The history of Luxembourg consists of the history of the country of Luxembourg and its geographical area.
The Luxembourg Armed Forces are the national military force of Luxembourg. The army has been a fully volunteer military since 1967. As of December 2018, it has 939 personnel.
The grand ducal family of Luxembourg constitutes the House of Luxembourg-Nassau, headed by the sovereign grand duke, and in which the throne of the grand duchy is hereditary. It consists of heirs and descendants of the House of Nassau-Weilburg, whose sovereign territories passed cognatically from the House of Nassau to the House of Bourbon-Parma, itself a branch of the Spanish royal house which is agnatically a cadet branch of the House of Capet that originated in France, itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians and the founding house of the Capetian dynasty.
The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been a grand duchy since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former Duchy of Luxembourg. It was in personal union with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1890 under the House of Orange-Nassau. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign Grand Duchy and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the incumbent, Henri.
A gendarmerie is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "men-at-arms", or "rural police". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory, with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions adopted a gendarmerie after independence. A similar concept exists in Eastern Europe in the form of Internal Troops, which are present in many countries of the former Soviet Union and its former allied countries.
Marie-Adélaïde, was Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1912 until her abdication in 1919. She was the first Grand Duchess regnant of Luxembourg, its first female monarch since Duchess Maria Theresa and the first Luxembourgish monarch to be born within the territory since Count John the Blind (1296–1346).
The linguistic situation in Luxembourg is characterized by the practice and the recognition of three official languages: French, German, and the national language Luxembourgish, established in law in 1984. These three languages are also referred to as the three administrative languages, as the constitution does not specify them as being "official". As of 2018, 98% of the population was able to speak French at more or less a high level, 78% spoke German, and 77% Luxembourgish.
The Gendarmerie (French) or Rijkswacht (Dutch) was the former national Gendarmerie force of the Kingdom of Belgium. It became a civilian police organisation in 1992, a status it retained until 1 January 2001, when it was, together with the other existing police forces in Belgium, abolished and replaced by the Federal Police and the Local Police.
The National Gendarmerie is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police. The Gendarmerie is a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, with additional duties from the Ministry of Armed Forces. Its responsibilities include policing smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas, crowd and riot control, criminal investigation, including cybercrime. By contrast, the National Police is a civilian law enforcement agency that is in charge of policing cities and larger towns. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defence missions. The Gendarmerie has a strength of around 102,269 people.
The Grand Ducal Police is the national police force of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The police is under the control of the Minister for the Interior of Luxembourg, although they operate in the name, and under the ultimate control, of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Day-to-day executive control is exercised by the Director-General of the Grand Ducal Police. The Grand Ducal Police has existed in its current form since 1 January 2000, when the Grand Ducal Gendarmerie was merged with the police service.
The Republic of Bouillon was perhaps a short-lived French client republic, around the city of Bouillon in present-day Belgium, based on the Duchy of Bouillon, which had existed between France and the Austrian Netherlands since the 15th century. Reforms, sponsored by the duke, abolishing manorialism and feudalism and establishing a constitutional basis for the monarchy did not prevent what many sources describe as the proclamation of a republic in April 1794. The claimed republic was short-lived, however, as the territory was annexed by the French First Republic 18 months later. However, there is no clear source about the existence of this republic. In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the duchy was absorbed into the promoted Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, becoming a part of Belgium when that nation was founded in the 1830s.
The House of Bourbon-Parma is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the French Capetian dynasty in male line. Its name of Bourbon-Parma comes from the main name (Bourbon) and the other (Parma) from the title of Duke of Parma. The title was held by the Spanish Bourbons, as the founder Philip, Duke of Parma was the great-grandson of Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. The House of Bourbon-Parma is today the Sovereign House of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (agnatically) and all members of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg are members of the House of Bourbon-Parma with the title of "Princes/Princesses" and the predicate of Royal Highness.
The Luxembourgish government in exile, also known as the Luxembourgish government in London, was the government in exile of Luxembourg during the Second World War. The government was based in London between 1940 and 1944, while Luxembourg was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was led by Pierre Dupong, and also included three other Ministers. The head of state, Grand Duchess Charlotte, also escaped from Luxembourg after the occupation. The government was bipartite, including two members from both the Party of the Right (PD) and the Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP).
The German invasion of Luxembourg was part of Case Yellow, the German invasion of the Low Countries—Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands—and France during World War II. The battle began on 10 May 1940 and lasted just one day. Facing only light resistance, German troops quickly occupied Luxembourg. The Luxembourgish government, and Grand Duchess Charlotte, managed to escape the country and a government-in-exile was created in London.
Baron Charles Auguste de Tornaco de Vervoz was a Luxembourgish industrialist and politician. He was born and died at the castle of Vervoz near Clavier, Liège.
The Reuter Ministry was the government in office in Luxembourg from 28 September 1918 until 20 March 1925, headed by Émile Reuter. It resulted from the Chamber elections of 28 July and 4 August 1918 and was reshuffled on 5 January 1920 as a result of the elections of 26 October 1919. There was a further reshuffle on 15 April 1921, when the Liberals left the government.
The Revolution of 1848 in Luxembourg was part of the revolutionary wave which occurred across Europe in 1848. The Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg at that time was in personal union with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Émile Speller was a Luxembourgish military officer and the commander of the country's Gendarmes and Volunteers Corps during the German invasion of Luxembourg in World War II. He also served as aide-de-camp to several members of the Grand Ducal Family throughout his career and chamberlain of the Grand Ducal court.
The Maréchaussée were corps of soldiers in the armies of France initially put in charge of military policing and justice during the Middle Ages, and later extended to civilian responsibilities. They gradually coalesced into a police force with jurisdiction over the whole population on almost the entire territory of France. They retained powers of extraordinary justice until the French Revolution.
From 1829 to 1918, the Grand Duchy of Baden's Gendarmerie Corps formed the gendarmerie of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Until the military agreement with the Kingdom of Prussia on 25 November 1870, it was part of the Baden Army; thereafter it was exclusively subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior in Karlsruhe, where the headquarters of the Corps was located. Its last commander was Major General August Anheuser (1846–1933) from 1905 to March 1919.
