Through her mother, Marie was second-in-line to the Dutch throne after her nephew William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from 1900 to the birth of Princess Juliana in 1909.

Thus between 1890 and 1909 the heirs to the Dutch throne were first, Marie's mother Princess Sophie of the Netherlands and with her death in 1897 her grandson William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

[3] William Ernst however had stated repeatedly that he had no wish to inherit the throne if given the opportunity, as the Dutch constitution required that he would have to give up his title as Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

[3][4] Due to this fact, the heir to the Dutch throne would have become his aunt Marie followed by her eldest son Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz.

[6][7] By the time of these events Princess Marie was an elderly widow with ill-health, and thus there was speculation that she herself would also give up her claim to the Dutch throne in favor of her eldest son, who was in his mid-twenties.