The southern and western borders were formed by the Main and the Rhine, while in the northern part of the territory, the Lahn river separated the two mountain ranges.

Up to the 18th century, the three main lines were the small princedoms of Nassau-Usingen, Nassau-Weilburg, and Nassau-Dietz (later Orange-Nassau), with large, scattered territories in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium.

From 1736, many treaties and agreements were made between the different lines (The Nassau Family Pact), which prevented further splitting of territories and enabled general political co-ordination between the branches.

Even before the actual Imperial Recess, in September and October 1802, both principalities deployed troops in the territories of Cologne and Mainz that they had received.

It was heavily influenced by Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, who originally came from Nassau and had substantial holdings there.

At the foundation of the Duchy, Minister von Bieberstein established a strong fiscal distinction between the treasury of the general domain and that of the regional taxes.

The domain, which included court estates and land, and mineral water springs, as well as the tithe and other feudal dues was the property of the Ducal House, which could not be used for paying state expenses and which Parliament had no power over.

The parliamentary president Carl Friedrich Emil von Ibell in particular complained about this in letters to Bieberstein and petitions to the Duke, with ever greater frequency.

In 1831, the government prevented the submission of petitions to the Duke on the subject and held a joint manoeuvre in Rheingau with Austrian troops from the fortress in Mainz.

The president of the chamber Georg Herber was the main figure on the side of the deputies, especially in a polemical piece published in the Hanauer Zeitung on 21 October 1831.

Herber's lawyer, August Hergenhahn [de], later the revolutionary Chief Minister of Nassau, attempted to get him a reduced sentence, but he was prevented.

Adolphe moved his residence to the Wiesbaden City Palace in 1841 and in January 1845, he married the Russian Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna, who died in childbirth a year later.

In 1847, Parliament drafted laws on press freedom and damage to the land by animals, in response to complaints from the rural population about the consequences of Ducal hunts.

There was a clear conflict in this action, which would shape the subsequent development of events: while the circle around Hergenhahn hoped to receive confirmation of their demands by the acclamation of the people, they were mainly peasants, armed with scythes, cudgels, and axes, seeking the abolition of old Feudal impositions and an easing of forest and hunting laws.

In Wiesbaden, a central safety committee for the whole of Nassau under the leadership of Augustus Hergenhahn was established and came to enjoy a level of authority throughout the Duchy.

From the end of March, the Bishop of Limburg, Peter Joseph Blum [de], began to encourage Catholic societies in rural areas.

On 4 April, a radical liberal pamphlet was distributed in Wiesbaden, announcing the "Committee of the Republican Society" as the first party that stood against the Catholic political agitation.

In the morning, the Liberals called for a public assembly to take place at 1 pm, at which the electoral college would be chosen for which they had already prepared a list of candidates.

Only with difficulty did the Wiesbaden electoral committee (as representatives of the moderate liberals, the Catholic church and its societies, and the various ideological newspapers) find candidates for the six vacancies.

In parallel with the Parliament, the landscape of political societies and publications also began to develop a firmer ideological divide and became increasingly active.

The Freie Zeitung became the mouthpiece of the left wing of the National assembly over the course of the summer and frequently criticised the governments of Prussia and Nassau.

Except for the Freie Zeitung and the Allgemeine all papers ceased publishing in the second half of the year, because sales rapidly dropped and the Ducal government began to suppress the press.

On 3 December 1849, the Ducal government oversaw elections for this body in the four Nassau districts, using Prussian three-class franchise Although the political movements had passed their peak, there was even so an electoral campaign for the positions.

Constitutionalists, the government and the Nassauische Allgemeine all sought a high voter turnout in the hope that this would add legitimacy to the Prussian plans for a monarchist Germany.

The largest assembly, with around 500 participants, took place on 10 June in Idstein and formulated ten demands, including the withdrawal of Nassau troops from Baden, Schleswig-Holstein, and the Palatinate, where they were stationed as representatives of the German Federation to prevent revolutionary movements.

On 31 January, the electoral colleges chose Carl Wirth, a local official in Selters, Max von Gagern, August Hergenhahn and the Duke's brother-in-law Hermann, Prince of Wied as Nassau's deputies to the Erfurt Parliament.

In 1841 the site was put up for sale and the government made plans to turn the abbey into the first state-run home for the elderly and poor in Nassau.

A small part of the Duchy of Nassau fell within the French occupation zone and became the administrative region of Montabaur in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

[6] In foreign affairs, the Duchy's geographic location and economic weakness greatly limited its room to manoeuvre – in the Napoleonic period, it had no autonomy at all.

After some initial problems at lower levels, they were tolerated by the government of the Duchy and even tacitly supported, because they had received enthusiastic commendation by doctors.