Countess Clotilde of Merenberg
Clotilde Gräfin von Merenberg is a German psychiatrist and the last patrilineal descendant of the House of Nassau. She is a descendant of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Family
A psychiatrist, Clotilde is the only child of Count George von Merenberg and Elisabeth Müller-Uri. She is the last patrilineal descendant of the House of Nassau, the male line of which ruled the Duchy of Nassau until 1866, provided a 12th-century German king, a line of Princes of Orange who served first as stadholders of the United Dutch Provinces and, from 1815 to 1948, as kings of the Netherlands, and reigned as grand dukes of Luxembourg until 1968. Neither she, however, nor her father or paternal grandfather were deemed full members of the Nassau dynasty, the last member of which, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, died in 1985. While Countess Clothilde's branch of the family had legitimate male members until 1965, they had been bypassed for Luxembourg's throne since 1907.The Counts von Merenberg descend legitimately from the morganatic marriage in 1868 of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, a daughter of the renowned poet Alexander Pushkin, who was an untitled member of the lower Russian nobility. Although their son Count George von Merenberg married Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yurievskaya, 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 grand duchy dismissed the Merenbergs' claim to the throne.
Prince Nikolaus was a great-grandson of Charles Christian, 3rd Prince of Nassau-Weilburg, who in 1760 married Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, a daughter of the Dutch stadholder William IV, Prince of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain. Countess Clotilde is also a great-granddaughter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II.
Marriage and children
In 1965, she married Enno von Rintelen, a gynecologist, son of Junker Emil Viktor von Rintelen and Antonie Bracht. He was a grandson of Wilhelm von Rintelen, a prussian Lieutenant general ennobled in 1913 by German Emperor Wilhelm II.Clotilde and Enno have three sons:
- Alexander Enno von Rintelen.
- Georg Nicolaus von Rintelen He married on 30 June 2007 Olivia Minninger, daughter of Günther Minninger and Monika Kleineberg. They have two sons:
- * Julian Dominic Nicolaus von Rintelen
- * Nicolai Philip Leonid von Rintelen
- Gregor von Rintelen. He married in 2002 Christiane Mathilde zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda-Prill, daughter of Fiedebert zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda-Prill and Rosemarie Heihecker. They have a son and a daughter:
- * Frederick Enno Christian von Rintelen
- * Luise von Rintelen
Ancestry
- Drutwin
- Drutwin
- Drutwin, Count in Königssundergau
- Adelhart, Vogt in Haiger
- Rupert of Laurenburg
- Dudo of Laurenburg
- Rupert I, Count of Laurenburg
- Walram I, Count of Nassau
- Henry II, Count of Nassau
- Walram II, Count of Nassau
- Adolf of Nassau, King of Germany
- Gerlach I, Count of Nassau
- John I, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Philipp I, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Philip II, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- John III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Louis I, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Albert, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Louis II, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Ernest Casimir, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- Frederick, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
- John Ernst, 1st Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
- Charles August, 2nd Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
- Charles Christian, 3rd Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
- Frederick William, 4th Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
- William, Duke of Nassau
- Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau
- Count George of Merenberg
- Count George of Merenberg
- '''Countess Clotilde of Merenberg'''