Luxembourg
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Luxembourg is a country in Europe having borders with Belgium, France and Germany. Member state of the European Union.
The history of Luxembourg is considered to begin in the year 963, when Count Siegfried acquired a rocky promontory and its Roman-era fortifications, known as Lucilinburhuc, "little castle", and the surrounding area from the Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin in nearby Trier. Siegfried's descendants increased their territory through marriage, conquest, and vassalage. By the end of the 13th century, the counts of Luxembourg reigned over a considerable territory.
In 1308, Count of Luxembourg Henry VII became King of the Romans and later Holy Roman Emperor; the House of Luxembourg would produce four Holy Roman Emperors during the High Middle Ages. In 1354, Charles IV elevated the county to the Duchy of Luxembourg.
The duchy eventually became part of the Burgundian Circle and then one of the Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands.
Over the centuries, the City and Fortress of Luxembourg—of great strategic importance due to its location between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg territories—was gradually built up to be one of the most reputed fortifications in Europe.
After belonging to both the France of Louis XIV and the Austria of Maria Theresa, Luxembourg became part of the First French Republic and Empire under Napoleon.
The present-day state of Luxembourg first emerged at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Grand Duchy, with its powerful fortress, became an independent state under the personal possession of William I of the Netherlands with a Prussian garrison to guard the city against another invasion from France.
In 1839, following the turmoil of the Belgian Revolution, the purely French-speaking part of Luxembourg was ceded to Belgium and the Luxembourgish-speaking part (except the Arelerland, the area around Arlon) became what is the present state of Luxembourg.
