Adolf was born in 1362[1][2][3][note 3] as the eldest son of Count John I of Nassau-Siegen and Countess Margaret of the Mark [nl].

In addition, Adolf was to receive the dowers belonging to his grandmother Adelaide of Vianden (the Herbermark and the parish of Haiger), as well as half of castle, city and district of Löhnberg, but only until he came into full possession of the Nassau-Hadamar inheritance.

If Gerhard were to die without leaving any sons, his daughter's marriage to Adolf would be consummated immediately and the entire County of Diez would pass to him.

[2][3] The beginning of his reign was very unsettled: it fell at the time of a great devastating feud, which was led by the cities of the Rhenish Confederation and their allies, especially Count Rupert the Bellicose of Nassau-Sonnenberg, against the nobility on the Rhine and in the Wetterau and their allies, to whom Adolf's father-in-law Gerhard belonged, under the name of the Hattsteinischen Krieg (Hattstein War).

[8] Likewise, they promised each other, out of conviction of mutual advantages, not to inflict any violent advances on each other, and to allow the preferences of one and the other to apply, which had been established by older decrees.

Adolf hereby tacitly renounced his right to the part of Nassau-Hadamar and the districts of Herborn, Haiger and Löhnberg, which he could have claimed in advance from the marriage contract with the heiress of the County of Diez.

[1][note 6] Shortly before his death, in 1420, Adolf transferred Altweilnau [de], Wehrheim and Rosbach to Walter and Frank von Kronberg for 4300 guilders, or rather only renewed an older pledge.

[13] Adolf remarried in 1402[2][3] to Kunigunde of Isenburg-Limburg (d. 15 March 1403[2][3][5]), daughter of John II of Isenburg, Lord of Limburg and Countess Hildegard of Saarwerden.