LUXEMBURG, formerly a duchy, bounded on the N. by the Belgian prov ince of Liege, on the W. by that of Na mur, on the E. by Rhenish Prussia and on the S. by France; area, 2,700 square miles. A chain of hills, branching from the Ardennes, traverses the country from S. W. to N. E., forming the dividing line between the basins of the Meuse and the Moselle. The valleys are fertile, but the rest of the country has mostly a stony and barren soil; and in some parts a good deal of the surface is occupied with marshes, heaths, and poor waste land. The chief branch of rural industry is the rearing of cattle for exportation. Horses are good. There are few countries where iron is more abundant. The in habitants, generally of Saxon origin, are all Roman Catholics. Luxemburg was ceded to Siegfried by the monastery of Treves, and created a county in 965. In the 12th century it came into the pos session of the Counts of Limburg, who took the title of Counts of Luxemburg. The emperor Charles IV. erected it into a duchy in 1354. It came to Philip of Burgundy by his marriage with Isabella, daughter to the King of Portugal, in 1443, and through him passed to the house of Spain, with whom it remained till the peace of the Pyrenees, when part of it was ceded to France, Nov. 7, 1659. It was ceded to France by the treaty of Campo-Formio, Oct. 17, 1797, and it passed to Holland in exchange for cer tain German principalities in 1814, and became a grand-duchy. In consequence
of the Belgian revolution, Luxemburg was dismembered, and a portion was assigned to Belgium by the conference of London, in October, 1831, and a fresh division wa., made in 1839, that part as signed to Belgium being now known as the Province of Luxemburg, the rest form ing the present Grand-duchy, the King of Holland retaining the title of Grand Duke of Luxemburg. The Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide succeeded her father Grand Duke Wilhelm in February, 1912, and, in turn, was succeeded by her sis ter, Princess Charlotte, Jan. 15, 1919. The neutrality of the Duchy was vio lated in August, 1914, by the German armies.
By the terms of the Peace Treaty of May 7, 1919, Germany renounced her treaties and conventions, railroad rights, released the Duchy from the Zollverein from Jan. 1, 1919, adhered to abrogation of neutrality and accepted international agreement of Allied powers. The Grand duchy is divided into the district of Luxemburg (identical with the Dutch province) and the districts of Diekirch and Grevenmacher. The Belgian prov ince is governed like other provinces. Area of the Grand-duchy 998 square miles. Pop. about 260,000.