Line of succession to the Luxembourger throne

Since 2011, the crown of Luxembourg descends according to absolute primogeniture among Grand Duke Henri's descendants and according to agnatic primogeniture among other dynasts.

Line of succession

Notes

• Prince Louis, the current Grand Duke's third son, renounced his right of succession for himself and his heirs upon his marriage in 2006.
• Prince Jean, the current Grand Duke's younger brother, renounced his right of succession for himself and his heirs on 26 September 1986.
• Countess Clotilde of Merenberg, press on 5th degree of the Grand Duke's, the Counts von Merenberg descend legitimately from the morganatic marriage in 1868 of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and Natalia Pushkina, an untitled member of the lower Russian nobility, a daughter of the renowned poet Alexander Pushkin. Although their son, Count George von Merenberg married a daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and pressed for recognition as heir presumptive to the Luxembourgeois throne as its grand ducal line approached extinction, a 1907 law of the grandduchy dismissed the Merenbergs' claim to the throne.

Succession law

History

The constitution of Luxemburg states that the crown is hereditary in the house of Nassau according to the pact of 1783 (the Nassau Family Pact), the Treaty of Vienna made in 1815, and the Treaty of London of 1867.

In April 1907 Grand Duke William IV decreed (approved in July 1907 by legislature of Luxembourg and thereafter enacted) amendments to the House law of Nassau: the Grand Duke's eldest daughter would succeed (that provision is identical with the effect of the 1783 pact), and after her, her issue in male line born of marriages that abide by the house laws; in default thereof, the Grand Duke's next daughters in similar fashion. Thus, issue of the Grand Duke's daughters received succession rights only in strict agnatic line - a male-line male descendant of a younger daughter would have had preference over female descendants of elder daughters. (Conceptually, this is not the so-called Semi-Salic principle, since in that system, upon extinction of one daughter's male-line issue, the closest heir of the last one of that line succeeds, which means first a descendant in female line of that daughter and not yet descent from younger daughters.) This law of succession in Luxembourg followed a special order among male lines issued from Grand Duke William IV's daughters.

Absolute primogeniture

The preference for men over women in succession to Luxembourg's throne was abandoned in favour of absolute primogeniture on 20 June 2011 by decree of Grand Duke Henri.^[1] Henceforth, any legitimate female descendant of the House of Luxembourg-Nassau born of authorized marriage shall inherit the throne by order of seniority of line of descent and of birth as stipulated in Article 3 of the Constitution and the Nassau Family Pact without regard to gender, applicable first to succession by the descendants of Grand Duke Henri.^[2] The Grand Duke's Marshal issued an addendum to the decree explaining the context of the change: pursuant to the United Nations' 1979 call for nations to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, in 2008 the Grand Duchy dropped the exception to gender non-discrimination it had declared in the matter of the grand ducal succession.^[3]

References

External links

• "Droits de succession" (in French). Cour Grand-Ducale de Luxembourg.