1850 The King-Grand-Duke appoints his brother Henry Stadholder of Luxemburg.

1856 Revision of the Constitution.

1857 Railway Convention between the French Compagnie de l'Est and the Compagnie Guillaume-Luxembourg. 1867 Conference of London (May). Treaty between the signatory Powers (May 11). Luxemburg's connexion with the German Confederation dissolved; the Grand Duchy declared to be a neutral State under the collective guarantee of the Great Powers; the fortress of Luxemburg dismantled.

1868 Final revision of the Constitution. Council of State created. The French Compagnie de l'Est obtains control of all Luxemburg railways.

1871 Rights of the Compagnie de l'Est transferred to Prussia. 1890 William III dies without male heirs. The Grand Duchy passes to the next male agnate of the Nassau family, Adolphus, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg.

1902 Renewal of the Railway Convention between Prussia and Luxemburg.

1905 Adolphus dies and is succeeded by his son William. 1912 Death of William without male heirs. His daughter Marie Adelaide becomes Grand Duchess.

1914 Aug. 1, Violation of Luxemburg's neutrality and occupation of the Grand Duchy by the German army.

i. The Duchy of Luxemburg, 1354-1814 LUXEMBURG in the thirteenth century was one of the feudal States of the Netherlands, Pays-Bas or Low Countries, as that region of Europe was called, which lies around the lower courses and the mouths of the rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt. The duchy of Lower Lorraine, which in later Carolingian times had covered the greater part of this territory, had been gradually split up into a number of duchies, counties, and lordships, practically independent though owning a shadowy vassalage to the Empire. Over these the dukes of Brabant, who claimed to be the representatives of the dukes of Lower

1

Lorraine, had, after the battle of Woeringen 1 (1288), acquired a recognized supremacy. They had annexed the duchy of Limburg and forced the neighbouring States, including the county of Luxemburg, which was poor and thinly populated, to acknowledge their suzerainty. The position of Luxemburg was, however, considerably changed by the election of Count Henry IV (1308) to the imperial dignity as the Emperor Henry VII.

His grandson, the Emperor Charles IV, granted his Luxemburg dominions with the title of duke to his half-brother, Wenceslas, in 1354. This Wenceslas married Jeanne, the heiress of Brabant and Limburg; and thus in 1355, on the death of his father-in-law, the three duchies were united under the same rulers. It was on this occasion that the Estates of Brabant extorted from them the concession of the famous charter, known as the Joyeuse Entrée, guaranteeing their rights and liberties against arbitrary government. This marriage had no issue, so that Brabant and Luxemburg were again for a while separated. Wenceslas died in 1383; and Jeanne, by an Act dated September 28, 1390, bequeathed Brabant and Limburg to her niece, Margaret of Maele (in her own right Countess of Flanders), the wife of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with succession to Margaret's second son Anthony. On the death of the aged duchess in 1406, Anthony accordingly became Duke of Brabant and Limburg; and three years later, by his marriage with Elizabeth of Görlitz, the heiress of Luxemburg, the three duchies were once more united. Anthony was killed at Agincourt (1415), leaving no children. It was not till 1441 that his nephew, Philip the Good, who had in 1419 succeeded to the Burgundian inheritance,

1 In this battle John the Victorious, Duke of Brabant, slew Henry, Count of Luxemburg, in single combat.

and Limburg

was able, by purchase from the Duchess Elizabeth, to add Luxemburg to a dominion already extending over almost the whole of the Netherlands.

From this date onwards, Luxemburg ceases to have an independent history. The duchy became a province of the Burgundian territory in the Netherlands. The Burgundian dukes and their successors ruled this territory, as sovereigns, by a number of distinct titles; but they regarded it as a political entity, and it was their settled policy to strive, so far as local conditions permitted, to make it so. This was shown by the creation of a Council of State attached to the person of the prince and of a central court of justice, and by the summoning of the States-General, the first important meeting being that held at Brussels by Philip the Good (1465), to receive his son, Charles the Bold, as their future sovereign. In these meetings of the StatesGeneral, representatives of all the provinces sat as a visible symbol of their union under the common sovereign.

This union was not weakened but cemented by the loss of the French fiefs of the House of Burgundy on the death of Charles the Bold (1477), and by the marriage of his heiress with Maximilian of Austria. The inheritance which Mary of Burgundy transmitted to her Habsburg descendants was the sovereignty of the Netherlands; and both her son, Philip the Fair, and her grandson, the Emperor Charles V, were born and educated in the Netherlands. During the reign of Charles (1506-55), the Netherlands were treated as a practically autonomous State under the successive governorships of his aunt, Margaret (1507-30), and of his sister, Mary (1530-55). Of this State Luxemburg was an integral part. The proofs of this are indisputable. In the Treaty of Augsburg (1548), by which Charles regulated the relations of his Netherland do

minions to the Empire, he described himself as their sovereign under seventeen different titles. Among these the title 'Duke of Luxemburg' takes the third place. In this treaty the Netherlands, regarded as a political unity, formed the Burgundian Circle (Kreis Burgund), and were declared to be 'henceforth free and independent of the Emperor and Empire' except as regards contributions for mutual defence. The Augsburg treaty was in reality the final severance of the shadowy ties of vassalage between Luxemburg and her sister provinces, on the one hand, and the Empire on the other; for the contributions were never paid, nor was the obligation at any time pressed. It was from the first a dead letter.

At the important meeting of the States-General, summoned to Brussels for the occasion of Charles's abdication (October 26, 1555), the list of the seventeen provinces represented contains the duchy of Luxemburg third in order. Forty-three years later the States-General were again summoned to Brussels (August 27, 1598), to take the oath of allegiance to Albert and Isabel on their accession to the sovereignty by the deed of renunciation executed by Philip II on his death-bed. In the interval the Northern Provinces had revolted and formed themselves into an independent republic; nevertheless seventeen benches were placed in the hall as in 1555, but six remained empty. Of the eleven sets of delegates who took the oath, those of the four duchies, Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, and Gelderland, as usual, came first, the last-named being represented by one only of its four quarters. With this historic gathering begins the separate history of the Belgian, thenceforward known as the Spanish, Netherlands.

Charles II, the last sovereign in the male line of the Spanish Habsburgs, by his will dated October 2, 1700,

left his dominions to Philip, Duke of Anjou. In his bequest the King mentions Luxemburg as part of his possessions in the Netherlands. The words are:

à ses duchés de Brabant, de Limbourg, de Luxembourg, de Gueldres, à la Flandre et à toutes les autres provinces, états, domaines et seigneuries, qui lui appartenaient dans les PaysBas.'

The fortune of war transferred the sovereignty to the Austrian Habsburgs. By the Treaty of Utrecht (April 11, 1713), supplemented by the Treaties of Rastatt (September 7, 1714) and of Antwerp (November 15, 1714), the Emperor Charles VI entered into possession of

'les Pais-Bas communement appelez Espagnols tel que feu le Roy Catholique Charles II les a possédez ou dû posséder conformément au traité de Ryswick'; . 1

i. e. those territories specified in the clause of the will quoted above.

The Austrian' Netherlands after their conquest by the French revolutionary armies were, by the decree of October 1, 1795, incorporated in the French Republic and divided into nine departments. Luxemburg formed the Département des Forêts with parts of those of Ourthe and of Sambre-et-Meuse. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797 (Article III), and again by the Treaty of Lunéville, February 9, 1801 (Article II), this annexation was confirmed by the Austrian Government, Luxemburg having no special mention, but being treated as a constituent part of the 'Pays-Bas Autrichiens'.

ii. The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, 1814-30 During the period 1814 to 1839 the history of the gradual evolution of Luxemburg from the position of 1 Treaty of Utrecht, Art. VIII; of Rastatt, Art. XIX.