MONARCHY

Kronenburg has been a constitutional monarchy since the 1883 constitution was approved. Until 1981 however, the king or queen actively chaired the government sessions, and it was only in that year that the king's political powers were reduced to their current range and that the office of prime minister was created. Although the king is still part of the executive at least officially, he has few political tasks, which are defined very detailedly. The family descends from king William I Frederick of Nassau-Dietz, who was the first king of Kronenburg, but it switched houses when queen Marianne married prince Ernest of Habsburg-Lorraine, who became a protestant. Kronenburg and (parts of) the Netherlands were reigned by the family in personal union until 1834, when king Willem IV was forced to abdicate in Kronenburg in favour of his third son August Lodewijk, who took the name Alexander I; it was Willem IV's third son who succeeded in Kronenburg, as his first eventually became king William II of the Netherlands, and his second, prince Frederick, refused the throne of Kronenburg.