#Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

[gentlemanpixelator]

Luxembourg. Le Plateau du Rham et Grund

[1-800-helltalia]

grand duchies (derogatory)

[dkettchen]

as much as I adore and continue to adore this show, this offends me on so many levels 😂

[dreamconsumer]

Hilda of Luxembourg, Grand Duchess of Baden (1864-1952).

[deedala]

🌞 weekly tag wednesday 🌞

thank you for the game this week @heymacy and for tagging me!! + @thepupperino @energievie @mybrainismelted @lee-ow @lingy910y @mmmichyyy @darlingian @suzy-queued @wehangout 💖💖💖 xoxo

name: deanna

your time zone: EST

favorite food: uuhhhhmmm potatoes?

your eye color: blue 🙄

do you have curly, wavy, or straight hair? wavy frizzy. wearing a satin bonnet to sleep in helps a lot with the frizziness unless its spring in which case i am fighting for my life against the warm humid air

coffee or tea? coffee

you can only listen to one album for the rest of your life. which album is it? yeah its gonna be the rise and fall of a midwest princess - chappell roan thanks

how many countries have you visited? lets name them then count...canada, ireland, UK, france, netherlands, germany, belgium, luxembourg (its a grand duchy yes but whatever it counts) switzerland, italy...thats 10 visited countries

favorite social media platform (other than tumblr): gosh...instagram i guess? wait does discord count?? if so: discord.

if you had to be reincarnated as an animal, what animal would you want to be? house cat

relationship status: married

did you go to college? if so, what did you study? yes, i have a BFA in painting

you’ve just made a letterboxd account. what are your top 4 films? hey!! friend me on letterboxd im deedala over there too! right now i have my fav 4 listed as The Eagle, The Fall, The Holiday, and Love and Monsters

what’s one of your pet peeves? loud noises

what’s one of your guilty pleasures? i try not to feel guilty about fun stuff, lets say my guilty pleasure is the song guilty pleasure by chappell roan 😜

and finally, if you could learn any skill, what skill would you want to learn? i would thoroughly enjoy being a skilled seamstress actually

alrighty i know im a bit late today but lemme tag some folks who have maybe not done this one yet!! ✨✨ @michellemisfit @tanktopgallavich @too-schoolforcool @heymrspatel @metalheadmickey @softmick @gallawitchxx @callivich @vintagelacerosette @whatwouldmickeydo @mickeysgaymom @crossmydna @gardenerian @the-rat-wins @sam-loves-seb @blue-disco-lights @sickness-health-all-that-shit @samantitheos @loftec @iansw0rld @transmickey @tsuga-of-mars @ardent-fox @rereadanon @palepinkgoat @themarchg1rl @thisdivorce @sleepyfacetoughguy @purplemagpie @mikhailoisbaby @jrooc @spoonfulstar @captainjowl @creepkinginc and anyone else who may want to play!! just say i tagged you (i will always corroborate) 💖

[coimbrabertone]

Why George Russell's Disqualification is Really Napoleon's Fault

Alright motorsports fans, with the end of the Belgian Grand Prix (held before the summer break this year because the F1 calendar is becoming increasingly cursed year after year) F1 enters its summer break. NASCAR and Indycar are on an Olympic break thanks to both series currently being on NBC (who is the US broadcaster of the 2024 Paris Olympics), and MotoGP doesn't come back from its second summer break until next week.

So what the hell am I going to talk about in this blog.

Well, George Russell won the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix until he got disqualified for having an underweight car. Some people have theorized that Mercedes made a mistake and underfueled him, others have said that George switching to a one-stop meant he lost out of valuable pitlane speed time, using up more fuel, still others have theorized it's down to the unique procedures at Spa - where drivers turn around after turn one and drive the wrong way into pit exit - that meant Russell didn't have the chance to pick up rubber and thus increase the weight of his tyres.

I, meanwhile, have a different theory.

George Russell could only have been disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix because of Napoleon!

Yes, really.

How, you may ask? Well, the Napoleonic Wars created the conditions that ultimately allowed for the the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps to exist. Thus, the long lap that causes F1 cars to deliberately underfuel for the race, the unique post-race procedures due to track length, and choice of this area as the venue for the Belgian Grand Prix...none of that would've been possible with Napoleon.

Our story, as all good motor racing stories do, begins in 651 when the Benedictine Monk, Saint Remaclus of Stavelot founded the dual Abbeys of Stavelot and Malmedy (which you may recognize from corner names of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, as these are neighboring villages).

These abbeys wound gain more territory in 747 when Carloman, the Majordomo of the Franks and uncle of Charlemagne, abdicated and became a monk himself.

They would be enlarged again in 882 by Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor, in compensation for the Normans raiding and burning down both abbeys the previous year.

Thus, the Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy became one of the many mosaic pieces of the complex historical mindscrew that is the Holy Roman Empire, holding territories along what is now the Belgian-Germany border. Back then though, they were a rather significant ecclesiastical territory, holding land where Lothringia met the Low Countries.

This was the exact region where, in the late 15th and early 16th century, the Dukes of Burgundy attempted to create their own sovereign territory, using the chaos of the Hundred Years War in France to become lords over Luxembourg, Hainaut, Flanders, Brabant, and Holland. Soon enough, the Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy was one of only three independent states remaining in the region.

It was Stavelot-Malmedy, an ecclesiastical state which thus couldn't easily be absorbed into secular Burgundy.

Then the Prince-Bishopric of Liege, which again, was an ecclesiastical state which meant it would be a tricky proposition for a Catholic Duke of Burgundy to try and conquer.

And finally the Duchy of Bouillon, which was a downright weird state in that the title was a secular Duchy that was sold to the Prince-Bishopric of Liege, and in the late 17th century became a sovereign possession of the La Tour d'Auvergne, a French noble family.

In any case, upon the death of the Burgundian line, their territories were divided between France, the feudal overlord of Burgundy, and Philip the Handsome (the son of Mary the Rich, the last Duchess of Burgundy, and Maximilian von Habsburg, an Austrian Prince).

Philip the Handsome was in turn married to Joanna the Mad (we should bring back the random ass nicknames people used to get in the past btw), the Queen of Castile and Aragon. Their son, Charles, would thus inherit Spain, the Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries, and, eventually, Austria and the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Yeah.

So thanks to Charles V rolling a natural 20 in his birth dice roll, Stavelot-Malmedy was suddenly one small little ecclesiastical holding squeezed between the two halves of what would eventually become known as the Spanish Netherlands.

Then, the northern half of the Spanish Netherlands decided they didn't want to be Catholic anymore. This ushered in the Dutch Revolt of the 17th century, a bloody religious struggle concurrent with the Thirty Years War and the Portuguese War of Independence that marked the end of the golden age of Spanish power.

Come 1700 and Charles II of Spain (Charles V was Charles I in Spain, regnal numbers get weird when you rule over half of Europe), the last Habsburg King of Spain, dies an inbred and infertile mess. The Low Countries become a battleground in the War of the Spanish Succession.

On one side, France and Spain, as Charles II had declared his grandnephew, the French Prince Philip of Anjou, threatened to tip the scales of western Europe towards the Bourbon dynasty.

On the other side, a grand coalition of Austria, England, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, Portugal, and Savoy aimed to contain French power.

This was the War of the Spanish Succession, and the war would be transformative for the southern Low Countries. The Spanish Netherlands went back to Habsburg hands and became the Austrian Netherlands, meanwhile, the Duchy of Cleves, just to the east, was returned to Prussia following a French occupation.

The Dutch Republic in the north was Protestant, the Austrian Netherlands were Catholic, and Protestant Prussia was emerging on the scene as well. This would more or less lay the stage for the Napoleonic Wars, where the armies of the French Republic and later the French Empire would occupy all of this land. Gone were the Austrian Netherlands, gone was Stavelot-Malmedy, Liege, and Bouillon, and gone was Prussian Cleves.

Instead, the land surrounding Spa-Francorchamps would became part of the French Department of Ourthe, named for one of the principal rivers of the region.

However, much like the War of the Spanish Succession, numerous grand coalitions would rise up against Napoleon, the primary participants being Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, the Dutch, and Russia. In 1815, they would finally defeat Napoleon once and for all, and the Peace of Vienna would shape the new postwar Europe.

Of the old Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, Stavelot would go to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (the new kingdom combining the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), while Malmedy would go to the Kingdom of Prussia.

The border would be a minor tributary of the River Ambieve known for its reddish water. The name? Eau Rouge.

Fast forward to 1830 and the largely Catholic southern Netherlands revolt from their Protestant overlords in the north and demand the creation of a Kingdom of Belgium. Following a great power conference in London, the Belgians would get their wish, and in 1831, the Kingdom of Belgium was born, including Stavelot.

The Dutch would recognize Belgium Independence in 1839.

Eau Rouge was now the Belgian-Prussian border.

Come 1871, and Prussia becomes the German Empire.

Come 1914, and this border region is amongst the first overrun by the Germans in World War I. Spa becomes a major German field hospital from the get-go, and by 1918, Spa is the German military headquarters and the primary residence of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Upon the German surrender in 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm would abdicate and leave for the Netherlands, meanwhile, France and Belgium - the countries that wore the greatest scars from World War I - would demand harsh reparations from Germany. For Belgium, this would include Eupen-Malmedy.

Thus, the great majority of the old Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy was now within Belgian borders.

Jules de Thier, owner of the La Meuse newspaper in Liege, found this new territory to be the perfect site for a high-speed triangular race track in 1921. The race would begin in old Belgium, with a run to the old border - originally they would veer right, pass through Ancienne Douane - the old customs office on the Belgian-Prussian border - then back left to rejoin the track on the other side of what is now the Eau Rouge corner - then run through the German territories.

Burnenville and Malmedy were in old Germany, then swing back at the bottom of the track, crossing back into pre-war Belgian territory in time for the Masta kink, then Stavelot, Blanchimont, and La Source would all be in pre-war Belgium as well. Cross the start-finish line after La Source (as it was back then) and then cross into former Germany again on the next lap.

Thus, the Belgian Grand Prix was born in a region that had only just been annexed from Germany.

This led to Spa again becoming a battlefield during World War II, but with the borders restored after the war, Spa would again be in Belgium and, from 1950, the Belgian Grand Prix would become a traditional staple on the Formula One calendar.

Spa-Francorchamps would be transformed a couple of times over, not assuming its current form until 2007, but it was born from the great Napoleonic shakeup in European politics.

The ancient double abbeys of Stavelot-Malmedy were separated for the first time in 1200 years, and it would take another century for them to be reunited in modern Belgium.

So yeah, if you're mad that George Russell was disqualified, blame Napoleon...or Kaiser Wilhelm II I suppose, whichever one fits your fancy.

Oh, and by the way, Lewis Hamilton takes a record-extending 105th win following his teammate's disqualification, so I suppose Mercedes still has something to be happy about.

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have any fun fact about Luxembourg, please tell us and I'll reblog it!

[charlotte-of-wales]

Happy 10th birthday to Princess Amalia of Nassau!

Born on June 15 2014, Amalia Gabriela Maria Theresa is the eldest child of Prince Félix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg, as well as a granddaughter of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. She is currently fifth in the line of succession to the Luxembourg throne.

At the time of her birth, Amalia was considered the heir to the Grand Duchy, as the third in the line of succession behind her father and uncle, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. That changed with the birth of her cousin, Prince Charles of Luxembourg in May of 2020.

She has two younger brothers, Prince Liam and Prince Balthazar of Nassau.

[royal-confessions]

“Princes Charles of Luxembourg is the only royal heir of this generation who is the definiton of old money from both sides,Charles father is the heir of the grand duchy over 500 years, and obvi a royal prince, and his mother is a belgian countess, yes an actual countess, their family line is rich and wealthy have their own tiaras, estate, and alot of properties. I think Stephanie is the only aristocrat old money who married in the royal family.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[radiofreederry]

Where does Luxembourg get off calling itself a grand duchy. it's a barony at best

[gentlemanpixelator]

Esch-sur-Alzette. Vue générale.

[1-800-helltalia]

If it’s alright to ask can I know more about your OC?

OMG of course!

My OC is the personification of the Grand Duchy of Draostein, a fictional country I created just for the sole purpose of making a Hetalia OC.

Draostein is a small island nation a few miles off of Germany’s northern coast, near Denmark. I don’t have much else when it comes to the geography of the country yet, but I’m open for suggestions!

Anyway, Draostein’s human name is Remismund Bruns, formerly Beilschmidt— he informally changed his surname in the early 1950s.

Draostein was a state of the German Empire up until the November Revolution; a year after, in 1919, he declared independence. Remi spent his early life living with Germany, who’s technically his father. In any case, though, he looked up to Ludwig a lot. He honestly put this man on a pedestal, so he was heartbroken after WW2. (Feel free to correct me if I have any historical inaccuracies here btw, I did my research but I’m not perfect)

This is the design I have for his flag, I’m not exactly a graphic designer so it’s just a recolored, slightly edited Wirmer flag:

Personality-wise, Remi’s an oujidere. On first impression, he’s a stuck-up, snooty asshole. On second impression… nothing really changes, actually. He’s impatient, rather childish, and will say anything to save face. This holier-than-thou attitude stems from the betrayal and heartbreak he felt back during WW2 and the subsequent development of a superiority complex. He looks down on the other nations (especially Germany), even though he doesn’t have the room to. The only exception to this is Luxembourg, whom he considers an equal due to his status as a grand duchy.

Remi is also… painfully out of touch with the world, despite being a younger nation. He considers himself to be "too good for the Internet” and is so unwilling to learn how to use technology that he's managed to lock himself out of his own cellphone for the next century. Outside of world meetings, the only ways other nations can contact him are via snail mail or telegram.

A few other things about him:

His birthday is October 13.

His favorite foods are schnitzel and chocolate. He also loves French fries, but only enjoys them in private, as he thinks potatoes are “peasant food.”

His favorite drink is seltzer water. Red flag.

He’s embarrassed himself during world meetings on multiple occasions, but refuses to admit it.

Physically, he’s 17-18 years old and 5’8”.

Aside from a concept design that I made in a dollmaker, I don’t have any colored art of him yet. I do have a few doodles of him though! (plus a bonus America and Iceland)

That’s all I got of him for now, thank you so much for asking anon!

[stroebe2]

Il était une fois... le Bommeleeër

"The Bommeleeër affair is the name given to a series of bomb attacks on infrastructure installations and public buildings in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg between May 1984 and April 1986. The identities of the perpetrators and the motives are not known. [...] Many believe that members of the Luxembourgish Government or Grand Ducal Family, as well as insiders in the Security Services were involved in the attacks."

[mapsontheweb]

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

by @verygoodmaps