This time last year, Grand Duke Jean, father of Grand Duke Henri, was the centre of attention as European royalty gathered in the Grand Duchy to help celebrate his 95th birthday; he turns 96 today, 5 January 2017.
Just before Christmas, Grand Duke Jean was admitted to hospital suppering from bronchitis; yesterday, he was discarged and able to return home.
He was born at Colmar-Berg on 5 January 1921 to Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Félix of Luxembourg who was a descendant of Kings Louis IX and Louis XIV of France.
During the war and when the Grand Ducal family was in exile in Canada, he went to Britain with his father and joined the Irish Guards and completed his education at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was actually on guard duty at Buckingham Palace when his mother and sisters visited. On 11 June 1944, Prince Jean landed in Normandy as member of a reinforcement unit for the D-Day landings. Apart from a visit to liberated Luxembourg on 10 September 1944, he still had work to do; however, on 14 April 1945, he was in the country to greet his mother, Grand Duchess Charlotte, on her return from exile.
On 9 April 1953, HRH Prince Jean married HRH Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium at Luxembourg Cathedral. They had five children: Princess Marie-Astrid, Prince Henri, Prince Jean, Princess Margaretha and Prince Guillaume.
On 12 November 1964, Grand Duchess Charlotte abdicated and Jean, the Hereditary Grand Duke, became the eighth Luxembourg sovereign since the founding of the Grand Duchy in 1815. On 7 October 2000, Grand Duke Jean ended his reign, stepping down in favour of his son, Grand Duke Henri.
