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Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

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Charlotte
The Grand Duchess in 1942
Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Reign14 January 1919 – 12 November 1964
PredecessorMarie-Adélaïde
SuccessorJean
Prime ministers
See List
Born(1896-01-23)23 January 1896
Berg Castle,Luxembourg
Died9 July 1985(1985-07-09)(aged 89)
Fischbach Castle,Fischbach,Luxembourg
Burial
Notre-Dame Cathedral
SpousePrince Félix of Bourbon-Parma(m. 1919; died 1970)
Issue
Names
Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine
HouseNassau-Weilburg
FatherWilliam IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
MotherInfanta Marie Anne of Portugal
ReligionCatholicism

Charlotte(Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine; 23 January 1896 – 9 July 1985) wasGrand Duchess of Luxembourgfrom 14 January 1919 until herabdicationon 12 November 1964.

She acceded to the throne on 14 January 1919 following the abdication of her sister,Marie-Adélaïde,due to political pressure over Marie-Adélaïde's role during theGerman occupation of Luxembourg during World War I.A referendum retained the monarchy with Charlotte as grand duchess.

She marriedPrince Felix of Bourbon-Parmaon 6 November 1919. They had six children. Following the 1940German invasion of LuxembourgduringWorld War II,Charlotte went into exile: first in France, then Portugal, Great Britain, and North America. While in Britain, she made broadcasts to the people of Luxembourg. She returned to Luxembourg in April 1945.

She abdicated in 1964, and was succeeded by her sonJean.Charlotte died from cancer on 9 July 1985. She was the lastagnaticmember of theHouse of Nassau.She was the last personal recipient of theGolden Roseand since her death there are no living personal recipients of that honour, which in modern times has been awarded only to churches and shrines. She is to date the most recent Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Early life and tenure as Grand Duchess

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Private portrait, 1921

Born inBerg Castle,Charlotte ofNassau-Weilburg,Princess of Luxembourg, was the second daughter ofGrand Duke William IVand his wife,Marie Anne of Portugal.[1]

Her older sister,Marie-Adélaide,had succeeded their father. However, Marie-Adélaïde's actions had become controversial, and she was seen as sympathetic to theGerman occupation of Luxembourg during World War I.There were calls in parliament for herabdication,and she was forced to abdicate in favour of Charlotte on 14 January 1919.[2]

Luxembourg adopted a new constitution that year. Ina referendumon 28 September 1919, 77.8% of the Luxembourgish people voted for the continuation of the monarchy with Grand Duchess Charlotte as head of state.[1]However, in the new constitution, the powers of the monarch were severely restricted, thus codifying actual practices dating from the end of the personal union with the Netherlands in 1890.

Reign

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By 1935, Charlotte had sold her German properties, the former residential palaces of theDukes of Nassau,Biebrich PalaceandSchloss Weilburg,to the State of Prussia. DuringWorld War IIthe grand ducal family left Luxembourg shortly before the arrival ofNazitroops.Luxembourg's neutrality was violated on 9 May 1940, while the Grand Duchess and her family were in residence atColmar-Berg.That day she called an extraordinary meeting of her leading ministers, and they all decided to place themselves under the protection of France, described by the Grand Duchess as a difficult but necessary decision. Initially the family took up residence at theChâteau de Montastrucin south-western France, but therapid advanceof the German forces into France followed by French capitulation the next month caused the French government to refuse any guarantee of security to the exiled Luxembourg government. Permission was received to crossSpainprovided they did not stopen route,and the Grand Duchess with her ministers moved on toPortugal.[3]

The Germans proposed to restore the Grand Duchess to her functions, but Charlotte refused, mindful of her sister's experiences of remaining in Luxembourg under German occupation during theFirst World War.By 29 August 1940 Grand Duchess Charlotte was in London where she began to make supportive broadcasts to her homeland using theBBC.[4]Later she travelled tothe United Statesand toCanada.Her children continued their schooling inMontreal[5]while she had several meetings withPresident Rooseveltwho encouraged her itinerant campaigning across the country in support of his own opposition toisolationismwhich was a powerful political current until thePearl Harbor attacks.[6]In the meantime Luxembourg, along with the adjacent FrenchMoselledepartment, found itself integrated into an expanded Germany under the nameHeim ins Reich,which left Luxembourgers required to speakGermanand liable forconscriptioninto the German army.[7][8]

In 1943 Grand Duchess Charlotte and the Luxembourg government established themselves inLondon:her broadcasts became a more regular feature of the BBC schedules, establishing her as a focus for the resistance movements in Luxembourg.

Charlotte's younger sisterAntoniaand brother-in-lawRupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria,were exiled from Germany in 1939. In 1944, living now inHungary,Crown Princess Antonia was captured when the Germans invaded Hungary and found herself deported to theconcentration campatDachau,being later transferred toFlossenbürgwhere she survived torture but only with her health badly impaired. Meanwhile, from 1942 Grand Duchess Charlotte's eldest son, Jean, served as a volunteer in the British Army'sIrish Guards,[9]after the war becoming its HonoraryColonel-in-chief(1984-2000).

In the years after the war, Charlotte showed a lot of public activity which contributed to raising Luxembourg's profile on the international stage, by hosting visits from foreign heads of state and other dignitaries, such asEleanor Roosevelt(1950), QueenJuliana of the Netherlands(1951),René Coty(1957), KingBaudouin of Belgium(1959), KingBhumibol of Thailand(1961), and KingOlav V of Norway(1964). Likewise, she visited PopePius XII(1950),Charles de Gaulle(1961), andJohn F. Kennedy(1963).[10]

In 1951 Charlotte and her prime ministerPierre Dupongadmitted by decree three Swedish relatives into the nobility of Luxembourg who were not allowed to use their birth titles in Sweden. They were then named asSigvard Prince Bernadotte,Carl Johan Prince BernadotteandLennart Prince Bernadotteand also, with their legitimate descendants, were given the hereditary titles ofCounts and Countesses of Wisborgthere.[11]

Abdication and later life

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Charlotte of Luxembourg andPrince Felixbefore her abdication, 11 November 1964

On 12 November 1964, she abdicated in favour of her son Jean, who then reigned until his abdication in 2000.

Charlotte died atSchloss Fischbachon 9 July 1985, fromcancer.She was interred in the Ducal Crypt of theNotre-Dame Cathedralin thecity of Luxembourg.

A statue of the Grand Duchess is in Place Clarefontaine in the city of Luxembourg.[12]

Marriage and children

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On 6 November 1919 inLuxembourg,she marriedPrince Felix of Bourbon-Parma,a first cousin on her mother's side.[13](Both Charlotte and Felix were grandchildren of KingMiguel of Portugal,through his daughters Maria Anna and Maria Antonia, respectively). With the marriage, their lineal descent was raised in style fromGrand Ducal HighnesstoRoyal Highness.

The couple had six children:[14]

Honours

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National honours
Foreign honours
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  • The old Berg Castle (demolished 1906), Mersch, central Luxembourg, ducal residence where Charlotte was born
    The old Berg Castle (demolished 1906),Mersch, central Luxembourg,ducal residence where Charlotte was born
  • Fischbach Castle, Mersch, Charlotte's residence, and where she died
    Fischbach Castle, Mersch, Charlotte's residence, and where she died
  • Statue of Grand-Duchess Charlotte in Clairefontaine square, side view
    Statue of Grand-Duchess Charlotte in Clairefontaine square, side view

Notes and references

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  1. ^ab"H.R.H. Grand Duchess Charlotte | Cour grand-ducale".www.monarchie.lu.Retrieved26 December2022.
  2. ^"H.R.H. Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde".Cour grand-ducale(in French).Retrieved26 December2022.
  3. ^"Charlotte".WW2DB.Retrieved26 December2022.
  4. ^"'Léif Lëtzebuerger' Grand Duchess Charlotte's defiant WWII broadcasts ".Luxembourg Times.16 January 2019.Retrieved26 December2022.
  5. ^Bernier Arcand, Philippe (2010)."L'exil québécois du gouvernement du Luxembourg"(PDF).Histoire Québec.15(3): 19–26 – via Erudit.
  6. ^"Grand Duchess Charlotte's US Good-Will-Tours".Luxembourg Times.14 April 2015.Retrieved1 January2019.
  7. ^Waller, George Platt (2012). Fletcher, Willard Allen; Fletcher, Jean Tucker (eds.).Defiant Diplomat: George Platt Waller, American consul in Nazi-occupied Luxembourg 1939–1941.Newark: University of Delaware Press. p. 102.ISBN978-1-61149-398-6.
  8. ^"World War II".Allo Expat: Luxembourg. Archived fromthe originalon 20 February 2015.Retrieved11 May2013.
  9. ^"No. 36191".The London Gazette(2nd supplement). 1 October 1943. p. 4352.
  10. ^Kreins, Jean-Marie.Histoire du Luxembourg.Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2010. 5th edition. p. 105
  11. ^"Mémorial A n° 48 de 1951 - Legilux"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 21 July 2015.Retrieved7 May2016.
  12. ^"Commemoration to mark return of Luxembourg monarch".Luxembourg Times.11 April 2015.Retrieved4 March2023.
  13. ^"H.R.H. Grand Duchess Charlotte".Cour Grand-Ducale.Retrieved10 September2022.
  14. ^"H.R.H. Prince Félix of Bourbon-Parma".Cour Grand-Ducale.Retrieved10 September2022.
  15. ^http://www.luxcentral.com/art/rulers/Charlotte.gif[bare URL image file]
  16. ^Albanian Royal Court
  17. ^Jørgen Pedersen (2009).Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009(in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 466.ISBN978-87-7674-434-2.
  18. ^M. & B. Wattel (2009).Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers.Paris: Archives & Culture. pp. 21, 489, 615.ISBN978-2-35077-135-9.
  19. ^https://journaldemonaco.gouv.mc/var/jdm/storage/original/application/481fcbccfcc1a320d5df3aa68661fe82.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  20. ^"Het Geheugen".geheugen.delpher.nl.
  21. ^"Den kongelige norske Sanct Olavs Orden",Norges Statskalender for Aaret 1970(in Norwegian), Oslo: Forlagt av H. Aschehoug & Co. (w. Nygaard), 1970, pp. 1240–1241 – via runeberg.org
  22. ^"Banda da Grã-Cruz das Duas Ordens: Carlota Aldegundes Elisa Maria Guilhermina (Grã-Duquesa do Luxemburgo e Duquesa de Nassau)"(in Portuguese),Arquivo Histórico da Presidência da República.Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  23. ^Sveriges statskalender(in Swedish), vol. II, 1940, p. 8,retrieved2 April2020– via runeberg.org
  24. ^Royal Thai Government Gazette(28 December 1964)."แจ้งความสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี พระราชทานเครื่องขัตติยราชอิสริยาภรณ์มหาจักรีบรมราชวงศ์"(PDF).www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th(in Thai). Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 4 March 2016.Retrieved8 May2019.
[edit]
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Cadet branch of theHouse of Nassau
Born:23 January 1896Died:6 July 1985
Regnal titles
Preceded by Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
1919–1964 		Succeeded by
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