House of Luxembourg

House of Luxembourg

Coat of arms
Country Holy Roman Empire
Kingdom of Bohemia
Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Germany
County of Luxembourg
Parent house House of Ardennes
Titles

Holy Roman Emperor
King of the Romans
King of Bohemia
King of Hungary
King of Poland (titular)
Duke of Luxembourg
Duke of Görlitz
Margrave of Brandenburg
Margrave of Moravia
Count of Luxembourg
Count of Tyrol
Count of Ligny
Count of Saint-Pol
Count of Conversano
Count of Marle
Count of Soissons
Lord of Beaurevoir

Count of Brienne
Founded 963
Founder Henry V, Count of Luxembourg
Final ruler Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Dissolution 1437 (Senior branch);
1415 (Ligny);
1482 (Saint-Pol);
1608–16 (Brienne);[1]
Ethnicity German/French (Low Countries)
Cadet branches

The House of Luxembourg (Czech: Lucemburkové) was a late medieval European royal family, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperors as well as Kings of Bohemia (Čeští králové, König von Böhmen) and Hungary. Their rule over the Holy Roman Empire was twice interrupted by the rival House of Wittelsbach.

History

The Luxembourg line was initially a cadet branch of the ducal House of LimburgArlon, when in 1247 Henry, younger son of Duke Waleran III of Limburg inherited the County of Luxembourg upon the death of his mother Countess Ermesinde, a scion of the House of Namur. Her father, Count Henry IV of Luxembourg, was related on his mother's side to the Ardennes-Verdun dynasty (also called the elder House of Luxembourg), which had ruled the county since the late 10th century.

Holy Roman Empire under Charles IV
  Habsburg
  Luxembourg
  Wittelsbach

Count Henry V's grandson Henry VII, Count of Luxembourg upon the death of his father Henry VI at the 1288 Battle of Worringen, was elected Rex Romanorum in 1308. The election was necessary after the Habsburg king Albert I of Germany had been murdered, and Henry, backed by his brother Archbishop-Elector Baldwin of Trier, prevailed against Charles, Count of Valois. Henry arranged the marriage of his son John with the Přemyslid heiress Elisabeth of Bohemia in 1310, through whom the House of Luxembourg acquired the Kingdom of Bohemia, enabling that family to compete more effectively for power with the Habsburg and Wittelsbach dynasties. One year after being crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, Henry VII, still on campaign in Italy, died in 1313.

The prince-electors, perturbed by the rise of the Luxembourgs, disregarded the claims raised by Henry's heir King John, and the rule over the Empire was assumed by the Wittelsbach duke Louis of Bavaria. John instead concentrated on securing his rule in Bohemia and gradually vassalized the Piast dukes of adjacent Silesia from 1327 until 1335. His son Charles IV, in 1346 mounted the Imperial throne. His Golden Bull of 1356 served as a constitution of the Empire for centuries. Charles not only acquired the duchies of Brabant and Limburg in the west, but also the former March of Lusatia and even the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1373 under the Kingdom of Bohemia.

The family's decline began under Charles' son King Wenceslaus, deposed by the prince-electors in 1400 who chose the Wittelsbach Elector Palatine Rupert. In 1410 rule was assumed by Wenceslaus' brother Sigismund, who once again stabilized the rule of the Luxembourgs and even contributed to end the Western Schism in 1417; however, with his death in 1437, the senior branch of the dynasty became extinct. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Habsburg archduke Albert V of Austria. The Habsburgs finally prevailed as Luxembourg heirs, ruling the Empire until their extinction upon the death of Maria Theresa in 1780.

Notable members

Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia

According to the Salic law, the succession could have been disputed, in which case it would have passed collaterally to the cadet branch of Ligny. That branch descended from a younger son of Henry V, and was headed by Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, before he was executed for treason by Louis XI of France.[3]

Genealogy

House of Limburg–Arlon

 

Waleran I
(† 1082)
Count of Limburg

Henry I
(1059 † 1119)
Count of Limburg

Waleran II
(1085 † 1139)
Duke of Limburg

Henry II
(1111 † 1167)
Duke of Limburg

Henry III
(1140 † 1221)

Duke of Limburg

Waleran III
(1180 † 1226)

Duke of Limburg



Henry IV
(† 1247)

Duke of Limburg and Count of Berg


Waleran
(† 1242)

Lord of Fauquemont

Henry V
(1217 † 1281)

Count of Luxembourg


Gerard
(† 1276)

Count of Durbuy



Adolf IV
(1220 † 1259)

Count of Berg

Waleran IV
(† 1279)

Duke of Limburg

Henry VI
(1250 † 1288)

Count of Luxembourg

Waleran I
(1252 † 1288)

Lord of Ligny


Adolf V
(† 1296)

Count of Berg

William I
(† 1308)

Count of Berg

Henry of Windeck
(† 1292)





Ermengarde
(† 1283)

x Reginald I of Guelders

Henry VII
(1275 † 1313)

Holy Roman Emperor

Waleran II
(1275 † 1354)

Lord of Ligny
Adolf VI
(† 1348)

Count of Berg
John the Blind
(1296 † 1346)

King of Bohemia
John I
(1300 † 1364)

Lord of Ligny


Charles IV
(1316 † 1378)

Holy Roman Emperor
King of Bohemia

John Henry
(1322 † 1372)

Margrave
of Moravia

Wenceslaus I
(1337 † 1383)

Duke of
Luxembourg

Guy
(1340 † 1371)

Count of Ligny
Count of Saint-Pol



Wenceslaus IV
(1361 † 1419)

King of the Romans
King of Bohemia

Sigismund
(1368 † 1437)

Holy Roman Emperor
King of Bohemia and Hungary

John
(1370 † 1396)

Duke of Görlitz




Jobst
(1351 † 1411)

margrave
of Moravia and
Brandenburg

Waleran III
(1356 † 1415)

Count of Ligny
and of Saint-Pol

John
(1370 † 1397)

Lord of Beauvoir
Count of Brienne




Elizabeth of Luxembourg
(1409 † 1442)
X Albert II of Habsburg

Elisabeth
(1390 † 1453)

Duchess of Luxembourg, sold duchy to the Dukes of Burgundy


Peter
(1390 † 1433)

Count of Saint-Pol




John II
(1392 † 1441)

Count of Ligny


Louis
(1418 † 1475)

Count of Saint-Pol



Peter II
(† 1482)

Count of Saint-Pol


Thibaud
(† 1477)

Lord of Fiennes, Count of Brienne, Bishop of Le Mans


Jacques
(† 1487)

Lord of Fiennes and Gavre

Early Luxembourg counts

The first instance of the house of Luxembourg seems to be:

 
Cunigunda of Montjoie

Waleran III
Duke of Limburg
│ │
Ermesinde
Countess of Luxembourg



Henry IV
Duke of Limburg and Count of Berg


Waleran
Lord of Fauquemont

Henry V
Count of Luxembourg


Gerard
Count of Durbuy



Adolphe IV
Count of Berg

Waleran IV
Duke of Limburg

Henry VI
Count of Luxembourg

Waleran I
Lord of Ligny

Ancestors

Two houses descended from the women of the counts of Luxembourg, the Counts of Loon and the Counts of Grandpré, wear a shield barry. Both families had a place in relation to the succession of the House of Ardennes. Indeed, the Count of Grandpré was the next heir of Conrad II of Luxembourg, the last representative of the Ardennes dynasty, but Emperor Frederick Barbarossa preferred that Luxembourg was held by a lord Germanic rather than French and attributed the county to Henry, son of Conrad's aunt Ermesinde and Count Godfrey I of Namur. The Counts of Loon are also in position to claim the inheritance Luxembourg, albeit weaker position:

 
Conrad I
(1040 † 1086)
Count of Luxembourg


Henry III
(† 1086)
Count of Luxembourg

William
(1081 † 1131)
Count of Luxembourg
X 1105 Matilda of Northeim

Ermesinde
(1075 † 1143)
X 1) Albert II, Count of Dagsburg
X 2) Godfrey I, Count of Namur



Conrad II
(† 1136)
Count of Luxembourg
s.p.

Liutgarde
(1120 † 1170)
X Henri II
(1125 † 1211)
Counts of Grandpré

Hugh VII1
(† 1137)
Count of Dagsburg

three children
died without issue

Mathilde1
X Folmar V
(† 1145)
Count of Metz

Henri IV²
(1112 † 1196)
Count of Namur and of Luxembourg

Ermesinde
(1186 † 1247)
X 1) Theobald I, Count of Bar
X 2) Waleran III, Duke of Limburg

Henry V
(1216 † 1284)
Count of Luxembourg


two sons
died without issue

Agnès
X Louis I, Count of Loon|Louis I
(1110 † 1171)
Counts of Loon

 
 
 
 

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luxemburg dynasty.
  1. http://racineshistoire.free.fr/LGN/PDF/Luxembourg-Saint-Pol.pdf
  2. "Sigismund (Holy Roman emperor) - Encyclopedia Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  3. Cave, Roy; Coulson, Herbert (1965). A Source Book for Medieval Economic History. New York: Biblo and Tannen. p. 336.
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