Luxembourg, Explained

Luxembourg, Explained

Luxembourg city also known as Litzush, Luxmbborg, and Luxmbborg. With a population of 130,000, it is the capital and the largest city in the small European country, also called Luxembourg, and is only a half an hour drive from the neighboring countries of Belgium, France, and Germany. The city has an oceanic climate characterized by moderate rainfall throughout the year. Winters in Luxembourg city are generally cool, while summers are moderately warm. And while not the world’s top beach destination, the city is one of the richest and most influential cities on the planet. Luxembourg city is classified as an alpha level city among 48 other major world cities by the globalization on world cities research network thanks to the city’s position as a hot spot for banking, finance, and politics. And in 2024, Luxembourg, the country was ranked by the International Monetary Fund as having the highest GDP per capita in the world. Luxembourg city is also one of the most popular cities in the world for expats. The city’s population consists of 160 different nationalities with foreigners making up over 70% of the population. Luxembourg is also considered as one of the de facto capitals of the European Union along with Brussels, Frankfurt, and Strasburg as it is the seat of several different EU institutions, most notably the court of justice of the European Union. Additionally, the council of the European Union meets in the city for a period of 3 months every year. Being the country’s capital, Luxembourg city hosts the Luxembourg national football team at the stud, the Luxmbborg. The main football club in the city is Racing FC Union Luxembourg, who currently plays in the country’s highest league, which they have won 23 times if you include all the previous iterations of the club. Other clubs in the city are FC Luxembourg City and Aanir Becken, who both play in the second division of the Luxembburggish football pyramid. Famous Luxembourers include pianist and composer Francesco Tristano, film director and screenwriter Anne Fonten, painter Jean Baptiste Fcher, a saint and the patronist of Luxembourg, the Holy Roman Empress Kunigunda of Luxembourg, and of course Henry the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who will be abdicating the throne for his son Gueong later this year. I had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful city in the fall of 2023, and this will be the first part of a four-part series where we will be visiting interesting locations all around Western Europe. This video will be divided into two main parts. First, I will talk about the history of the city, after which I want to share my experience visiting it and exploring some of the interesting sites it has to offer. I’ll include timestamps so you can listen to the sections you’re most interested in. But as always, let’s start with the history of the city. Now, like with most things before the invention of writing, pinpointing exactly when the first humans arrived in the area we now call Luxembourg is extremely difficult. But the earliest evidence we have of human activity in the area dates back to around 35,000 years ago in the stone age with these decorated animal bones found at the nearby town of Otranch. On the other hand, the earliest evidence of settlements in Luxembourg go back to the linear pottery culture at around 5,000 BC. These people lived in small villages in houses made of wood and mud. They engaged in agriculture raising a mix of crops in small plots next to their houses and possibly even raised livestock to some extent. Evidence of these settlements has been found, for example, at Gman Maha. Aspelt and Vau. Not much is known about these people or what happened to them, but around the first millennium B.C. the area of modern-day Luxembourg began to be inhabited by Celtic tribes during the expansion of Celtic languages and/or people in Europe. Celtic Luxembourg, as it is now called, reached its peak around 300 BC with the tribe that settled the area being called the Travari by the Romans. The Travaria lived in settlements around modern day Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and France of which we found evidence mainly in the form of tombs at places like Ferlin, Goplanch, Matburgg, Valendorf, Castellstad, Utenhausen, Clemency and Titelbash. The last of which was probably the largest and almost certainly the capital of the Travari. The Travary had quite a cordial relationship with the Roman Republic, which by the end of the Punic Wars had become the biggest player in Europe and the Mediterranean. They traded with the Romans and even aligned their silver-based currency with the Roman daenarius. Now this ended pretty much how every other alliance with Rome ended when Julius the Salad Caesar decided that Golia should be GRA and invaded Gaul in 58 BC beginning the GIC wars. By 54 BC Caesar had made his way to northeastern Gaul worrying the anti-Roman party of aristocrats among the Travari. The leader of the anti-roman faction, Indutyomarus, began preparations for war against the Romans and evacuated civilians to the Ardan’s forest. According to Caesar, the Travaria at this time had the most powerful cavalry in Gaul, coupled with a very strong infantry. However, as the Romans got closer, more and more of Indoarus’ supporters bailed on the defense. And so, Indoarus was left with two options. Either fight the Romans on your own or surrender to Caesar. He chose the second option as he wasn’t in the mood for dying and hoped that Caesar would allow him to preserve his status in Traverarious society. As an offering for surrender, Indothemarus gave Caesar 200 hostages, including his own son and other close family members. However, instead of letting him stay in power, Caesar promoted Indoarus’ political rival and the pro- Roman king as the head of the Traveran chiefs. Understandably, Indoarus was a bit mad and what he did next might surprise you. He vowed to take revenge on Rome. Not surprising at all, actually. Why did Caesar decide to let a man who hated Rome, was capable of raising an army, and had recently lost everything, just go free? I don’t know, maybe hubris, or maybe he just thought it was funny. And as expected, Indotamarus immediately devised a plan to attack the Romans. The first thing he did was to convince the neighboring Eberonis to attack the Roman legion stationed in their lands. Now, this couldn’t have gone better for Indoamarus, as the Aboronus managed to trick the Romans to leave their camp, ambushing and wiping out the whole legion, including two of Caesar’s legads. Indotamarus then raised an army and began marching against the legion commanded by Caesar’s right-hand man, Titos Labenus. However, when he heard that Caesar had returned to northern Gaul, he immediately packed up and took his army back home. How is this dude nothing down to Caesar and he hasn’t even fought him yet? Indutiamarus then returned to the drawing board and spent the next few months raising another army and making allies of the surrounding Germanic and GIC tribes. By 53 BC he had gained enough prominence among the aristocrats to declare King Eder and enemy of the state and confiscate his property. He then took his army to war for the third time and marched on Labanus again. Inditium started to circle daily around the Roman camp with his cavalry in an attempt to intimidate the Romans. However, one night in the cover of darkness, Labenu snuck a large force of cavalry from local allied tribes into the camp. The Traveri, completely oblivious to this fact, thought that they still had the upper hand. So, the next day, Indomarus once again set about his daily routine of circling around the camp, trying to turn the Romans into battle. The Romans once again gave no response. So, by evening, the Travari broke their formation and started heading back to their own camp. This time, however, Labenus released all of his cavalry in a surprise attack, making Indutiamarus and the Travari flee in horror. And by this point, Labenus was so sick of this dude that he ordered his entire cavalry to specifically target Indomarus and offered a massive bonus to anyone who killed him. And considering Indutiamarus had already lost two battles against a combined zero opponents, he basically had no chance against a legion worth of cavalry men by himself. And so, Indutiamarus died, doing what he loved, retreating. Now, of course, this story comes to us from the commentaries on the GIC war written by Julius Caesar himself, so who knows how much of this is actually true. Regardless, Indutiamarus’ relatives took over the leadership of the Traver and launched another attack on Levianus, which they also lost. King Etics returned to the Travari leadership, and although many Travari continued to fight against the Romans with other GIC armies, the lands of the Travari among with the rest of Gaul was annexed by the Roman Republic by the end of the GIC wars around 50 BC. The Travari were more cooperative with the Romans than most other GIC tribes, making their assimilation in the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire relatively seamless. The lands of the Travari were fully integrated into the Roman Empire in 22 BC when Emperor Agustus created the province of Galia Belga. Another way Agugustus had a great impact on the Travari was the establishment of Agusta Trevorum or the modern-day city of Trier in Germany in 16 BC. Augusta Travorum eventually became the capital of the province, replacing Titelber as the new capital of the Travari. Another city in the lands of the Travari by the name of Orurolanum or the modernday Arlon in Belgium grew to prominence in the Roman Empire as well and a road was quickly constructed between the two. There was also another major road that passed through the Travarian lands between the cities of Dvadurum and Colonia and the two roads met at an easily defensible promontory where the Romans decided to build a fortified tower to guard them. The Romans borrowed the name of the tower from the old high German for little fortress or Lutil Borg which they turned into the more latinized Lucilin Buruk. And this is where the future city of Luxembourg would be located. Yes, all of this was just a setup for the city. Now, nothing significant is going to happen at the tower for the next like 900 years. But I’ll try to explain really quick what happened in between just so we have a basic understanding of the context that Lucilim Buruk found itself in. Okay, so the Travarian and the Romans continued to enjoy the relative peace of the Bak Romana for the next 100ish years until Emperor Comedus decided that he could be a pro alete too and then got strangled in a bathtub. Then Rome had a midlife crisis, got divorced, and the Western side went into a centurylong death spiral. The weak state of the Western Roman Empire didn’t go unnoticed by the quote unquote barbarians living on the empire’s borders, who immediately started invading the provinces on the empire’s periphery. The Vandals, Allens, and the Swaybe crossed the Rine in the year 406 and invaded Galia Belga, destroying much of it and putting an end to the Roman rule in the area. These lands eventually came under the rule of the Germanic Franks, who founded the Frankish Kingdom to fill in the power vacuum left by the Western Roman Empire. The Franks then went to work conquering as much territory as possible and in 300 years managed to become the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. In 774, the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, conquered the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, placing the former imperial capital and current religious capital of Rome within the Frankish sphere of influence. And in the year 800, Pope Leo III crunched Charlemagne as the new Roman emperor in the city. Now, this is despite the fact that the actual Roman Empire still existed over here. And as the Western Roman Empire had fallen, Empress Irene was in reality the only surviving Roman emperor. The Pope argued that since Irene was a woman, she couldn’t be a Roman emperor. However, this was probably done to gain political favor from Charlemagne more than anything else. Over the next 200 years, the fort would be passed down through the Frankish Empire successor kingdoms of Middle Francia and Lotharingia, eventually ending up in the hands of the Duchy of Lorraine, which became a state in yet another political union pretending to be the Roman Empire. However, this one would later also call itself Holy. Now the duche of Lorraine was home to an important noble family called the house of Arden and more importantly for our story one nobleman in particular Sief. Sief freed was the son of the founder of the house of Arden Wijerik of Laringia and his wife Kunigunda of Sulishkao who was a fifth generation descendant of Charlemagne. Unfortunately for Seeked however he also had several older brothers. So when his father died and his inheritance had to be split seek freed as was customary at the time got basically nothing. Ever ambitious, however, Sigfried set off to create his own noble dynasty. He first tried to acquire land in Bedau, which belonged to the Abbey of Stavalot. But the Abbott wasn’t too keen on having such a powerful orc right next door, and so refused to sell the land. Sigfried then had to divert his attention elsewhere. And as the Mosel River was under the influence of the church from the cities of Trier and Mets, Sigfried decided to settle on the fairly minor Alset River. And luckily for him on the river there just happened to be an easily defendable promontory close to the intersection of two old Roman roads which already had a fortified structure on it that could easily be turned into a small castle. The promontory was owned by the abbey of St. Maximan in Trier who traded it to Seedreed in 963 for land he had inherited from his late father near Ferlin and now as the count of a rock and a small tower freed began constructing a castle fit for a nobleman. The fortress quickly became a key military location, hosting knights and soldiers in the castle, while artisans and merchants began to settle the valley at the foot of the promontory. And soon a small town and a marketplace began to develop near the castle, with the castle becoming known as the upper city and the town beneath as the lower city. And in 987, the church of redemption was built on castle grounds on the spot where St. Michael’s Church stands today. As Luxembourg was in the Duchy of Lraine, which in turn was in the Roman Empire, this one not the real one. Sief Freed was a vassel of the Roman Emperor and thus had to provide him with soldiers including himself and Sief Freed seemed to have been a loyal servant of the emperor as the emperor later appointed him as the count of Mosula and Bitkow. During his long military career, he accompanied Emperor Otto the first on his third military expedition to Rome, supplied Otto II with troops to fight the Sarissens, and fought against West Francy on the side of the three-year-old Otto III following Otto II’s death, briefly getting captured and imprisoned in the process. He also had a rivalry with the church and the local bishops in the area, which is something he would pass down to his successors. He died presumably of natural causes at around the age of 76 in 998. Through his campaigns with the emperors, he had gained quite the fortune, becoming the first member of the house of Ardan Luxembourg with his son Henry taking the position of Count of Luxembourg after him. Additionally, shortly after seere’s death, one of his daughters, Kunigund, was married to the Duke of Bavaria. This Duke Henry II later became the Roman Emperor in 1014 in turn making Kunigunda the empress of the Roman Empire. Henry died 10 years later after which Kunigunda spent the rest of her life as a nun. Thanks to this she was later canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint and today Kunigund is commemorated as the patronist of Luxembourg. The Luxembourg castle which was variably called Lucil Buruk, Lutzburg, Lutzelborg, Lukembberg throughout the Middle Ages depending on the author passed down through seek for his descendants Henry the 1st, Henry II, Gizelbert and eventually being handed down to his great-grandson Conrad in 1059. Interestingly, Conrad was the first member of his family to officially style himself as a count of Luxembourg on his seal. Around 1075 he married a French noble woman from Aquitane suggesting that the counts of Luxembourg were proficient in both German and French but more importantly highlighting how Luxembourg has been a meeting point for both German and French cultures from the very beginning. Luxembourg itself had grown into a bustling town by this time and Conrad wanted to increase its influence by turning it into a religious center as well. In 1083 Conrad founded a Benedictine monastery which was granted a monopoly on education in the town. This in turn made it both the religious and academic center of Luxembourg. And while the previous counts of Luxembourg had been buried at the Abbey of St. Maximan and Trier, Conrad’s new monastery became the dynastic burial place for the house of Ardan Luxembourg going forward. However, Conrad’s relationship with the church was rocky to say the least. Just like most of his predecessors, Conrad had always had a rivalry with the Archbishop of Trier, which had gotten so heated back in the 1060s that he resorted to ambushing and capturing the Archbishop, throwing him in the dungeon at Luxembourg Castle. This unsurprisingly led to him being excommunicated by the pope. And thus, Conrad spent most of his reign trying to get this excommunication lifted. And after the completion of the monastery, Conrad set off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Now, he did manage to get his excommunication lifted, but died on the return journey and was buried in the monastery that he had just built to be his tomb. 3 years earlier, Conrad’s son, Henry III, succeeded him and began to immediately repair the family’s relationship with the Archbishop of Trier. Luckily for him, the new archbishop was on the emperor’s side of the investature controversy, which made it easier for him to make peace with the emperor loving Luxembburgers. And Henry managed to reach a deal where he promised to protect the archbishop’s lands in exchange for some farmland. This peace didn’t last long, however, as Henry was succeeded by his brother William, who just like his father, immediately started the fight with the Archbishop, which led to him being excommunicated as well. William ultimately passed Luxembourg down to his son Conrad II who died without a male heir in 1136 and thus the county came in the direct possession of the Roman German emperor. The man with the strongest claim to the county was Conrad’s cousin Henry of Grand Pre. However, as he was a member of the French aristocracy, the emperor feared that it would align the county with France and decided to give it to another of Conrad’s cousins, Henry of Namur. They weren’t the most creative with names. By this time the town had grown enough that it necessitated the construction of a new defensive wall which was built at the current Rudifair. In 1166 the citizens also needed a new church to cater for the growing population and founded the church of St. Nicholas on the site of the modern-day Notream Cathedral. The city had become a center for politics, administration, commerce, culture and religion in the region and was also the center of a county that was slowly gaining more and more political influence in the Holy Roman Empire. Henry of Namur or Henry IVth came to the possession of a massive inheritance as he also inherited the lordship of Derby from his cousin also called Henry. The lordship of Lar Roa Narden from his other cousin also called Henry and the county of Namur from his father. No, his name was actually Godfrey. An area where Henry had significantly less success though was with women. He failed to conceive an heir with his first wife Lorett who then left him and moved to Anery. And reportedly Henry’s second wife Agnes hated him so much that she ran away. also moved to Ananory and wouldn’t come back even at the threat of excommunication by the bishop of Reigns. But now that it seemed that there weren’t going to be any children, Henry resorted to appointing his nephew Baldwin of Ino as his heir. And as new best friends, Henry and Baldwin went to do a couple wars together. So cute. Then in 1182, when Henry lost his eyesight due to an illness, Baldwin was the first to come comfort him. And three years later, when Luxembourg came under attack by the Duke of Pbant, Baldwin faithfully came to Henry’s aid. Honestly, Henry couldn’t have asked for a better son than what Baldwin was. So, next year, he completely betrayed him. See, after 15 years of separation, Agnes agreed to return to Henry, and they actually managed to bear a child, a daughter. Now, at this point, Henry just completely ignored all the kindness Baldwin had shown him, as well as the promises he had made, documents he had signed, which had been approved by the emperor, by the way, and named his daughter Araminda as his soul heirs. Baldwin was understandably less than pleased about this and made an appeal to the emperor who replied that he would support his claim. Baldwin then brought the emperor’s verdict to Henry who agreed to recognize Baldwin as his true heir. Now Baldwin also brought his knights which may have also played a role but then in the least surprising turn of events of all time. Henry immediately went back on his word and denounced Baldwin as his heir again. Baldwin, now a bit more than not very pleased about this, attacked Namur and took Henry as his prisoner. Finally, an agreement was made in 1190 where Baldwin was to receive Namur as his inheritance. Hermes was to receive Derby and Laros and Luxembourg was to go to the emperor. Henry died in 1196 at around the age of 83. And so, the county of Luxembourg went to the emperor who gave it to his brother Otto for the time being. In 1197, the 11-year-old married Theobel, the count of Bar, who managed to negotiate with Baldwin’s sons for giving up their claim on Luxembourg. And by negotiating, I mean he besieged their castles and forced them to renounce their claims. And so the emperor agreed to appoint Hermesinde and Theobald as the councils of Luxembourg. Herminde would continue to rule Luxembourg for the rest of her life. First with Theobald, then her second husband Valeran, and eventually by herself for the last 20 years of her life. Hermesinde was succeeded by her son whose name was, you guessed it, Henry. He was called Henry the Blonde because, get this, he was blonde. But during his life, he would also gain a different epithet, Henry the Great. Before he even had inherited Luxembourg from his mother, Henry had acquired the county of Arlon from his father and the lordship of Lini as a dowry from his wife. So when his mother died, he had become quite a wealthy nobleman. And like his predecessors before him, Henry was staunchly loyal to the emperor. For example, he fought in the battle of Escapella in 1253 where the imperialbacked county of Holland defeated the county of Flanders, taking their leader Guy of Dampier as captive. 3 years later, Henry gained some personal glory when he captured Neamur, taking back the county his grandfather held from. However, this was fairly effortless as the current count of Neamur, Baldwin, was busy being the Latin emperor in Constantinople. Now, Baldwin, being literally on the other side of the continent, couldn’t be bothered to try to take his dinky little county back. So instead he sold the rights to it to his cousin Guy of Dampier, the very same guy who Henry had defeated in battle three years earlier. Guy subsequently took Namur from Henry and the two agreed to make peace. Henry then directed his focus of expansion elsewhere. See, when Henry received the lordship of Lingi from his wife’s family, the Count of Bar still kept legal ownership of the county. However, in 1256, Henry broke this agreement by swearing loyalty to the Count of Champagne. Now, since you probably aren’t fluent in over complicated medieval European aristocratic nonsense, what he basically did was to say, “Nah, you guys don’t own this anymore.” To which the customer response at the time was, “Uh, okay. Well, we’ll kill you.” And in 1266, Henry’s brother-in-law, Count Theob of Bar, took the side of the bishop of Mets in battle against the Duke of Lraine, who Henry was allied with. Henry was captured in battle and spent the next 2 years imprisoned, after which he and Theob made peace and went back to their old agreement. So, so far Henry is 0 for two in holding captured territory but two for two in restoring friendships. In 1270, after some convincing from the pope, Henry joined the 9inth Crusade in their quest to take back Jerusalem, becoming the first and only Count of Luxembourg to partake in the Crusades. This crusade was kind of a flop though, and Henry returned back home two years later to live the rest of his days in Luxembourg. with his wife Margaret. He had seven children and thus had established the second house of Luxembourg, which would grow to become even more influential than the first one. Henry died in 1281, presumably of natural causes. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if he started a fight with someone again and just couldn’t get away with it this time. By the end of his reign, Luxembourg had grown to a population of about 5,000 people, which by medieval standards was decent enough, but pald in comparison with other nearby cities like Paris, Bruge, and Cologne. Luxembourg was never and even today still isn’t a big city. The city’s prominence came not only from its nearly impenetrable geographic location, but also the cleverness of its rulers. From the time of Seedreed, the counts of Luxembourg had expanded their influence through clever diplomacy and marriage. There might have been a couple hiccups on the way, but this became the winning strategy for the Luxembberger nobility, becoming especially apparent with Henry’s descendants. On the other hand, the military record of the counts of Luxembourg left a lot to be desired for, as we saw with Henry V. However, things would get a whole lot worse under his son Henry V 6th. In 1279, the Duke of Lindberg died without an heir, leading to a war of succession between the Count of Guelers and the Duke of Pbant. Henry took the side of the Count of Guelers and in the spring of 1288 led an army against the forces of the Duke of Pbont. The two armies clashed near the castle of Waringan with Henry facing off with the Duke of Brabbant in the initial cavalry engagement. Unfortunately for Henry, he was no match for the mighty Duke and he and his two brothers were killed in the clash. The Duke of Praband won the battle which proved to be decisive as the Count of Guilders was forced to denounce his claim. For the House of Luxembourg, the battle was catastrophic, however, as all of Henry V’s sons died in the battle. This must have been quite the shock to Henry V 6th 15year-old son, Henry. They have got to come up with new names at some point, who not only lost his father and all of his uncles, but now had to pick up the reigns of the county after one of its greatest defeats. As the count of Luxembourg, unlike his father and uncles, he managed to keep the county out of the disputes of the other feudal lords in the region. He also commissioned public works in the city like the St. John’s Hospital in the Grunt district. The Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand, was in a weak state at the time, and so Henry had to ally with the French King Philip the Fair for protection. Now, keep in mind, this is the exact reason why the emperor didn’t want to give the county to Henry of Grand Press some 150 years earlier. Safe to say, the empire had some major issues at the time. In fact, the empire didn’t even have an emperor. The last person to be crowned emperor was Frederick II, who was frequently at war with the papacy in Rome. And after his death in 1250, there was a period of conflict over the emperorship. However, no one actually managed to be crowned emperor by the pope. By the time of Henry VIIIth, the current claimment was Albert I of Hapsburg. However, he was assassinated in 1308, leading the empire to a brief period with no ruler. And this is where Henry made his move. See, in the Holy Roman Empire, the ruler was elected by an electorate consisting of seven prince electors. These electors wouldn’t actually elect the emperor. They would elect someone into a position called the king of the Romans, with the tradition being that the pope would then crown the king as the Holy Roman Emperor. But as the last 58 years had shown, this was far from guaranteed. The electors would often favor the son of the previous king in these elections, but in many, including in 1308, powerful noble families would compete over the crown. Following the death of Albert I, the French king Philip began to immediately bribe the German electors to get his brother Charles elected as the next king of the Romans. Unfortunately for him, neither the German aristocracy nor the pope were too keen on seeing the expansion of French influence. Rudolfph the 1 of Bavaria, the son-in-law of the previous king of the Romans, also tried for the throne, but he didn’t seem to be successful either. when no compromise could be reached. Henry along with his brother skillfully negotiated with the electors to get himself elected, portraying himself as a compromise candidate as the House of Luxembourg was in a very prominent family at this time. And in late 1308, Henry was duly elected as the next king of the Romans and crowned a couple months later in January, becoming the first member of his family to gain the title of king. Henry was also the most creative out of his family as he decided to name his son John. What a rebellious youngster. Additionally, in 1310, Henry along with Czech nobility deposed the unpopular king of Bohemia and installed his son as the next king, securing the kingdom of Bohemia for the Luxembourg family for generations to come. Now, he wasn’t yet the Holy Roman Emperor. For that, he had to make peace with the Pope, who hadn’t been on the best of terms with the empire for the past six decades. And so, Henry swore allegiance to Pope Clement V, who agreed to crown him as emperor. As the soon-to-be emperor, Henry wanted to restore the glory of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been on the decline ever since the death of Frederick II. And to achieve this, one of his objectives was to bring back imperial control in northern Italy. See, due to the Alps basically splitting the empire in two, the emperors had often had a difficult time protecting influence over Italy. Because of this, by the time of Henry VIII, northern Italy was basically split into dozens of independent citystates. And so Henry decided to kill two birds with one stone and bring the Italian citystates back under imperial control on his way to his coronation as the emperor which as was customary was to take place in Rome. Henry crossed the Alps at the head of an army in late 1310 and made his way to Milan where he was crowned the king of Italy in early 1311. Henry immediately began asserting his dominance in northern Italy, angering many of the Italian G. One of his first actions was to return the former ruling Visconti family back to Milan, which led to an uprising in the city that was ruthlessly put down. Now, this only served to flare up more uprisings around Milan. And as many of the other Italian citystates like Florence, Luca, Sienna, and Wonia weren’t too keen to see the imperial authority restoring the region either. They began to openly rebel against Henry with support from the king of Naples. Henry became entangled with putting down these uprisings, often quite brutally, throughout northern Italy for the rest of the year. In 1312, Henry finally decided to make his way to Rome to be crowned as the emperor. However, on his way, he learned that the city of Rome was in complete disarray as the emperor aligned Colona family and the Naples allied Orsini family had taken the fighting on the streets. Henry also probably wasn’t too happy to hear that the Naples allied partisans had taken over the Vatican. Henry forced his way into the city with his army, but wasn’t able to expel the Naples back forces from St. Peter’s Basilica, which was the traditional place of coronation for the emperors. After being barred from what he believed was his imperial right, he had to settle for coronation at the Basilica of St. John Ladan where cardinal sent by the pope crowned him as the first Holy Roman Emperor in 62 years. Now, as the emperor, Henry set his sights on crushing the rebellion in Italy and marched up north to Tuskanyany to take care of Florence as it was one of the leaders of the rebellion. Henry began besieging the city, but this only lasted for about a month and a half since he failed to cut Florence off from its trading partners and ultimately had to abandon the siege. He withdrew to the city of Pisa, which was a strong supporter of the emperors, and began preparing an invasion of Naples. And the next summer, in August of 1313, he set off on his campaign. On the way there, he decided to besieged the city of Sienna, another one of the major cities in the rebellion. But there, unfortunately for him, he contracted malaria and died. That was anticlimactic. His body was taken to his ally Pisa, where he was buried in the Pisa Cathedral along with his dreams of imperial control of Italy. Regardless, what Henry managed to achieve in his short 40-year lifespan was nothing short of extraordinary. Henry inherited the county of Luxembourg after one of the worst catastrophes of his family’s history. But by the end of his life, he had managed to elevate the House of Luxembourg into one of the most prominent families in Europe. With Henry’s death, the powerful families of the Holy Roman Empire began competing again to be crowned as the next king of the Romans. Henry’s son Jon naturally joined the race for kingship as well. However, with the prince electors weary of another hereditary dynasty, Jon’s chances were slim. As the king of Bohemia, however, Jon was one of the seven prince electors and so had significant influence over the election. John helped Lewis of Bavaria get elected, who in return promised to support his land claims in Bohemia and Silicia. There was a slight issue, however, which was that Frederick of Hapsburg had already gotten himself elected king by a different slate of electors. But this group included the former king of Bohemia, who Jon had deposed 4 years earlier, making Frederick’s claim to the throne a lot weaker. This didn’t matter though, as both men were crowned king, which resulted in a civil war. Jon joined his ally in the fighting, and in 1322, the two defeated Frederick at the battle of Muldov, placing Lewis as the sole claimant to the title of emperor. Now, this victory was a double-edged sword for Jon because in the next few years, Lewis began to centralize power to himself, which Jon saw as a direct threat to his own authority and eventually allied with France and the papacy in opposition to the king. Now, clearly, Jon had a keen interest in foreign policy and even at the expense of domestic governance, spent much of his reign campaigning abroad. King John took campaigns against the Austrians, Russians, Hungarians, and Northern Italians, expanding his holdings in the process. In 1336 when he was on a crusade in Lithuania, he contracted ofthalmia which took away his eyesight similar to his great-grandfather Henry IV. John the blind as he is now known to history had to tone down the campaigning and the following 10 years saw the king focusing more on the affairs of his hometown of Luxembourg. In 1340, John commissioned the construction of new city walls for the town which had grown beyond the old ramp parts and these new walls would stand for the next 500 years. John is also remembered for founding the annual Shoua funfair. although originally for trading livestock and goods which is still celebrated today by modern Luxembourers. On the other hand, John was still deeply involved in foreign policy and his rivalry with his old ally Louis of Bavaria came to a head in 1346 when John with the support of the pope got his son Charles elected as the king of the Romans in direct opposition to Lewis. The Luxembourgs were in a weak position however as most of the empire’s bishops and imperial cities remained loyal to Lewis. Things got even worse when Jon and Charles went to help their ally France at the Battle of Cressy against England. The battle was a massive defeat to the French and Jon and Charles lost many of their best knights as a result. Jon himself died after a heroic last stand against the English despite having to be escorted to the front line on account of his blindness. Charles managed to escape alive but was wounded at the battle. Jon was buried in Luxembourg and after quite an eventful history, his remains are now located in the crypt of the Notream Cathedral in Luxembourg city. Today he is regarded as a national hero in Luxembourg. Now returning to Charles, he wasn’t doing too hot. Presumably healing from his wounds at the Luxembourg Castle, he found himself in a similar situation to his grandfather Henry. Worse yet, he was now weak against Emperor Lewis, who would no doubt try to get rid of his rival to the throne. And in the following year, Emperor Lewis went on a hunting trip, had a stroke, and died. That was anticlimactic. All of a sudden, the tables had turned, and Charles was now the sole reigning king of the Romans. Louis’s family. The house of Vitalpa had their candidate Gunther of Schwatchber quickly elected as the king. However, it was Charles who was able to win over much of the support in the aristocracy in the empire. A brief civil war followed where Charles defeated Gunther’s army at the battle of Elvilla, consolidating his claim to the throne for good. The council of Luxembourg had once again secured the imperial throne for themselves. But in less exciting news for everyone, the Black Death arrived in Europe and Luxembourg wasn’t spared as the plague killed approximately half of Europe’s population at the time. However, one area that wasn’t affected as much by the plague was Bohemia, which was great for Charles considering he was also the king of Bohemia. Charles had made Prague his imperial capital and so decided to commence a bunch of construction projects in the city. To this day, he’s regarded as a national hero in Czecha, but that’s a story for another time. The soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV also became the last count of Luxembourg as he elevated the county to the status of duche in 1353 naming his half-brother Wes as the first Duke of Luxembourg. The house of Luxembourg at this time was at their absolute peak in power and influence. The city grew in dominance as a political, economic and religious center and the early Schuberfo brought people from all over Western Europe to Luxembourg. In 1364, Duke Winces annexed the nearby county of Chini into the duche and with it, Luxembourg reached its greatest territorial extent. Charles, on the other hand, went on to clarify and codify the empire’s succession rules as they had been causing a lot of problems for the past 100 years, just like Charles and his predecessors had come to learn. By all accounts, he was an effective ruler and his reign is remembered as a golden age for the kingdom of Bohemia. He died in 1378 at the age of 62 and is buried at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. His son, Weslas, succeeded him as the king of the Romans, also inheriting the kingdom of Bohemia from him. In contrast to his father, Weslles was a weak ruler and didn’t really have an interest in governance. He spent most of his time away from Prague, preferring to stay at his castles in the countryside, doing activities that he actually enjoyed, like hunting and drinking wine. Needless to say, the aristocracy of the empire wasn’t pleased with him, with his critics naming him Wesl the lazy or Wesl the idol. It also didn’t help that his father had split his holdings among his relatives upon his death, leaving Weslas with a fraction of the resources that his father Charles had enjoyed. And Wesl’s grip on power, even in Bohemia, was questionable, as it was difficult to govern due to the relatively powerful Bohemian upper nobility. When Wes’s uncle, Weslice, the Duke of Luxembourg, died in 1383, he gained the duchy of Luxembourg for himself. However, he later had to give it away to his cousin Jobs in return for a loan. Even if Weslas had more of an interest in governance, his reign still wouldn’t have been easy. Much of his rule was characterized by uprisings from the Bohemian nobles and conflict with prominent church members, leading Weslas to be imprisoned on one occasion by the nobles led by Jobs. Another problem for Weslas was his indecisiveness. A schism between the Western Latin church had begun just a few months before Charles’s death in 1378, causing there to be two popes at the same time. And as the king of the Romans, Wes was expected to solve the issue. He nominally supported the Roman pope. However, he later changed his mind and together with the French king tried to persuade both of the popes to resign. This did not help him with support at home as this was seen as a betrayal of the pope in Rome. Due to his troubles at home, Weslas didn’t even seek to be crowned as emperor as he feared that leaving on a multiple month-long campaign in Italy could cause him to lose whatever grip on power he still had in Bohemia. By this point, the empire’s aristocracy had run out of patience for him and in the year 1400 decided to depose Weslas as the king of the Romans and replace him with Rupert of the House of Vitalpa. Weslas, of course, refused to accept his deposition, but like you might have already guessed, didn’t seem to do anything about it. Rert on the other hand sought to legitimize his claim by marching down to Rome and being crowned emperor by the Pope. And so, he crossed the Alps in 1401. However, this campaign was nothing short of a disaster as he didn’t manage to get further than Brussia before he was defeated by the Milanes and had to return back home. At this point, Weslas’s half brother, Sigisman, decided to take advantage of the chaos and captured Weslas in Prague. He sent Weslas to be imprisoned in Vienna, forcing his half-brother to sign over royal power to him. The Bohemian nobles, on the other hand, weren’t happy with Sigisman in charge either and started another rebellion with Schopst as its leader, causing Sigisman to invade Bohemia in 1403. In the same year, the Pope in Rome finally acknowledged Rupert as the legitimate king of the Romans, making Weslas’s coronation now practically impossible. He wasn’t now as useful to Sigisman and his allies as before, and so they loosened their guard on Weslas. And as a result, Weslas escaped from his captivity in Vienna and made his way back to Prague. Wes returned on Christmas and was actually celebrated as he was seen as a sign of peace by the Bohemian people. Wes subsequently deposed Sigisman and made peace with Jobst. Sigisman tried to take back his control of Bohemia but failed after his army was ravaged by dysentery. And now that everyone was unhappy with their situation, things calmed down for a few years. Then in 1410, King Roupert died, causing both Jobs and Sigisman to try for the throne. Jobs ended up getting the most votes. However, Sigisman decided to claim victory regardless. And now you had three different Luxembriaks claiming the throne of the king of the Romans because remember Wesl never accepted his deposition and still considered himself the king. However, Wes was such a terrible ruler that no one really cared about his opinion. And when Jobs died a year later under some suspicious circumstances, Sigisman was left as the only viable candidate. I’m not saying Sigisman poisoned him, but there is a universe out there where he did do that and that universe just happens to be the one we live in. Sigisman then had himself elected again just for good measure and later crowned as the king of the Romans. Realizing there was little he could do, Wesles finally agreed to give up the crown with the promise that he would be allowed to stay as the king of Bohemia. Sigisman agreed and Wes spent the rest of his life in Bohemia, dying from a heart attack while on a hunt near Prague in 1419. Upon his death, Sigisman became the king of Bohemia and later got himself crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor 55 years after the death of his father, the previous emperor. Over in Luxembourg, the duche was handed down to Sigisman’s niece Elizabeth after the death of Jobs. The House of Luxembourg had lost significant influence due to all the chaos following Charles’s death. However, Sigisman would continue to rule the empire for the next 26 years. Regardless, the 15th century would still prove to be the house’s downfall. Elizabeth failed to give birth to an heir despite having been married twice. And after the death of her second husband, she became increasingly indebted due to her lavish lifestyle during her 18-year reign as the sole duchess. In 1437, Sigisman died, leaving no male heirs and his kingships of Hungary, Bohemia and Germany, and later the emperorship were taken over by the arrival house of Hapsburg, who established an imperial dynasty for the next 300 years. And so, the senior branch of the House of Luxembourg, once the most powerful family in Europe, had gone extinct. Eventually, for Elizabeth, her personal debts became too much to bear, and she had to sell the duche to Duke Philip of Burgundy, who agreed to inherit the duche upon Elizabeth’s death. However, much like a toddler that finds the stash of Christmas presents a week before Christmas, Philip decided to go with the policy of I want it now and launched a nighttime surprise attack on Luxembourg, marking the end of the House of Luxembourg’s rule over their ancestral lands by exiling Elizabeth to live the rest of our lives in Trier, which in a cruel twist of dramatic irony is also the city where Seed Freed was from. Now, this marked the beginning of a long period of Luxembourg’s history where the duche was governed by foreign rulers. The Burgundians had also taken possession of a number of other counties and duchies in the low countries with these possessions being collectively called the Burgandian Netherlands. Luxembourg became one of the provinces of the Burgundian Netherlands which began to form a more centralized government as opposed to the rule of dozens of small thiefs and noble families of the old. And just like for all of its history up to this point, the city of Luxembourg remained an important stronghold thanks to its easily defendable geography. Its location at the crossroads of the Burgundian state, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire also made it a key military outpost between the three. But although the annual Schuber foyer continued to bring economic activity to the city, Luxembourg remained a kind of a rural backwater when compared to the wealthy trade cities to the west. This was also a time of cultural transition in the city as Burgandian culture began to influence the local nobles who began to adopt Burgandian customs, clothing, and etiquette. And while Luxembourg had always had both French and German language influences, French began to dominate as the language of administration, while the German dialect of Luxembburggish remained prevalent among commoners. The Burgundian rule over Luxembourg only lasted about 39 years, however, as Philip’s son Charles died without male heir, leaving Burgundy to his daughter Mary, who married Archduke Maximleian of Hapsburg. When she died, all of Burgundy passed down to their son Philip of Hapsburg, beginning the period of the Hapsburg Netherlands. Although there wasn’t much of a difference on the ground for Luxembourg or its citizens, the city’s famous defenses were tested multiple times in the 16th century during the Italian Wars when a series of wars broke out between the Hapsburg Emperor and the King of France. The first attack happened in 1521 when French forces marched on Luxembourg. This attack was driven back though when imperial reinforcements came and is unclear if the French ever reached the city itself. The French launched another offensive into Luxembourg in 1542, managing to capture the city this time. They didn’t stay for long, however, as they left to help with the siege of Prepinion down south. This wasn’t the end of the wars for Luxembourg, though, as the French came back the next year to take the city again. This time, the occupiers stayed longer. And unfortunately for the city’s heritage, they decided to destroy the city’s monastery, the one built by Conrad all the way back in 1083. Although, it’s still unclear why, or to some extent even if the French did this. Many of the counts of Luxembourg, had been buried at the monastery, and countless artifacts were lost in the destruction. Following the destruction, the monks from the abbey occupied St. John’s Hospital in the Grunt district. And today, the tower is the only part that remains of the old monastery. To the delight of the town’s people, the French were driven out by the emperor’s forces the following year, ending Luxembourg’s part in the wars. By 1554, Emperor Charles V had had enough of the constant wars with France and decided to abdicate all of the different titles he had, including the kingship of Spain and the lordship of the Netherlands, which he decided to give to his son Philip, beginning the period of the Spanish Netherlands for Luxembourg. Once again, this was mostly a superficial change as the duche continued to be governed by the Hapsburg viceroy from Brussels. This time just an espanol. When it comes to religion though, the Catholic Spanish rulers enforced the dominance of Catholicism in the duche against the Protestant movement in Europe at the time. And to this day, Catholicism remains the largest denomination in Luxembourg. In Luxembourg city, the Benedictine monks that had been staying at St. John’s Hospital ever since the destruction of the city’s monastery decided to build a new monastery next to the hospital. They called this new monastery the nmensta or the new monastery in Luxembourgish. I know shocking. Luxembourg of this time was a deeply religious and conservative society. So much so that when the other provinces rebelled against Spanish rule in the latter half of the 1500s, Luxembourg was the only province to stay loyal to Spain mainly due to the Luxembburgger’s desire for stability, the revolt being linked to ideas of religious reform and the fact that the Spanish had a massive garrison in Luxembourg. Another building project during the Spanish period was the expansion of the city’s defenses. The Spaniards constructed the first casemates into the cliffside to make it easier to store supplies and move troops during sieges. Additionally, the Spanish recognized that the medieval castle on the Bach promontory was becoming increasingly illequipped to handle modern warfare, which had begun to increasingly rely on heavy artillery. As a result, the fortifications in the promontory were modernized with little of the original medieval castle left remaining. These new defenses were definitely to be needed as there were going to be several more wars between the Hapsburgs and France in the following century. The Franco Spanish War started in 1635. And although Luxembourg didn’t see any action during the war, in 1659, Spain signed a treaty with France, agreeing to seed the southern regions of the duche to the French, marking the first territorial loss for Luxembourg in nearly 300 years. Unfortunately for Luxembourg, this wasn’t the end of it, as France had taken an interest in fully annexing the duche and in 1681 marched an army to Luxembourg delay siege to the city. However, as the Ottomans were about to attack Vienna in the east and the French king didn’t want to damage his reputation by attacking a Christian kingdom while it was under attack by the Muslim Turks. He commanded the siege to be cancelled. But when the Habsburgs defeated the Ottomans in Vienna the next year, the French returned to the siege of Luxembourg, taking the city in 1684. Much of the city was destroyed. And just like the previous occupation by the French, they also destroyed the Nyminster during the bombardment. What did monasteries in Luxembourg ever do to you? The city then began to slowly rebuild as the French held it for the next 13 years. The French under the military engineer Sebastian De Marque of Babon set on turning the city into one of the most formidable fortresses in Europe by modernizing the city walls and enforcing the city’s defenses because like their field test had just proven, it wasn’t quite unconquerable enough. However, like you might have guessed already, there was another war between France and Spain. Unfortunately for the French though, they lost this one and had to give Luxembourg back to the Hapsburgs with the Treaty of Reesewick in 1697. And so the Luxembburgers returned happily back to the Hapsburg’s hands. Or not, considering they just went through a lot of suffering for basically no reason. They wouldn’t remain under Spanish rule for long, however, as Charles II of Spain, yes, the guy with the chin, died with no male heirs in the year 1700, which led to another war lasting another 14 years. One of the results of this war was that the Spanish Netherlands changed owners again when it was returned to the Austrian Hapsburgs, beginning the period of the Austrian Netherlands. Luxembourg, just like always, remained a key military location in the defense of the southern Netherlands. And so, the Austrians set on making the fortress even more impenetrable. The Austrians carried out the biggest expansion the fortress had ever seen, extended and reinforced the defensive walls, and built a series of forts around the city. They also replaced the wooden draw bridge that had led to the Bach promontory up until this point with the red sandstone castle bridge in 1735 which not only connected the two plateaus on the surface but also by connecting their casemates. Despite its small population, Luxembourg had become one of the most well-fortified cities in all of Europe. It’s really hard to state just how much the Austrians went out of their way to prevent the French from taking the city again. So in 1789, the French in Paris thought, “What if the king and then proceeded to do just that?” The other kings in Europe weren’t very pleased with this, however, and soon there was a massive war between them and the new French Republic. There were similar uprisings in the Austrian Netherlands as well. However, Luxembourg, as a rural and conservative society, didn’t join in any of these radical political movements. The French had other ideas though as they were rapidly advancing through the southern Netherlands by late 1792 and decided to bring to Luxembourg their exciting new ideas about liberty, equality and fraternity. You know along with their artillery, infantry and cavalry. The French occupied some surrounding villages around Luxembourg and then tried to take the city itself. However, they lacked the necessary siege equipment and after some French defeats elsewhere had to withdraw from Luxembourg. The citizens didn’t get to enjoy the peace for long, however, since the French came back the next year. this time with a proper sieging army. On November 22nd, 1794, the French army of the Mel began the siege by blocking the roads to Luxembourg, cutting the fortress off from the outside world. Both sides bombarded each other with artillery for months. And even though it was the French that blockaded the city, the army of the Mel suffered from a lack of supplies, especially in the winter, causing French soldiers to pillage many of the villages around Luxembourg. In early February, the army’s general fell ill and died less than 3 months into the siege. Now, despite such a catastrophic setback, the French reorganized their army and continued the siege. The Austrians still refused to surrender, and the two sides continued to bombard each other for months to come. Over time, the situation became increasingly hopeless for the Austrians to the point where eventually the citizens asked the Austrian governor to capitulate, which he did on June 7th, 1795, surrendering Luxembourg city and sending the Austrian garrison back home. The French made a triumphant entry into the city, capturing a large amount of military equipment from the fortress to help with their war against the Austrians elsewhere. As a symbol of their victory, the French army planted a tree in the plus, which they dubbed the tree of liberty. Now, despite capturing the city, the French never actually managed to breach its walls. The siege of Luxembourg was so frustrating in fact that it led the French revolutionary politician and military engineer Lassar Carneu the famously called the city the best fortress in the world besides Gibralar giving the city its nickname the Gibralar of the north. Shortly after the siege France annexed all of the former Austrian Netherlands into the republic. Luxembourg became one of the departments of the new occupiers. However, the French decided to rename it to the department of for literally meaning the forests. A bit rude but also true. Now joining the French Republic was in all libert and fat for Luxembourers as the French bureaucrats began to suppress the Luxembburggish language started taking away political power from the church which for the strongly Catholic Luxembburgers was a big no no and worst of all introduced universal mandatory military duty in 1798. This was the final nail in the coffin for many Luxembburger peasants who joined a rebellion in the rest of southern Netherlands against the French. The rebellion was crushed in under two months, however, and over time thousands of Luxembburggish men would serve in the French armed forces. As opposed to all the previous changes in rulers that Luxembourg had experienced, where the local political, economic, and social institutions had stayed relatively unchanged, the period under the French First Republic marked a significant turning point in Luxembourg society. Feudalism was abolished in what used to be the Duchy of Luxembourg, and the department that replaced it was divided into districts and cantons. Economically, the traditional guilds were abolished, leading to a more liberalized market and an emerging middle class. Additionally, the idea of the separation of church and state was introduced along with the Napoleonic civil code, which is still used as the basis for many laws in Luxembourg today. In 1796, the French secularized Luxembourg’s abbies, which among others ended the Nightminster’s long history of religious use, converting it into a prison and military barracks, a role that it would serve for the next nearly 200 years. Even though the French period in Luxembourg lasted only about 19 years, it was probably one of the most influential times in the cities and the country’s history. The French period in Luxembourg lasted until 1814 when an army of mainly Prussian troops conquered the city from the French. There would be no peace though until Napoleon was defeated at Waterlue the following year, causing France to finally surrender after 23 years of war. And as a result, the duche of Luxembourg was also restored. There was just one small issue, and that was the question of who the duche belonged to. See, even in the times of Burgundian, Spanish and Austrian rule, Luxembourg had always stayed under the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Emperor. However, Napoleon had dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. And as there was no political will to bring back the mess that was the HRE, the duche was claimed by two different monarchs, William the 1 of the Netherlands and Frederick William III of Prussia. In 1814, the European powers gathered in Vienna to discuss the new political order in Europe following the defeat of the French Empire. And among the agenda at this congress was the Luxembourg question. In the end, the great powers of Europe decided on a compromise. Luxembourg would become formally autonomous, but a personal possession of William, who was to be the head of state. However, the duche would also become a part of the newly created German confederation, a binding alliance between 39 sovereign, mostly Germanspeaking states where Prussia and Austria were the predominant powers. The duche was then elevated to a grand duche because William would represent Luxembourg in the German Confederation. And of course, a king couldn’t be of the same status as the lowly dukes. Additionally, it was agreed that the fortress of Luxembourg would be garrisoned by a mostly Prussian force and that Prussia would gain the eastern territories of the Grand Duchy, marking the second partition of Luxembourg. And so, after an absolutely wild 20 years, Luxembourg became a part of this weird web of geopolitics where it was technically autonomous yet a personal possession of the King of the Netherlands, but also allied with the German-sp speakaking states, namely Austrian Prussia, and was garrisoned by Prussian troops. In July 1819, Norwich Duff, a contemporary British Royal Navy officer, visited the city and wrote a summary, which I think can give us some insight into what Luxembourg was like at the time. Luxembourg is considered one of the strongest fortifications in Europe, and it appears so. It is situated in Holland, but by treaty is garrisoned by Prussians, and 5,000 of their troops occupy it under a German prince. The civil government is under the Dutch, and the taxes here are collected by them. The town is not very large, but the streets are broader and cleaner than towns in France, and the houses here are good. I got the cheapest hot bath I’ve ever had at the principal house here, costing only one frank. Luxembourg had always been a city centered around the military. But at this time in history, it was that perhaps more than ever. The Dutch and the Prussians had agreed to split the military garrison between 1/4 Dutch troops and 3/4s Prussian troops. And like Norwich Duff mentioned, the garrison was often around 5,000 men, which is pretty striking considering the town had a civilian population of around 9,000. Now, despite officially adopting the metric system, the best measuring system in 1820, life in Luxembourg after the Congress of Vienna wasn’t all that great. The standard of living had risen through the Austrian period and even during the French Revolution, many aspects of political, economic, and social life had improved for the citizens. However, during the Dutch period, things started getting worse in Luxembourg. Although the Grand Duchy was supposed to be autonomous, King William treated it more like a conquered territory and levied heavy taxes on the citizens. Unsurprisingly, when the Belgians revolted against the king in 1830, many Luxembourers, especially in the western French-speaking part, supported and even joined in on the revolution. The revolution was successful and Belgium became an independent country, although the Dutch kept trying to take it back. Both countries also laid claim to Luxembourg, which led to the Grand Duchy being split in two. the area is loyal and administered by Brussels and the city and its surrounding areas that remained loyal to William on account of the Dutch Prussian garrison located there. Eventually, the great powers of Europe came together in London and agreed to guarantee the independence and neutrality of Belgium, which I’m sure won’t become plot relevant later. They also resolved the dispute over Luxembourg, deciding to give most of the French-speaking part of the Grand Duchy to Belgium, creating the province of Luxembourg, which fun fact is bigger than the country. This is now known as the third and final partition of Luxembourg, giving the Grand Duchy its modern borders. Among others, Luxembourg lost Arlon, which had been one of its biggest cities ever since the reign of Conrad. The rest of the Luxembburggish speaking Grand Duchy was established as a fully independent state, which became a member of the German Confederation. However, with William remaining as its head of state, the first constitution of the Grand Duchy was created in 1841 under William II. However, the amount of political and legal power given to the Grand Duke wasn’t received well by the Luxembbergish society, as it enforced the perception that the King Grand Duke was treating Luxembourg more as personal possession than an independent country. However, when a wave of democratically driven revolutions later swept through Europe and Luxembourg in 1848, William agreed to the creation of a new constitution in order to deescalate the situation. Luxembers decided to model their new constitution after the Belgians. After all, many of them had sided with Belgium during the revolution, among other liberal democratic institutions. The new constitution introduced the Chamber of Deputies and the Office of Prime Minister, both of which were to be chosen through elections, although only wealthy male citizens were allowed to vote in them. William II was succeeded by his son, William III, who wasn’t all that happy that his father had to give up his royal powers in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and began immediately to try and remove the constitutional restrictions imposed on him. He appointed his brother Henry as the governor of Luxembourg, a position that had been vacant since the new constitution was introduced and ordered him to resist any liberal movements in the country. Then a year later in 1851, Europe experienced a wave of anti-revolutionary rollbacks of democratic institutions which led to the German Confederation pressuring its member states to conform to monarchist principles and abolish all liberal and democratic laws and institutions established during the 1848 wave of revolutions. William used this to further expand his own authoritarian powers and disbanded the Luxembburggish government in 1853, replacing it with a more favorable one to himself and it only got worse from there for the liberals in Luxembourg. As in 1856, Henry announced the amendments to the constitution to turn Luxembourg back into a monarchy state. The liberals in the chamber refused to accept any changes to the hardworn constitution and after a month of heated debate left the chamber in protest. In response, Henry just declared the constitution as having passed with William signing the new constitution in late November. The opposition were outraged at this and denounced it as a coup d’etata. However, another revolution was off the table as William would have the support of the other monarchies in Europe. And so, for the time being, Luxembourg returned to being effectively an absolute monarchy. On the other hand, the middle of the 19th century was a time of economic transition in the country. The loss of access to the Belgian market really hurt the Grand Duchy economically. So in 1842, the Grand Duke negotiated for Luxembourg to join the German customs union, opening the German market to the Grand Duchy. This helped relieve some of the economic strain on the Grand Duchy and developed Luxembourg steel industry, which to this day is one of the largest industries in the country. The railway network in the Grand Duchy also expanded rapidly with the Luxembourg railway station opening in 1859, which had to be connected to the city by a bridge since the defensive structures of the city wouldn’t allow it to be built there. In other areas of social life, the looks and bushabots began publication around this time as well and is to this day the biggest newspaper in the country. The annual Shoua also began to resemble the more familiar fun fair we have nowadays with shows and games becoming part of the festivities. Nevertheless, Luxembourg remained a mostly poor agricultural and underdeveloped part of Europe for most of the 1800s. On the other hand, advances in medicine caused overpopulation in the Grand Duchy, leaving many without work. And as a result, many Luxembburgers immigrated out of the country with around 70,000 moving to the United States, many of whom settled around Chicago and the Midwest. However, this period also saw the emergence of an early Luxembburggish national identity. While French remained the language of the upper class, diplomacy and politics, the Luxembburggish language clearly separated the Grand Duchy from the surrounding countries, even though it was considered a dialect of German at the time. The Catholic Church especially played a key role in the formation of a Luxembbergish identity with the establishment of Luxembourg’s very own dascese. Luxembourg’s independence was far from secure, however, as the relationship between the great powers of Europe became increasingly aggressive by the middle of the century. Particularly the rivalry between Prussia and Austria had become increasingly hostile, prompting the Prussian prime minister Ottoman Bismar to offer the French emperor Napoleon III, the nephew of the other oney over Belgium and Luxembourg in exchange for not intervening in Prussia’s plans with Austria. Napoleon agreed because when an offer sounds too good to be true, don’t worry about it cuz it’s a really good offer. Prussia then unsurprisingly launched a war against Austria in 1866. However, to the surprise of all of Europe, Prussia defeated the powerful Austrian Empire, ending the German Confederation, which Luxembourg had been a part of ever since the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon, on the other hand, was excited to learn that he can now make a move on Luxembourg and bought the Grand Duchy from William III, who had got himself into financial trouble. What he was a little less excited to learn was that the political class in Berlin had forced Bismar to go back on his promise who now threatened France with war if they tried to take Luxembourg. Bailing on their super secret packs dividing Europe into spheres of influence is just what the Germans do. They can’t help it. This was the start of the Luxembourg crisis where France and Prussia almost went to war over who owned Luxembourg. The other great powers quickly ran into mediate as they were worried that their own countries would be dragged into this possible war. Austria proposed transferring Luxembourg to Belgium in exchange for Belgium seeding land to France. However, the Belgian king refused to give up any land, and this idea had to be scrapped. To avoid war, the great powers of Europe held a conference in London in 1867, where they confirmed Luxembourg’s independence and neutrality. They also concluded that the fortress of Luxembourg was a little too formidable for its own good, as no great power could resist the urge to capture it. And so, they decided to dismantle the fortifications in Luxembourg city, including its city walls, central castle, and forts. The Prussians also had to remove their garrison from the city. However, the Grand Duchy would remain in the German customs union, keeping it under German influence economically. It was also decided that the king of the Netherlands was to remain as the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. So, in the end, Luxembourg’s situation stayed mostly the same. The Congress was formalized with the Treaty of London and the great powers of Europe could live in peace happily ever after. So, 3 years later, when Prussia and France had a massive war, Luxembourg got to enjoy peace on account of its neutrality. Neutrality had become quite a popular idea in Luxembourg and the citizens wasted no time starting to dismantle the old fortifications. The city’s casemates batteries, barracks, and towers were destroyed over a period of 16 years following the 1867 Treaty of London. To us, this might seem like the destruction of one of the city’s most defining pieces of historical and cultural tradition. However, at the time, it was seen as a liberation of the city from the fortress that outside powers had used as their pawn in their geopolitical games. The fortress wasn’t just a symbol of foreign domination, but it also physically hindered the growth of the city as the needs of the military always took precedence over civilian construction. Let me remind you that at the start of the 14th century, Luxembourg city had had a population of around 5,000 people. But by the 1860s, it had only risen to about 13,000. On average, that is 14 people per year. The destruction of the fortress allowed for an expansion of the actual city that hosted it. Luxembourg began by constructing the Boulevard Royale to run along where the old city wall had been while the municipal park was built to run alongside it. Planning also began to build a bridge to connect the city center to the Bourban plateau. And elsewhere, construction began to turn limpets and bair in the residential quarters. In politics, Williams financial troubles, which had led him to try to sell the Grand Duchy to France, had greatly damaged his public image and perceived authority in the country. Additionally, his justification for his authoritarian rule was based on the pressure from the German Confederation to conform to monarchist principles. But as the Union had been disbanded in 1866, this excuse didn’t hold water anymore. As a result, William agreed to grant a more liberal constitution to the Grand Duchy in 1868, which became the one that’s still in use today, although it has been amended several times since. The recognition of Luxembourg is statehood by the great European powers, even if it was just to keep the balance of power in check between them. The transition back to a democratic state as well as the development that followed the destruction of the fortress inspired an even deeper sense of nationalism in the Luxembburggish population. This followed a broader trend at the time in Europe of a surge in nationalism which also led to the unification of Italy and Luxembourg’s nextdoor neighbor Germany. In 1859 the Luxembburgish poet Michel Lens wrote the national anthem of Luxembourg on heished our homeland. while a line from another of his songs, we want to remain what we are, became the national motto of Luxembourg. And in a stroke of some pretty extraordinary luck for the nationalists in Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy took the final step towards full independence in 1890, kind of by accident when William III died without a male heir. Now, this wasn’t a problem in the Netherlands as he was succeeded by his daughter Wilhelmina. However, in Luxembourg, succession followed salic law introduced when the Grand Duchy was created at the Congress of Vienna, which excluded women from inheriting the titles of their father. And as a result, the title of Grand Duke had to be taken by William’s closest male relative, who was his cousin and former Duke of Nassau, Adolf. And so, in what was honestly a pretty big coincidence, Luxembourg was separated from the personal union with the king of the Netherlands, becoming once and for all a truly independent country. William had had three male heirs. However, they had tragically all died before William. And had this fairly unlikely set of circumstances not happened, Luxembourg’s head of state might still be the monarch of the Netherlands today. Now, Adolf at this point was already 73 years old and didn’t really know the first thing about Luxembourgish politics and so didn’t actually spend all that much time in Luxembourg. This, however, established a convention in Luxembourgish politics where the monarch wouldn’t involve himself in the day-to-day politics of the Grand Duchy despite holding significant political power on paper. The recently elected prime minister Po Aishin became more involved in the affairs of the state than his predecessors and would actually become the longest serving prime minister in Luxembourg’s history as it would serve until 1915. In Luxembourg city, the Luxembburgers finally finished the bridge connecting the city center to the Bourban Plateau, naming it the Adolf Bridge in honor of the Grand Duke. However, they timed this quite poorly as he died only two years later at his summer home in Bavaria. He was succeeded by his son William IV who continued his father’s policy of taking a hands-off approach to Luxembourg’s politics, opting instead to let Prime Minister Aishin handle the Grand Duchy’s government. On the other hand, William spent a lot more time in Luxembourg than his father, spending much of his time at the B Castle in central Luxembourg. However, William, just like his father, was a Protestant, but as a grand duke of a Catholic country, he married a Catholic princess from Portugal and agreed to raise his children as Catholics. The couple had six children and incredibly all of them were girls, meaning William IV was left with no male heirs to succeed him. Coincidentally, just like the previous Grand Duke, whose name was William. Luckily for him though, the succession rules of Luxembourg allowed for an exception for a female heirs if no male heirs could be found in the monarch’s family branch. The only contender to the throne was his cousin, the Count of Member. However, his father had married, and this might be disturbing to some viewers, a member of the lower nobility, which William argued made him ineligible to inherit the title of Grand Duke of Luxembourg. And as William’s health was quickly getting worse, he convinced the Chamber of Deputies to confirm his daughter, Mary Adelaide, as the next Grand Duchess. He then died at Bash Castle in 1912, less than 7 years into his reign. Now, despite being the first Catholic monarch of the Grand Duchy, as well as being the first ruler of Luxembourg to be born in its territory since John the Blind, Mary Adelaide’s rule was extremely rocky, to put it very mildly. She was only 17 when she ascended to the throne, and so was inexperienced not just in politics, but life in general. She was a devout Catholic, extremely conservative, and much more interested in politics than her predecessors, and wasted no time in alienating herself from the political class of the country. On the day of her ascension to the throne, she vetoed a law that aimed to make the country’s education system more secular and later even nearly refused to accept appointing the democratically elected mayors of defod and holish due to their anti-clerical political views. And even though within her constitutional rights as the grand duchess, her political interventions disrupted the cautious balance between the monarchy and the parliament that her father and grandfather had established in the Grand Duchy, causing irreparable damage to her public image. Now, things didn’t get off to a good start for her. However, they would only get worse because if you were awake in history class, you’ll know that in 1914, a chauffeur took a wrong turn and boom, World War I. Now, according to the 1867 Treaty of London, Luxembourg was still a neutral country. And Luxembourers intended to do everything they could to keep it this way. However, Germany, which had signed the treaty and respected it in previous wars, now didn’t seem too concerned about it. And on August 1st, Germany invaded Luxembourg kind of by accident. Now, the Germans were going to invade the Grand Duchy. regardless, but the invasion had to be delayed by a few hours. Turns out the German 69th Infantry Regiment didn’t get the memo and took over a train station in northern Luxembourg, proceeding to tear up the railway leading to it, which was kind of odd considering the German strategy was to use the railway in their invasion. But I guess what did you expect from a regiment whose number is the same as your totally hilarious and original uncle when he plays Sunday League? Their glorious conquest of a random train station in Luxembourg didn’t last for long though as they finally got the memo from the rest of the army of the delay and had to pack their stuff and leave. Later that day, Prime Minister Aishen sent the telegram demanding Germany to respect Luxembourg’s neutrality. However, the Germans were having none of it and launched the invasion for real this time. The following day, Luxembourg surrendered without a fight as Mary Adelaide commanded the Luxembbergish army of about 400 soldiers to stand down. Luxembourg would be under German occupation for the remainder of the war. And although the Grand Duchy got to retain its government and political system, the German military presence overshadowed all aspects of life in the country and especially the capital where the Germans had placed their military headquarters for the western front. Luxembers began to suffer from food shortages and hunger, especially as the war went on and anyone who spoke ill of the occupiers risked being taken as a political prisoner by the Germans. Germany justified its occupation of the neutral country by need to support its armies in France. However, Luxembourg never really swallowed this explanation. As an officially neutral country under occupation, Luxembourg was in a delicate position where it had to do everything it could to not provoke the Germans. Paul Aishin understood that any resistance against the German occupation would be met with severe punishment and so implored the Luxembers not to organize any direct resistance against the occupiers. Luxembburgers, however, did find some ways to work against the Germans. For example, by spying for the British and French secret services and by helping evacuate Allied soldiers who had been stranded in Luxembourg. Luxembourers living abroad didn’t have the same restrictions, however, and as a result, thousands of young men of Luxembourg’s origin living abroad signed up to fight for the Allied armies, mainly France, and later the United States, but also the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada. After the war, the monument of remembrance, better known by its nickname Galifra, was built to commemorate the Luxembers who fought for the Allies. Back in Luxembourg, Mary Adelaide, whose public image was already quite poor, continued to lose support among the Luxembbergish population as the occupation went on. Luxembburgers became especially angry with her when she held a formal reception for the German Kaiser Wilhelm in 1914. As this was seen as a betrayal of the people of Luxembourg in favor of the occupiers. In her defense though, she didn’t really have a choice as provoking the Germans could have led to a full annexation of the Grand Duchy into the empire. Regardless, her reputation would only get worse over time. Her decision to attend her grandmother’s funeral in Germany, although understandable on a human level, only solidified her public image as a pro-German princess. If being occupied by a foreign country wasn’t enough, Luxembourg also descended into a full-blown political crisis when Paul Aishin suddenly died after 27 years of being the prime minister. For context, Luxembourg had only been fully independent for less than 25 years. Aishin had been a largely stabilizing force in Luxembourg’s politics, not only facilitating cooperation between the different political parties, but also keeping the Grand Duchess’s more radical political ideas in check. His death led to a turbulent period in Luxembburggish politics which saw a total of five different prime ministers take office in the next three years with the Grand Duchess even dissolving the Chamber of Deputies on one occasion further tanking her popularity. There was light at the end of the tunnel. However, by 1918, it had become clear that Germany was going to lose the war. Now, for Mary Adelaide, this was a double-edged sword as this meant that the Grand Duchy was going to regain its sovereignty. But on the other hand, Luxembburgers were now freer to voice their disdain for the Grand Duchess, and even Allied governments began to criticize her for being a pro-German agent. Then, probably at the worst time possible for her, her sister Antonia became engaged to a German prince and a field marshal of the German army. This combined with the political turmoil, the food shortages, the four-yearong military occupation, and on top of all of that, the 1918 influenza pandemic made the discontent in Luxembourg reach a boiling point. Germany surrendered in late 1918. And on November 10th, the day before the end of the war, communists in Luxembourg city staged an uprising and declared a social republic. However, this rebellion only lasted for a few days before it was scared off by the arrival of French troops in the country. There was another rebellion in January, this time by a group of Luxembburggish soldiers who also declared a republic and demanded the abdication of Mar Adelaide. The government had to once again turn to the French troops for help, who quickly suppressed the revolt through force. And even though Luxembourg was filled with joy at the liberation of the country, by this point there was nothing that could have saved Mary Adelaide as several members of the chamber began demanding the abdication of the Grand Duchess. This coupled with the fact that the French would not negotiate or have contact with the Grand Duchess who they considered to be compromised left Mary Adelaide no other option but to abdicate which he did on 14th of January 1919 at the age of 24 being succeeded by her sister Charlotte. However, Mary Adelaide’s actions had not tainted the popularity of the monarchy as a whole since in a referendum held later in the same year, Luxembourers overwhelmingly voted to retain the monarchy with Charlotte remaining the Grand Duchess. On the other hand, the end of the First World War did lead to significant social and political reform in other areas. In the same referendum, Luxembburgers voted to align the country economically with France, while up to this point, the country had always been a part of the German customs union. The constitution of the Grand Duchy was also amended, making it more democratic by limiting the powers of the monarchs and introducing universal suffrage for all citizens 21 and older, including women. As for Mary Adelaide, she chose to follow a religious path and joined several convents in Italy. Unfortunately, her health began to rapidly deteriorate and eventually it got so bad that she had to move to live with her family in Germany where she died from influenza at the age of 29 in 1924. Her body was later returned to Luxembourg city where it was interred at the Grand Ducal Crypt of the Notream Cathedral. Her story is certainly a tragic one, and even with all her shortcomings, she always expressed her love for her homeland. Her reign might have been complete chaos from start to finish, but honestly, you can’t think of a much tougher position for a 20-year-old to be in than having to rule over an occupied country during World War I. Over in Luxembourg, the next two decades saw the Grand Duchy begin to recover from the extremely turbulent past few years with the economy beginning to shift from agriculture towards the industrial and service sectors. In turn, the shift was accompanied by the rise of trade unions, workers protections, and early forms of welfare policies. On the international level, the government began an attempt to increase the renown of the Grand Duchy by participating more actively in international organizations. In December 1920, for example, the country joined the League of Nations. On the other hand, the economic impacts of World War I were felt long after the end of the war as international trade would take a long time to recover. To address this, the Chamber of Deputies follow the example set by countries like Switzerland, Monaco, Lichenstein, and Panama and passed the holding law of 1929, often abbreviated to H29, which allowed large foreign companies to pull their capital in Luxembourg and exempt it from tax. In return, the Grand Duchy would collect stamp duties and registration and subscription fees while creating an advantageous business environment would attract capital to Luxembourg’s growing steel industry. And this new policy seemed to work as a number of holding companies in Luxembourg grew by around 1,000 in the next 10 years. The age 29 along with the Luxembourg stock exchange, which had been founded in the previous year, laid the foundation for the Grand Duchy’s eventual transition into an international financial center. For the time being though, the steel industry was the cornerstone of the Grand Duchess economy and the transition to financial services would have to wait as the 1929 stock market crash occurred only three months after passing the law leading to the Great Depression. The economic hardship led to political unrest in the country as a wave of extreme right and left-wing ideologies in Europe swept through Luxembourg. In 1937, the government tried to quell the unrest by outlawing the Communist Party of Luxembourg. However, this was narrowly rejected by the people in a referendum. Unfortunately for Luxembourg, the most important political movement for the country’s future actually happened in neighboring Germany as the YouTube Demonetization Party turned the country into a one party state in 1933. The other major powers of Europe tried to appease the increasingly aggressive Germany in order to avoid another war. But this strategy failed miserably when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Luxembourg once again tried to appeal to their neutrality, which Germany had ratified in 1867. But just like last time, Germany didn’t seem too concerned about it. For the next eight months, the Western Front was locked in the Phony War, during which not a whole lot of actual fighting occurred between the waring nations. During this period, the Grand Duchess and the government considered quickly increasing the Grand Duchess armed forces. However, this idea was eventually scrapped as it would have been perceived as abandoning neutrality and provoking Germany. In the end, there was little the Luxembburggish government could have done to stop the German invasion, and by the 9th of May 1940, the government had received reports that the invasion was imminent. Grand Duchess Charlotte immediately called for an emergency meeting between her and her leading ministers at B Castle, where the Grand Duchess and the government had to make the gut-wrenching decision between remaining in Luxembourg with the people at the risk of becoming a pawn of the occupiers and leaving the Grand Duchy to represent the country’s interests abroad among the Allied nations. The previous occupation by the Germans was still fresh in the minds of the political leadership, and Charlotte herself had seen firsthand what had happened to her late sister because of it. In the end, the only realistic choice was to seek protection from France and continued to fight for Luxembourg sovereignty abroad. The very same night, the Germans finally launched their invasion as German tanks rolled over the border. The government ordered the military to stand down to avoid needless deaths and escape the country to France under the cover of darkness. This would prove to not be a long-term solution either as France was defeated less than 2 months later, forcing the royal family and the government to continue their exile further into Portugal. The Germans tried to persuade Charlotte to return to Luxembourg by letting her remain in charge, but with the benefit of hindsight of the previous occupation, the Grand Duchess refused and took her entourage to North America and later to London, where the government in exile established its headquarters. BBC radio granted the government the ability to send Luxembbergish language broadcast to the occupied Grand Duchy. And Charlotte began making regular broadcast to her fellow Luxembers to boost morale. And despite the Germans attempts to paint the Grand Duchess as a traitor who abandoned her people, thousands of Luxembourers tuned in to listen to her, even at the threat of execution, Charlotte also worked tirelessly on the diplomatic front, traveling to places like Canada and the United States to gain support for her country’s cause. She even forged a strong personal friendship with the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, despite his best efforts, Roosevelt couldn’t convince Congress and the American people of the danger posed by Germany. Over in Luxembourg, the country was reorganized into the civil administration area of Luxembourg, where German became the official language of the former Grand Duchy, while the use of Luxembburggish and French was banned completely. The Germans appointed a man named Gustaf Simon as the chief of the civil administration, who to this day is perhaps the most hated person in the Grand Duchy. Simon believed that Luxembourg was ethnically and culturally an inseparable part of Germany. In his opinion, the only reason Luxembourg had stayed independent was because the political class had kept it so for political power. And therefore, the Luxembbergish population would just need to be re-educated to embrace their German identity. And so, Simon began an intensive propaganda and Germanization campaign to turn the loyalty of Luxembourers to their supposed motherland. He began the integration of the former Grand Duchy into Germany by abolishing Luxembourg civil and political institutions like political parties, labor unions, and the Chamber of Deputies. Teachers, officials, leading business figures, and Catholic priests were threatened to conform to the will of the German occupiers while a central registry kept track of the opinions of regular Luxembburgers. As a symbol of the Luxembburggish resistance against German in the First World War, the Galifra had to be dismantled. While many squares and streets were renamed after German officials and ideology, the Luxmbba vot, which had been staunchly critical of the occupiers, was transformed into a propaganda arm for the Germans, while the director and the editors of the paper were arrested and sent to a camp in Austria, with only one of the editors, Pier Reagua, surviving the imprisonment. Many others who resisted suffered a similar fate, while others who got a less severe punishment were in turned at the Nyminster Abbey. Now, surprisingly, their waterproof plan to make Luxembourers embrace the motherland didn’t actually manage to make them feel any more German. In 1941, the Germans carried out a survey of Luxembourg civilians who were asked to state their nationality, mother tongue, and ethnicity. And contrary to Simone’s beliefs, 95% of the respondents answered Luxembburggish to each question. Simone naturally responded in the only way he knew how, by punishing the Luxembers with mass arrests. A rare minority of Luxembourers either rose up against the Germans or actively sided with them. The vast majority, however, participated in non-violent passive resistance, for example, through wearing pins showcasing the national colors of Luxembourg, the Grand Ducal code of arms, or even simply the letter C in honor of Charlotte. Now, in Simone’s opinion, Luxembburgers were German whether they liked it or not. And in August 1942, he announced that the civil administration area of Luxembourg would formally be annexed into Germany. Now, this wasn’t a simple transfer of administrative responsibilities since this move made Luxembourers full German citizens, meaning that they could now be conscripted into the German army. By now, the tensions between the occupiers and the locals had reached a boiling point. And Luxembburgers organized a general strike to the country’s economy. The Germans decided to put down the strike by the harshest method possible, arresting the strike leaders and sentencing them to death at a camp near Trier. Ultimately, there was little Luxembourers could do against the occupiers, and around 12,000 young Luxembburggish men would be conscripted to fight for a country they hated. Around 3,000 of whom would never be seen again. Now, of course, the group that suffered the worst were the Jews. Luxembourg had around 4,000 Jews living in the Grand Duchy before the outbreak of the war, many of whom were refugees from Germany. In 1940, when the Germans invaded the country, most of them managed to escape, with most settling in France, while others left for the United States. However, there were still around 800 Jews left in Luxembourg when the Germans began the deportations in 1941. While many of the Jews that had fled to France and Belgium were also captured, leading to around 1,400 of Luxembourg’s pre-war Jewish population to be deported to ghettos and camps in Poland and Bohemia, only around 40 of whom would survive the war. The fate of Luxembourg rested completely on the allies ability to win the war which was looking quite grim for the first few years from 1939 to 1941 as Britain was forced to abandon the continent through Dunkirk and France had been quickly defeated thereafter. In 1941, however, there were two major events that turned the tide for the allies. In June, Germany invaded the Soviet Union with the intent to quickly capture Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. However, this ended up being a massive miscalculation on the Germans part as not only did they not achieve their goal, but the attack brought the Soviet Union into the Allied powers. But it would only get worse for Germany since 2 days after their advance was halted by the Soviets, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in the United States, which finally brought the economic powerhouse into the war on the side of the Allies. In just the span of a year, Germany had gotten itself into a two-front war against two of the biggest countries in the world. Over in London, Charlotte’s 21-year-old son, the era parent Shawn, volunteered in the British Army’s Irish Guard in 1942. He received officer training at the Royal Military College and was promoted to the rank of captain by 1944. On June 6th, the Allies finally began their invasion of continental Europe by storming the beaches of Normandy and successfully establishing a beach head in northwestern France. Jean and his unit were deployed to Normandy 5 days after D-Day, from where they moved to capture the cities of Khan and Brussels. Meanwhile, other allied forces quickly advanced in southern France and Paris, leading Gustav Simon to order the German forces to retreat from Luxembourg. Jean along with his father Felix joined the American Fifth Armored Division to liberate Luxembourg city on the 10th of September 1944, largely without any fighting taking place. The people enthusiastically welcomed their Arab parent back home, who became a strong symbol of national unity. Shawn couldn’t stay for long, however, as he had to rejoin his unit in their invasion of the Netherlands. Regardless, after four brutal years, Luxembourg could begin to recover from the occupation by repairing damaged buildings, removing German street signs, setting up aid programs, and setting up courts for the collaborators to the German regime. The Galifra was also partially restored, although the actual golden statue of the Greek goddess Nike, from which the nickname Galifra comes from, had been lost during the occupation. The fighting in Luxembourg wasn’t over yet, however, as there was a small battle in Byondan in November 1944, where a Luxembburggish militia of 30 men miraculously defeated a German force of 250. Though this would only be a prelude for something bigger, as less than a month later in December, the Germans launched the Ardens offensive, aiming to split the Allied forces in half by capturing Antverb and forcing them to sign a peace treaty that would allow Germany to focus on the Eastern Front. In what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans caught the Allied forces by surprise on 16th of December 1944 when they began a rapid advance through eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg, quickly capturing the town of Clarvo and forcing the Americans on the retreat. The Germans wasted no time in bringing back their reign of terror to northern Luxembourg, leading to the arrest of around 120 Luxembburggish civilians, 39 of whom were executed. However, the German advance would be stopped on Christmas Eve, far from their target of Antworp. At this point, the momentum shifted to the Allies favor, who started pushing the Germans back. It took barely a month before the Allies recaptured Luxembourg and Belgium, ending the last major German offensive on the Western Front. The invasion of Germany began the next month in February with an assault against the severely weakened German defense. Jean and his unit crossed the Dutch German border and started an offensive to capture northern Germany. It took just 3 months before Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending the Second World War in Europe. Grand Duchess Charlotte returned to Luxembourg on April 14th, 1945 to the cheers of the Luxembourgish people. However, it would take years and decades even for the country to recover from the horrible occupation. After the war, Gustaf Simon went into hiding trying to pose as a gardener in a small town in Western Germany. However, he was discovered by British soldiers in late 1945 and taken into a prison to await trial in Luxembourg. From here, it’s unclear what happened to him. He either ended his own life in prison or was executed before reaching Luxembourg. Regardless, the tyrant’s corpse was taken to Luxembourg city, where it was buried in an undisclosed location. Charlotte returned to the throne in a Grand Duchy that had fundamentally changed during the occupation. Luxembourg formally ended its neutral status under the Constitution in 1948, becoming a founding member of NATO in the following year and even sending a small contingent of troops to fight in the Korean War. The country was also one of the founding members of the United Nations and the three post-war European communities of the European Atomic Energy Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Coal and Steel Community, the last of which became headquartered in Luxembourg City. Other European institutions such as the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and the European Investment Bank were also headquartered in the city, laying the foundation for Luxembourg’s role in European politics. In sports, Luxembourg won his first and only official gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics when Joseph Bartell surprised everyone by winning the 1500 meter run. Now, the Luxembourg city native Michelat had also won the gold medal for the marathon at the 1900 Paris Olympics while representing France. However, it was later revealed that Theat, who had moved from Luxembourg to Paris at the age of 12, hadn’t actually received a French citizenship and should have therefore represented Luxembourg. The Olympic Committee on the other hand refused to change his nationality to Luxembourgish in the official records and to this day the matter is disputed. In politics, the year 1964 marked an end to an era when Charlotte announced her abdication in favor of her son and the war hero Jean, ending her nearly 46-year long reign, which to this day is the longest of any of the monarchs since the creation of the Grand Duchy and also began the tradition of peaceful abdications within the royal family. Charlotte enjoyed a peaceful life until her death in 1985 from cancer after which he was interned in the Grand Ducal Crypt of the Notream Cathedral. During his reign, Jean oversaw one of the most major economic transformations in the country’s history. The steel industry in Luxembourg began to decline in the decades following the Second World War. So, the government decided to shift its focus to making the country a global financial center, the groundwork for which had been laid back all the way back with the holding law of 1929. The country’s pro business policies and favorable tax laws made it especially attractive to banks with the banking sector eventually becoming the country’s largest industry. Luxembourg city became an important center for European politics and international finance. The city also became wellknown throughout Europe through cultural events such as the Eurovvision Song Contest, which the city hosted a total of four times between 1962 and 1984, the second most for any city. Additionally, the Schuboya solidified itself as a major European funfair with the fair’s attendance exceeding 1 million for the first time sometime around the 1980s. The 1980s also saw three other momentous events for the Luxembburggish national identity. The first one was in 1980 when the Galifra was finally found after 40 years of it being missing. Apparently, the Luxembburgers in 1940 had hidden it under the mainst of the national stadium in Luxembourg city, but it seems sadly whoever hid it there hadn’t survived the war to tell where the statue was. The rediscovery of the Galifra allowed for its monument to finally be restored and unveiled 5 years later in 1985. In the same year, the nine men, the prison, which has served that purpose since the French Revolution, was finally closed down, allowing it to be restored and turned into a cultural center where all Luxembourers can enjoy one of the city’s most important pieces of cultural heritage. And lastly, the government decided to make Luxembburggish the Grand Duchy’s national language in 1984, showing Luxembourg’s commitment to its own unique identity. The latter half of the 20th century was also a time of demographic change in the Grand Duchy. From the late 1800s, Luxembourg had relied on immigration from Germany and Italy to provide labor for its growing economy. But by the 1960s, immigration from these countries had begun to decline. However, starting in the 1960s, thousands of people from Portugal began immigrating out of the country to escape its economic and political issues, with many deciding to settle in Luxembourg. By the 21st century, nearly 60,000 Portuguese nationals were living in the Grand Duchy, which was around 13% of the country’s population. Meanwhile, many other nationals were also attracted to Luxembourg thanks to its growing financial industry. By the end of the 20th century, Luxembourg city itself had grown to around 77,000, largely thanks to immigration from other European countries. Luxembourgish politicians have played a key role in the formation and the establishment of the European Union, with three of the 13 presidents of the European Commission having come from Luxembourg. the most of any country. Former Luxembourg Prime Minister Pier Verer is also credited with creating the original draft for a common European currency which was later adapted to create the euro. In the year 2000, Shawn followed his mother’s example and abdicated his throne in favor of his son Henry who has the most Luxembourgish name of all time. In turn, Henry himself has made the decision to abdicate his throne later this year in 2025 in favor of his son Guom, who is set to become the 10th Grand Duke of Luxembourg. and fun fact is the 33rd generation descendant of Sief Freed. He’s the founder of Luxembourg, just in case you forgot by this point. Today, Luxembourg city is one of the richest and most influential places on Earth and consistently ranks high for both personal safety and quality of living. In 2020, Luxembourg became the first country in the world to offer completely free public transportation, which of course includes the capital. While the nearly 700year-old Shopifier continues to provide the citizens of Luxembourg and the wider region with fun activities and fun memories with friends and family. If you ever look up Luxembourg on YouTube, you’ll encounter a dozen videos wondering why such a small country even exists. And Luxembourg’s independence was definitely not a given. Founded by a guy who wanted to prove himself in a medieval society that left him with no significant inheritance in favor of his older brothers, followed by a line of counts that industriously built themselves up in the game of medieval royal politics. reaching the peak only to collapse as fast as they had gotten there. Between being contested by the Austrians, the Spanish, the French, the Dutch, the Belgians, and the Germans, and becoming a pawn in the geopolitical games of the major European superpowers, the fact that Luxembourg still exists is truly astonishing. Yet, this tiny powerhouse of politics and finance with its medieval funfairs, castles, and the last remaining Grand Duke in the world remains as a stark reminder to us of Europe’s feudal past. And I, for one, think would have been proud of that. But now that we’ve explored why Luxembourg, let’s next explore what Luxembourg like. Ugabooga. Now, I’ve always had a fascination with tiny countries. So, Luxembourg had actually always been at the top of my list. And so, in October 2023, I decided to finally pack my stuff and figure out what the world’s last Grand Duchy was all about. I know these videos take a really long time to make. Now, I’m from Finland and believe it or not, but there are no direct flights between the two countries. So instead, I had to fly to Brussels and then take the train down to Luxembourg. And after a three and a half hour train ride through Belgium, I had finally arrived in everyone’s favorite Grand Duchy from the 21st century. My hotel was located in the neighborhood of Gar, mainly because you actually have to take out a mortgage just to afford to stay in the city center. This quaint little part of the city is populated by a bunch of different bars, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. Also got a fantastic kebab here next to my hotel. The neighborhood is creatively named Gar, meaning station in honor of the Luxembourg railway station that’s located here. As far as European cities go, the station is quite far from the city center at a distance of around 1 kilometer. This is because when the station was built in 1859, the city’s fortifications prevented it from being built within the city limits and instead the city planners had to build it in an empty field south of the city. The neighborhood you’re seeing on the screen right now rapidly grew around the new station. The building of the station was so significant for Luxembourg in fact that a patriotic song was written for the opening ceremony. And one of the lines in that song, we want to remain what we are is now the national motto of the Grand Duchy. From here, I started making my way to the city center. To get there, you need to cross the steep Brew Valley. And to do this, I decided to walk across the pastoral bridge. Here, you can get some of the most stunning views of the city. The geography of Luxembourg city is one of my favorites for any city I’ve been to. There’s just something majestic about the city on this deep rock surrounded by this valley that they’ve decided to dedicate as a public park. It really makes you understand why Seafrid decided to build his fortress here over 1,000 years ago. Especially in the early evening, the sunlight makes the city glow like it came straight out of a fantasy movie. After crossing the bridge, you’re immediately greeted by the Judiciary City, a group of buildings that house all of Luxembourg’s most important courts. I didn’t know this though. I just thought the buildings look pretty. The city center itself is officially known as the villot in French and Ubashtad in Luxembourgish, literally meaning high city. And no, I haven’t quantum traveled to Amsterdam by accident. It’s called that because the city is in fact quite high up on the hill. This is the oldest part of the city and is dominated by historical town houses containing many of the city’s most important historical sites. Thanks to this, the city center has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The first major attraction on our tour is the Notream Cathedral. This late Gothic style church is one of, if not the most important church in all of Luxembourg as it is the Catholic Cathedral of the Arch Dascese of Luxembourg and additionally holds the Grand Ducal Crypt where all of the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses have been interred since 1946. The exterior of the cathedral is mainly built in the late Gothic style with some Renaissance elements as well. Well, the interior mixes both Gothic and Baroque elements. Right across the street from the Notream is the Plast de la Constitution Square in English, which host the famous Galifra, officially known as the monument of remembrance. The monument is dedicated to the Luxembburggish volunteers who fought on the side of the Allies during the World Wars, as well as the ones who fought in the Korean War and the Spanish Civil War. The monument’s nickname, Galafra, which means the Golden Lady in English, comes from the gilded bronze statue representing the Greek goddess Nike that sits at top the obelisk. The statue was actually lost for a period of 40 years after it was hidden during the occupation in the Second World War. Since its restoration in 1985, the statue has been removed only once for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The Pla Constitution is located on an old bastion of the former fortress of Luxembourg where you can get some pretty incredible views of the city and the valley below. There’s also this pretty cool park on the side of the old city walls where you can relax and enjoy the view. I have no clue how you’re supposed to get down there, but I guess looking at it is fine, too. Next, I decided to look back around to my hotel for the night. On my way, I came across the Boulevard Royale at the western end of the old town. Now, this might look like just a street because it is, but this is where the old city wall used to be located before it was demolished in the 1860s. I crossed the Adolf Bridge over to the Gar district where I could once again get some pretty spectacular views of the city. If I didn’t walk like a mammoth here, this would have been a really cool shot. Honestly, this place is just so nice. Just across the bridge, there’s the headquarters for the Luxembourg stateowned spookies bank. Now, I wasn’t interested in getting a car loan. It just caught my eye because of its distinctive shape, which makes it a pretty prominent site on the city skyline. But before I went back to my hotel, I wanted to explore the district a little bit to see if I could find anything interesting. Uh, but it seems like I didn’t since the only clip I have is this random shot of some trees. Now, I filmed these clips almost 2 years ago, so I honestly don’t know what’s the point in some of these. The next morning, I headed back to the Adolf Bridge from where I could descend down to the valley where I could check out the Petruse parks. The steep valley creates a sound barrier between the park and the busy streets above which creates a tranquil nature oasis in the middle of the capital. The park offers a lot of different free activities like a fitness park, sport fields, and a skate park. The most prominent feature of the park is definitely the steep rock faces that surround the valley with evidence of the old fortifications scattered around everywhere like these old casemates here. makes you realize how the city managed to become one of the most unconquerable fortresses in the Middle Ages. I made my way to the foot of the Pasarel, the bridge that I had crossed the previous day to get to the city center. And this is pretty much where the park ends. Overall, it’s really unique with the steep rock faces on both sides, allowing for some pretty amazing photo opportunities. I don’t really have a city park ranking, but if I did, this would be near the top of it. The next area, though, might be my favorite part of the whole city. The park ends at the southern end of the Grunt district, a picturesque neighborhood at the foot of the promontory. In the middle ages, the city was divided into two parts. The high city up on the promontory and the lower city down in the valley. This lower part of the city was mainly inhabited by craftsmen who used the river to export their products. The Grunt was one of the neighborhoods that comprised the lower city and today is a quiet and picturesque area with its charming and colorful town houses. Against the backdrop of the upper city, this district just looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale. This is one of the most popular tourist spots in the country and there is no surprise as to why. Probably the most iconic landmark in the district is the Nine Monster Abbey. The name means new monastery as it replaced the old monastery that was destroyed by the French in the 1500s. Now, despite being called an abbey, the building hasn’t served a religious purpose since the French Revolution over 200 years ago. It’s been used for a variety of purposes for the past two centuries, including a prison, military barracks, and even an orphanage with it being used today as a meeting place and a cultural center. Next, I decided to walk back up the hill to the city center. Along the way, getting to enjoy some pretty impressive views of the Grunt District. On my way, I passed through the Spanish Gate built during the Spanish period in the 1600s, which is one of the last remaining pieces of the city’s old fortifications. I finally made it to the top of the promontory. It was quite the hike, but nothing beats the view from up here. It doesn’t come across so well on camera, but if you ever come to Luxembourg City, this place is the number one must-go site in the whole city. The view of the Alset Valley and the Grunt District is genuinely stunning and is one of my favorite viewpoints in Europe. At this point, I was right next to the famous Bach Promontory. This rocky outcrop is one of the most important sites in the entire country as this is where Sie established his castle in 963, effectively giving birth to the city and the country in the process. This became one of the most fortified locations in the entire world for the next 900 years until the fortress was dismantled in the 1800s. The Luxembburgers at that time didn’t completely destroy the citadel, however, and to this day some of its ruins are still visible. The Bach is also known for its casemates, a series of underground tunnels initially built by the Austrians in the 1700s to make the fortress even more defendable. From here, I went back to the city center. And honestly, it’s incredible how different the park, the Grund, and the upper city feel in atmosphere despite being right next to each other. I made my way to Plazi, the city’s main square. The plaza is named after the king of the Netherlands and the second Grand Duke of Luxembourg, William II, whose statue stands in the middle of the square. Unfortunately, the square was under repair when I was there, but at least it seems like a pretty cool hangout spot with all the restaurants and the dancing water fountain. The square is overlooked by the city hall, completed in 1838. It was built in the neocclassical style and is guarded by these sculptures of lions. A short walk from the square stands the Grand Ducal Palace. The building is called that because it’s a palace where the Grand Duke lives. The palace was originally the city hall of Luxembourg city from the late 1500s until the French Revolution, after which it served a variety of administrative purposes until it was finally turned into the residence of the Grand Duke in 1890. It’s a very pretty building, and during summer months, you can even go and visit it inside. Right next to the palace is the Hall of the Chamber of Deputies, the Parliament of the Grand Duchy. Before the building’s construction in 1860, the Chamber had no official meeting place. instead meeting wherever the most convenient like the palace, the city hall, or even a primary school once. Since the opening of the chamber hall, the chamber of deputies has convened here with only a few exceptions. Next, I just kind of walked around the city. I walked past the plast, another major square in the city. This one offering a bit more shade than the other one. Overall, the city center is filled with beautiful architecture, shopping streets, quiet little alleys, and monuments commemorating the country’s history, like the statue of Grand Duchess Charlotte, and this memorial to the victims of the Second World War. At this point, I noticed on Google Maps that there was a place called Great Viewpoint by the Judiciary City. And you already know that I’m a sucker for a good view. So, of course, I had to go check it out. And the view definitely did not disappoint. Here, you can get another great view of the Groot District. Now, I still like the other viewpoint more, but this is also a fantastic view, and I think this is a pretty good place to end this tour. All in all, this place is incredible. The city is peaceful, great to walk around, and above all, really pretty. The different districts give it a lot of variety, and the city center’s location on a steep hill makes it feel like it’s straight out of a fantasy novel. There’s so many things to see and do, and many of them I didn’t even get to do in this video. For example, if you come in the summer, you could go on the tour of the Grand Dugal Palace. And of course, you would have to go to the Shouafoya. If I ever come back, I’d also like to visit Fort Tungan, a reconstruction of one of the forts that surrounded the city before Luxembourg city was defortified. I really had an amazing time in Luxembourg City. But after spending a couple days in this amazing little country, it was time to head back to the train station where I would continue my adventures to somewhere new. But that is finally going to wrap up this absolutely massive video on the history and the city of Luxembourg. I really hope you enjoyed it. Now, this is only the first part of a four-part series across Western Europe. And usually I would be saying that the next episode will be coming out next week. However, I’ve decided to change the format a bit. At the time of recording this, this video has taken me over 300 hours to make, and I didn’t want to just let it sit in my storage while I work on the other episodes. So, I decided to upload this immediately. I’ll try to get the next episodes done as soon as possible as hopefully they won’t take as long as this one. There was a lot of complex history I had to learn for this, especially with the Holy Roman Empire. That thing is a nightmare to understand. Now, as always, the patrons on Patreon will be getting the next episode a week early, just like always. But I’ve now decided to also provide YouTube members with 24-hour early access to every new upload. I actually get a larger cut of the revenue on Patreon than on YouTube. So, becoming a patron would help me out the most. But I get if YouTube is more convenient for you. So, that’s why I wanted to offer members over here something as well. But, thank you so much once again for watching. If you’re still listening, you’re an absolute legend. See you hopefully soon with another upload. See you in Belgium. [Music]

Affiliate: Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here – https://nordvpn.com/AntonTheKicker
It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!

Tell me what you think about the video in the comments down below!

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA03v_ZC6C9l-IUCv9Nqtig
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/AntonTheKicker

AntonTheKicker

#Travel #History #LuxembourgCity #Luxembourg #luxembourgville #Europe

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
02:21 – Pre-Luxembourg History
10:43 – Founding of the City
19:10 – 2nd House of Luxembourg
39:20 – Late Middle Ages
45:54 – French Revolution
50:00 – Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
1:02:14 – Full Independence
1:05:59 – The World Wars
1:23:56 – Post-War
1:30:25 – My Visit
1:40:45 – Outro

Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg; French: Luxembourg; German: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City (Luxembourgish: Stad Lëtzebuerg or d’Stad; French: Ville de Luxembourg; German: Stadt Luxemburg or Luxemburg-Stadt), is the capital city of Luxembourg and the country’s most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxembourg, the city lies at the heart of Western Europe, situated 213 km (132 mi) by road from Brussels and 209 km (130 mi) from Cologne. The city contains Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.

Cities from different Countries
A fun history of Europe – Simplified
A fun history of Luxembourg – Simplified