Adolf of Nassau | |
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Portrait by Arnold Montanus, 1662
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King of Germany (formally King of the Romans) |
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Reign | 5 May 1292 – 23 June 1298 |
Coronation | 24 June 1292 Aachen Cathedral |
Predecessor | Rudolf I |
Successor | Albert I |
Count of Nassau | |
Reign | ca. 1276 – 2 July 1298 |
Predecessor | Walram II |
Successors | Robert VI |
Born | 1255 |
Died | 2 July 1298 (aged 43) Göllheim |
Burial | 29 August 1309 Speyer Cathedral |
Queen | Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg |
Royal House | House of Nassau |
Father | Walram II, Count of Nassau |
Mother | Adelheid of Katzenelnbogen |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
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Adolf (c. 1255 – 2 July 1298) was Count of Nassau from about 1276 and elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1292 until his deposition by the prince-electors in 1298. He was never crowned by the Pope, which would have secured him the title of Holy Roman Emperor. He was the first physically and mentally healthy ruler of the Holy Roman Empire ever to be deposed without a papal excommunication. Adolf died shortly afterwards in the Battle of Göllheim fighting against his successor Albert of Habsburg.
He was the second in the succession of so-called count-kings of several rivalling comital houses striving after the Roman-German royal dignity.
Adolf was the reigning count of a small German state. He was born about 1255 and was the son of Walram II, Count of Nassau and Adelheid of Katzenelnbogen. Adolf’s brother was Dieter of Nassau , who was appointed Archbishop of Trier in 1300.
Adolf was married in 1270 to Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg (died after 1313) and they had eight children. Agnes of Isenburg-Limburg, the sister of Imagina, was married to Henry (Heinrich) of Westerburg, the brother of Siegfried II of Westerburg, the Archbishop of Cologne.
In 1276 or 1277, Adolf followed his father as Count of Nassau. From his father, he inherited the family’s lands south of the Lahn River in the Taunus Mountains. These included Wiesbaden and Idstein, as fiefdoms, and the Vogtship in Weilburg under the Bishopric of Worms. He also shared ownership of the family homelands around the castles of Nassau and Laurenburg.