A thousand years of Luxembourg, told at walking pace

Luxembourg’s history is the story of a small place with a strategic rock in the middle of Europe, and almost everything that happened to it follows from that. For centuries, whoever wanted to control the route between France and the German lands needed the fortress. That’s why it changed hands so often, why it was pulled down in 1867 and why, after two invasions in the 20th century, it threw itself behind a united Europe. Here it is in six chapters.

A castle, a line of counts and three emperors

It begins in 963, when Count Sigefroi swapped land with the monks of St Maximin in Trier for the castle on the Bock. According to the commune of Feulen, the land he gave up was his estate there. A fortified town grew around it and, through marriages, purchases and the odd war, the county had become a serious regional power by the early 13th century. It straddled the language border, part German-speaking and part French-speaking.

The high point came next. In 1308 Count Henry VII was elected King of the Romans, and in 1312 a papal legate crowned him emperor in Rome. He died of malaria the following year and is buried in Pisa. After him Charles IV, who made the county a duchy in 1354, and Sigismund, who died in 1437, also wore the imperial crown.

John the Blind and the Black Prince

This is the chapter British readers tend to enjoy. John the Blind, Henry VII’s son, was King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg. Having lost his sight late in life, he still rode into the Battle of Crécy in 1346, led by his knights, and was killed there. Legend has it that Edward the Black Prince, fighting on the winning English side, was so struck by his courage that he adopted his crest and the motto «Ich dien» (I serve), which the official portal notes still appears in the arms of the heir to the British throne. John also signed the founding charter of the Schueberfouer fair in 1340, and he lies in the crypt of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Luxembourg on Booking.com and filter by area before price.

Four centuries of foreign masters

Debt finished the dynasty. In 1441 the last duchess sold the duchy to Philip the Good of Burgundy, and in 1443 his troops took and sacked the city. Four centuries of rule from elsewhere followed. Under the Habsburgs, the duchy sat on Spain’s side of its long contest with France, and Paris saw its fortress as a thorn in its flank. The Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 cost it Thionville and Longwy.

In 1684 Louis XIV’s army took the city, and Vauban, who had directed the siege, rebuilt the walls until they were reckoned impregnable. It went back to the Habsburgs in 1697, to their Austrian branch in 1715, and the 18th century under Maria Theresa was peaceful. Revolutionary France arrived in 1795 and renamed it the Département des Forêts. Conscription sparked the Cudgel War, the Klëppelkrich, in 1798, and it was put down within two days. What survives of that fortress is covered in Luxembourg fortress.

From tied grand duchy to a country of its own

In 1815 the Congress of Vienna raised it to a grand duchy, yet gave it to the Dutch king and stationed Prussian troops in the fortress. When the Belgian revolution broke out in 1830, Luxembourgers joined in, and only the capital, protected by the Prussians, stayed under Dutch control. A treaty signed in London on 19 April 1839 settled things with a partition, creating two Luxembourgs, the grand duchy and a Belgian province.

In 1841 King William II granted a first constitutional charter and the country joined the Zollverein, the German customs union that powered its steel industry and railways. In 1867 Napoleon III tried to buy it for five million gold francs, and the crisis ended with another Treaty of London that pulled out the Prussians, had the fortress razed and made the country permanently neutral. In 1890 William III died, and since the Nassau family agreement admitted only men to the succession, the throne went to Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg, founder of today’s ruling family. I follow it through to Guillaume in Grand Duke of Luxembourg. How power is shared today is covered in Luxembourg government.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Luxembourg on Expedia and filter by area before price.

Two wars and a hard lesson

Neutrality didn’t protect it. It had already been violated in the First World War, and German troops crossed the border again on 10 May 1940, less than 25 years later. Grand Duchess Charlotte and the government went into exile, eventually in London, while the occupiers banned French and forcibly conscripted some 10,000 young men into the German army. 5,700 people died, about 2% of the population, and of nearly 1,300 Jews deported only 69 survived. For the whole story, read Luxembourg in the Second World War.

Luxembourg and a united Europe

Modern Luxembourg grew out of that experience. A founder of the UN in 1945 and of Benelux, it took part in the Schuman Plan, hosted the ECSC High Authority from 1952 and signed the Treaties of Rome in 1957. In 1985 the village of Schengen gave its name to the agreement on open borders. The latest chapter, for now, came in 2025. On 3 October Henri abdicated after 25 years on the throne and his son Guillaume was sworn in as Grand Duke.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Luxembourg and pick one that fits your day.

Where the bus does not go, a car does: compare car hire in Luxembourg before you arrive rather than at the desk.

If you still need a way in, check the best ticket deals to Luxembourg from where you are.