The Duchy of Luxemburg (French: Luxembourg, Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg) is a state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg.
The House of Luxembourg, now Duke of Limburg, becomes one of the most important political forces in the fourteenth century, competing against the House of Habsburg for supremacy in Central Europe.
They will be the heirs to the Přemyslid dynasty in the Kingdom of Bohemia, succeeding the Kingdom of Hungary and contributing four Holy Roman Emperors until their own line of male heirs came to an end and the House of Habsburg getst the pieces that the two Houses had originally agreed upon in the Treaty of Brünn in 1364.
In 1411, Sigismund of Luxembourg lost the duchy to his niece Elisabeth because he defaulted on a loan.
Elizabeth later sold the duchy to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good of the House of Valois-Burgundy, who paid her off in 1444.
The Dukes of Burgundy had previously acquired a number of other possessions in the Low Countries, including Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Brabant, Zeeland, Holland, and Namur; Luxembourg and these other Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries are collectively referred to during this period (1384–1482) as the Burgundian Netherlands.
The male line of the Dukes of Burgundy dies out in 1477 when Philip's son Charles the Bold dies at the Battle of Nancy, leaving his only child Mary of Burgundy as his heiress.
After his death, Mary marries Archduke Maximilian I of the House of Habsburg, who later becomes Holy Roman Emperor; hereafter the Burgundian Netherlands comes under the rule of the House of Habsburg, beginning the period of the Habsburg Netherlands (1482–1581).
With the abdication in 1555 of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also King of Spain Charles I), the Habsburg Netherlands pass to his son King Philip II of Spain.
During the Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years War, the seven northern provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands break away from Spain to form the Dutch Republic in 1581, while the remaining ten southern provinces (including Luxembourg) remain under Spanish rule until 1714.
During this time, the remaining southern provinces are referred to as the Spanish Netherlands (or Southern Netherlands, a name that continues under Austrian rule).
The War of Spanish Succession, which is fought after the Spanish Habsburg line dies out in 1700, resultsin the Spanish Netherlands coming under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria in 1714, thereby beginning the period of the Austrian Netherlands.
The area remains under Austrian rule until the French Revolution, when it is taken over by France in 1795.
