Luxembourg

In 963 Siegfried, a count of the Ardennes, acquired a rocky spur above the river Alzette on which an old fortified site known as Lucilinburhuc, the 'little fortress', already stood. On this promontory, the Bock, he built a castle that became the seed of a town, a county and ultimately a nation; the name of the stronghold passed to the realm itself. The site was no accident of sentiment but of strategy, for it overlooked the routes linking western and central Europe, and whoever held the rock could command the country around it.

Siegfried's successors styled themselves counts of Luxembourg and slowly enlarged their lands across the watershed of the Moselle and the Meuse. The settlement that gathered beneath the castle was given stone ramparts around the middle of the twelfth century, and as the count's house rose in standing, so did the importance of the fortress at its centre. By the late thirteenth century the counts of Luxembourg were among the more ambitious princes of the Low Countries and the western Empire, marrying into great families and reaching for crowns beyond their own modest domain.

That ambition was rewarded in 1308, when the count Henry, head of the House of Luxembourg, was elected King of the Romans, and four years later crowned Holy Roman Emperor as Henry VII. A house that had begun with a single rock on the Alzette now sat at the summit of the medieval European order, the first of several Luxembourg princes who would wear the imperial crown.

Turning points

1. 963Formation

   Siegfried acquires Lucilinburhuc

   Count Siegfried of the Ardennes obtained the rocky promontory of Lucilinburhuc above the Alzette and built a castle on the Bock, the founding act of the city, the country and the nation.

   [1] [2]

2. c. 1150Formation

   The town is walled

   The settlement gathered beneath Siegfried's castle was enclosed with stone ramparts around the middle of the twelfth century, beginning its long evolution into a fortified city.

   [2] [1]

3. 1308Politics & Power

   Henry of Luxembourg elected King of the Romans

   Count Henry, head of the House of Luxembourg, was elected King of the Romans, opening the dynasty's rise to the imperial throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

   [3] [2]

Figures of the era

The fourteenth century was the golden age of the House of Luxembourg. Henry VII's son John, count of Luxembourg from 1313 and king of Bohemia from 1310, became a celebrated knight-errant of his age. Blinded in later life, he fought on regardless, and his death at the Battle of Crecy on 26 August 1346, charging into the English lines on the side of France, made him an enduring national hero of Luxembourg. The wings and motto associated with him are traditionally said to have been adopted by the English Prince of Wales after the battle.

John's son Charles, raised at the French court, became the most powerful of the Luxembourg emperors. As Charles IV he was king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Golden Bull of 1356 that fixed the procedure for electing the emperor, and made Prague a great imperial capital. In 1354 he raised the County of Luxembourg to the rank of a duchy, entrusting it to his half-brother Wenceslaus as its first duke; the duchy reached its widest extent in these years. The last emperor of the line was Sigismund, king of Hungary and Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, who died in 1437 as the last male of the House of Luxembourg.

Dynastic glory abroad did not secure the homeland. Pawned and disputed among heirs, the duchy slipped from the family's grasp. In 1443 Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, seized Luxembourg, and the duchy passed into the vast Burgundian inheritance. The rock that had launched emperors now became a frontier fortress of a foreign power, the first of many to whom Luxembourg would belong over the centuries that followed.

Turning points

1. 1310Politics & Power

   John the Blind becomes King of Bohemia

   John of Luxembourg, son of Henry VII, became king of Bohemia in 1310 and count of Luxembourg in 1313, a renowned warrior-prince later celebrated as a national hero of Luxembourg.

   [3] [2]

2. 26 Aug 1346War & Rupture

   Death of John the Blind at Crecy

   Blind in his final years, John of Luxembourg insisted on joining the fighting and was killed at the Battle of Crecy on the side of France, becoming an emblematic figure of Luxembourg's chivalric past.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [3]

3. 1354Politics & Power

   Luxembourg raised to a duchy

   Emperor Charles IV of the House of Luxembourg elevated the County of Luxembourg to the rank of a duchy, entrusting it to his half-brother Wenceslaus as its first duke.

   [2] [3]

4. 1443War & Rupture

   Burgundy seizes Luxembourg

   Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, took Luxembourg in 1443, ending the rule of the House of Luxembourg and absorbing the duchy into the Burgundian dominions.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [1]

Figures of the era

After 1443 Luxembourg ceased to be the heart of a dynasty and became a coveted strongpoint on the shifting frontier between France and the Habsburg lands. With the Burgundian inheritance it passed to the Habsburgs and then, in the sixteenth century, to the Spanish branch of the family, who turned the city into one of the most heavily fortified places in Europe. The strength of its ramparts, rising sheer above the deep gorges of the Alzette and the Petrusse, earned it the nickname of the 'Gibraltar of the North'.

Its strength made it a prize, and a prize meant war. During the Franco-Spanish conflict that ran from 1635 to 1659, France pressed against the southern marches of the duchy. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed on 7 November 1659 between Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain, ended that war and inflicted the first partition of Luxembourg: France annexed a band of the duchy's territory, including the fortresses of Thionville, Montmedy and Stenay, lopping off roughly a tenth of the old duchy's lands. It was the first of the territorial amputations that would shrink Luxembourg over the following two centuries.

War did not stop there. In 1684 the armies of Louis XIV took the city itself, and the great military engineer Vauban redesigned its defences before it was returned to Spain. The duchy passed to the Austrian Habsburgs in the eighteenth century, then fell to revolutionary France, which finally captured the fortress in 1795 after a long blockade and annexed Luxembourg into the French Republic. Through all these changes of master, the rock and its ever-expanding works of stone remained the one constant: a fortress that no neighbour could safely ignore.

Turning points

1. 7 Nov 1659War & Rupture

   Treaty of the Pyrenees: the First Partition

   The peace between France and Spain ceded a southern band of the duchy, including Thionville, Montmedy and Stenay, to Louis XIV's France, the first partition of Luxembourg's territory.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [2]

2. 1684War & Rupture

   Louis XIV takes the fortress; Vauban rebuilds it

   French forces captured Luxembourg City in 1684, and the engineer Vauban remodelled its fortifications before the stronghold was later returned to Spanish rule.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [1]

3. 1697Politics & Power

   Return to the Habsburgs

   Luxembourg reverted to Habsburg rule, passing in the eighteenth century from the Spanish to the Austrian branch of the dynasty while remaining a frontier fortress.

   [2]

4. 1795War & Rupture

   Revolutionary France captures the fortress

   After a long blockade, French Revolutionary forces took the fortress in 1795 and Luxembourg was annexed to the French Republic, ending the era of Habsburg rule.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [2]

Figures of the era

The fall of Napoleon brought a wholly new status. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the powers raised Luxembourg to a Grand Duchy and gave it, in perpetuity, to William I, King of the Netherlands and Prince of Orange-Nassau, in personal union with his kingdom. At the same time the Grand Duchy was made a member of the German Confederation, and its great fortress was garrisoned by Prussian troops. The same settlement carried a further amputation, often counted as the second partition: a large eastern slice of the old duchy, with its territory and population, was transferred to Prussia.

A heavier loss followed. The Belgian Revolution of 1830 detached the southern provinces of the Netherlands, and most of Luxembourg's people joined the revolt. After years of dispute the Treaty of London of 1839 settled the matter by partitioning the Grand Duchy a third time: the larger, French-speaking western part was ceded to the new kingdom of Belgium, becoming the Belgian province of Luxembourg, while the smaller, German-speaking remainder, roughly the present country, kept the name of Grand Duchy and a confirmed, if much reduced, independence under the Dutch king. In 1842 the truncated state joined the German customs union, the Zollverein, knitting its economy to that of the German lands.

The final crisis came in 1867. The French emperor Napoleon III sought to buy the Grand Duchy from the Dutch king; Prussia, under Bismarck, objected, and the Luxembourg Crisis brought the two powers to the edge of war. The Treaty of London, signed on 11 May 1867, defused it: the great powers guaranteed Luxembourg's perpetual neutrality, the Prussian garrison was withdrawn, and the fortress, the 'Gibraltar of the North', was condemned to be dismantled. Its demolition took until 1883. The personal union with the Netherlands itself ended in 1890: when William III died leaving only a daughter, the Dutch crown passed to Wilhelmina while Luxembourg, governed by male-line succession under the Nassau family pact, passed to Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg, who took his oath on 9 December 1890 as head of a national dynasty independent of the Dutch throne.

Turning points

1. 1815Politics & Power

   Congress of Vienna creates the Grand Duchy

   Luxembourg was raised to a Grand Duchy under William I of the Netherlands in personal union, placed within the German Confederation with a Prussian garrison, and lost an eastern slice to Prussia in a second partition.

   [3]

2. 1839Politics & Power

   Treaty of London: the cession to Belgium

   The 1839 Treaty of London partitioned the Grand Duchy a third time, ceding its larger French-speaking western half to the new kingdom of Belgium while confirming the independence of the German-speaking remainder.

   [3] [2]

3. 1842Economy & Trade

   Entry into the Zollverein

   The reduced Grand Duchy joined the German customs union in 1842, binding its economy closely to the neighbouring German territories for the rest of the century.

   ↗See the data

   [6]

4. 11 May 1867Politics & Power

   Treaty of London: neutrality and the razing of the fortress

   After the Luxembourg Crisis between France and Prussia, the powers guaranteed the Grand Duchy's perpetual neutrality, withdrew the Prussian garrison and ordered the fortress dismantled, a demolition completed in 1883.

   [3] [2]

5. 9 Dec 1890Independence

   Separation of the crown from the Netherlands

   On the death of William III the personal union ended; the Dutch crown passed to Wilhelmina while Luxembourg, under male-line succession, passed to Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg, founding a national dynasty.

   ↗See the data

   [3]

Figures of the era

Neutrality guaranteed by treaty proved no shield against a great power at war. On 2 August 1914 German columns crossed the frontier and occupied the Grand Duchy, brushing aside its protest and its tiny volunteer company, because Luxembourg's railways were a vital artery for the German advance on France. The occupation lasted until November 1918. The reigning Grand Duchess, Marie-Adelaide, was widely criticised for being too accommodating toward the occupier, and amid the political turmoil at the war's end she abdicated in January 1919 in favour of her sister Charlotte, who would reign until 1964.

The second German occupation was far more brutal. On 10 May 1940 the Wehrmacht again overran the neutral Grand Duchy; the government and Grand Duchess Charlotte escaped into exile, from where Charlotte became a rallying symbol of the nation, broadcasting to her people over the BBC. Luxembourg was placed under a German civil administration bent on its complete absorption into the Reich, its language, institutions and symbols suppressed in a programme of forced Germanisation. In August 1942 the occupier declared Luxembourgers to be German citizens and introduced conscription into the Wehrmacht.

The reaction was immediate and historic. From 31 August 1942 a general strike spread across the country in protest at conscription, the first general strike held in Nazi-occupied territory. The Germans answered with martial law and summary executions, shooting twenty-one strikers and deporting many others, but tens of thousands of young men evaded or deserted the German army. Liberation came with the Allied advance in September 1944, though the north of the country was overrun again that winter when the Ardennes offensive, the Battle of the Bulge launched on 16 December 1944, swept through it; the region had to be liberated a second time before the war ended in 1945.

Turning points

1. 2 Aug 1914War & Rupture

   German invasion in the First World War

   German forces occupied neutral Luxembourg on 2 August 1914 to control its railways for the advance on France, holding the country until November 1918 despite its formal protest.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [6]

2. Jan 1919Politics & Power

   Abdication of Marie-Adelaide

   Criticised for her conduct under the German occupation, Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide abdicated in January 1919 in favour of her sister Charlotte, who reigned until 1964.

   [5] [3]

3. 10 May 1940War & Rupture

   Second German invasion and annexation

   The Wehrmacht overran Luxembourg on 10 May 1940; the government and Grand Duchess fled into exile, and the territory was placed under a German civil administration aimed at its full integration into the Reich.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [8]

4. 31 Aug 1942War & Rupture

   Conscription and the general strike

   When the occupier imposed German citizenship and Wehrmacht conscription in August 1942, a general strike spread from 31 August, the first in Nazi-occupied Europe; the Germans declared martial law and executed twenty-one strikers.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [7]

5. 16 Dec 1944War & Rupture

   Liberation and the Battle of the Bulge

   Allied forces liberated Luxembourg in September 1944, but the German Ardennes offensive launched on 16 December 1944 overran the north of the country, which had to be liberated a second time before war's end.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [8]

Figures of the era

The experience of two invasions ended Luxembourg's faith in neutrality. Even before the war was over, the exiled governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed a customs convention in London on 5 September 1944, the foundation of the Benelux that would come into force in 1948 and be deepened by the Benelux Economic Union treaty of 1958. In 1948 Luxembourg formally renounced the perpetual neutrality imposed in 1867, and in 1949 it became one of the twelve founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, signing the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on 4 April.

Luxembourg threw itself into the building of a united Europe. When the French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed, on 9 May 1950, to pool the coal and steel of western Europe, Luxembourg was among the six founding members of the resulting European Coal and Steel Community, established by the Treaty of Paris and operating from 1952. It went on to be a founder of the European Economic Community under the Treaties of Rome, joining what is now the European Union from 1 January 1958, and adopting the euro in 1999. The small state that had been partitioned away to almost nothing now sat as an equal among Europe's nations.

Its capital became a working capital of Europe. The Court of Justice of the European Union has sat in Luxembourg City since 1952, joined there by the European Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank and other bodies, so that Luxembourg City stands today, alongside Brussels and Strasbourg, as one of the three official seats of the European institutions. It was on the Luxembourg Moselle, in the village of Schengen, that five states signed on 14 June 1985 the agreement abolishing their internal border controls, lending a Luxembourg place-name to the borderless travel area now used across much of Europe.

Turning points

1. 5 Sep 1944Economy & Trade

   The Benelux customs convention

   The exiled governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed a customs union in London on 5 September 1944, launching the Benelux that entered into force in 1948 and was deepened by the 1958 Economic Union.

   ↗See the data

   [11] [12] [13]

2. 4 Apr 1949Politics & Power

   Founding member of NATO

   Having renounced its enforced neutrality, Luxembourg was one of the twelve states that signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on 4 April 1949, founding the Atlantic alliance.

   [10] [13]

3. 1951Politics & Power

   Founding member of the ECSC

   Following the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, Luxembourg joined Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and West Germany as a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community, operating from 1952.

   [16] [17]

4. 1 Jan 1958Politics & Power

   Founding member of the European Communities

   Under the Treaties of Rome, Luxembourg became a founding member of the European Economic Community, joining what is now the European Union from 1 January 1958 and later adopting the euro.

   [15] [17]

5. 14 Jun 1985Politics & Power

   The Schengen Agreement

   On 14 June 1985 five states signed, at the village of Schengen on the Luxembourg Moselle, the agreement abolishing internal border controls that gave a Luxembourg name to Europe's borderless travel area.

   [14] [15]

Figures of the era