), married in Schloss Hohenburg on 14 November 1922 Ludwig Philipp Prinz von Thurn und Taxis (Regensburg, 2 February 1901 - Schloss Niederaichbach, 22 April 1933), son of Albert I, Prince of Thurn and Taxis,2 and had issue
- Princess Sophie Caroline Marie Wilhelmine (Berg Castle, 14 February 1902 - Munich, 24 May 1941), married at Schloss Hohenburg on 12 April 1921 Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony (Dresden, 9 December 1896 - Coolamber, Ireland, 14 June 1971), youngest son of king Frederick Augustus III of Saxony,3 and had issue
Ancestry
References
External links
The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the copyrighted Wikipedia "Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg" article.
