by Diane Moczar
Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide of Luxembourg, June 14, 1894 – January 24, 1924.
Of all the rulers of western European countries in the first quarter of the twentieth century, few are as unknown to British and American historians as Marie Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg during World War I. The small size of her realm alone does not explain history’s neglect; by all accounts Marie Adelaide was an extraordinary personality whose short and tragic life was spent amid revolutionary turmoil and the chaos of the Great War. She has been called both a failure and a saint, and there is evidence for both views.
What follows is a brief summary of the career of the Grand Duchess which I hope to develop more fully as documentary sources become available.1 Although short accounts of her reign are given in various general histories of Luxembourg, especially those in French, German, and Luxembourgeois, the only full length biography in any language appears to be Edith O’Shaughnessy’s Marie Adelaide—Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, Duchess of Nassau, published in 1932 and long out of print. Unfortunately this work contains almost no precise documentary references. The author, now deceased, often relied on apparently undocumented, sometimes anonymous eyewitness accounts of key events in the life of her heroine, and perhaps was herself a confidante of the grand duchess. To the enigma of Marie Adelaide is thus added the mystery of Edith O’Shaughnessy and her sources—a necessary further research project for the modern biographer.2
Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide of Luxembourg, 1914 Zurich
Marie Adelaide was born on June 14, 1894 and died on January 24, 1924, ruling Luxembourg from 1912 (when she came of age at eighteen) until her forced abdication in 1919. After her resignation she roamed Europe in a vain search for spiritual peace, unsuccessfully attempting convent life first with the Carmelites and then with the Little Sisters of the Poor before dying in exile, apparently of an illness contracted while working with the poor in Rome. On these few facts all sources agree, but not on much else.
No sooner had she come to the throne in a wave of popularity, the first sovereign in two centuries to be born on Luxembourg soil and a very beautiful and devout young woman, than her devotion to the Church and to her duties as a Catholic ruler landed her in bitter controversy. In a speech on her coronation day she had stated, “. . . I will be faithful to the noble motto of our ancient house: I will stand fast! [Je maintiendrai]”3
Grand Duchess Marie Anne of Luxembourg (Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal) with her six daughters.
In the mind of the Grand Duchess, “standing fast” meant promoting the common good of her subjects, including the defense of their Catholic faith, to the full extent of the powers accorded to the sovereign by the constitution of Luxembourg. She is said to have remarked of the Catholic Faith of her subjects, “I will not allow their most precious heritage to be stolen while I have the key.”4 It soon became clear to all, both from the words and actions of the Grand Duchess, that she took to heart the motto of St. Joan of Arc, “Dieu premier servi.”
