Meuse

The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities, and the creation and extension of administrative/state control in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, cumulating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.

Henry III of Bar was Count of Bar from 1291 to 1302. He was the son of Theobald II, Count of Bar and Jeanne de Toucy.

Philip IV, called Philip the Fair, was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 1284 to 1305, as well as Count of Champagne. Although Philip was known to be handsome, hence the epithet le Bel, his rigid, autocratic, imposing, and inflexible personality gained him other nicknames, such as the Iron King. His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him: "He is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."

John I was a scion of the French royal family who ruled the Burgundian State from 1404 until his death in 1419. He played a key role in French national affairs during the early 15th century, particularly in the struggles to rule the country for the mentally ill King Charles VI, his cousin, and the Hundred Years' War with England. A rash, ruthless and unscrupulous politician, John murdered the King's brother, the Duke of Orléans, in an attempt to gain control of the government, which led to the eruption of the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War in France and in turn culminated in his own assassination in 1419.

John III the Pitiless (1374–1425), of the House of Wittelsbach, was first bishop of Liège 1389–1418 and then duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and Hainaut 1418–1425.

The Battle of Othée was fought between the citizens of Liège and a professional army under command of John the Fearless on 23 September 1408. The militia of Liège suffered a heavy defeat.

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536.

The Afgedamde Maas is a former distributary of the Maas River in the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Gelderland. The Maas splits near Heusden with one channel flowing north until its confluence with the river Waal to form the Merwede, while the other channel continues west as the main distributary of the Maas.

The Merwede is the name of several connected stretches of river in the Netherlands, between the cities of Woudrichem, Dordrecht and Papendrecht. The river is part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and is mostly fed by the river Rhine.

The Oude Maasje is a former distributary of the river Maas, which runs parallel to the current canalised Bergse Maas.

The Bergse Maas is a canal that was constructed in 1904 to be a branch of the river Maas in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Maas splits near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas and the Bergse Maas. The Afgedamde Maas flows north until its confluence with the river Waal to form the Merwede, while the Bergse Maas continues west as the main distributary of the Maas. Part of the Merwede rejoins the Bergse Maas to form the Hollands Diep estuary.

In linguistics, Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian is the set of Franconian dialects spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 8th to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. Afrikaans is a separate but somewhat mutually intelligible daughter language spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa. The dialects used in Belgium and in Suriname, meanwhile, are all guided by the Dutch Language Union.

German, or more precisely High German, is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Western Europe and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (Sopron).

Limburgish, also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg and in the neighbouring regions of Germany.

Bogny-sur-Meuse is a commune in the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region of northern France. Bogny-sur-Meuse is known for multiple sites linked to the medieval legend of The Four Sons of Aymon, such as the Hermitage, the statue of Bayard the horse, and the four peaks symbolizing the four brothers. Situated in the Ardennes mountains, the commune extends along the banks of the Meuse.

Revin is a commune in the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region in northern France.

Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.

Langres is a commune in northeastern France. It is a subprefecture of the department of Haute-Marne, in the region of Grand Est.

Charleville-Mézières is a commune of northern France, capital of the Ardennes department, Grand Est. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the river Meuse.

Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.

The Ardennes, also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geologically, the range is a western extension of the Eifel; both were raised during the Givetian age of the Devonian, as were several other named ranges of the same greater range.

Liège is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from borders with the Netherlands and with Germany. In Liège, the Meuse meets the river Ourthe. The city is part of the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia. It still is the principal economic and cultural centre of the region.

Maastricht is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the Meuse, at the point where the Jeker joins it. Mount Saint Peter (Sint-Pietersberg) is largely situated within the city's municipal borders. Maastricht is adjacent to the border with Belgium and is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, an international metropolis with a population of about 3.9 million, which includes the nearby German and Belgian cities of Aachen, Liège and Hasselt.

The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It drains an area of 9,973 sq km and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Heusden is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Doeveren, and Oudheusden, merged with Drunen and Vlijmen in 1997, giving the municipality its current form.

The Afgedamde Maas is a former distributary of the Maas River in the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Gelderland. The Maas splits near Heusden with one channel flowing north until its confluence with the river Waal to form the Merwede, while the other channel continues west as the main distributary of the Maas.

The Castle of Freÿr with its gardens in the style of Le Nôtre is located in Wallonia on the left bank of the Meuse, between Waulsort and Dinant. They form one of the most magnificent natural sites in Belgium. It has been classified as one of Wallonia's major heritage sites. It is often called a greatly reduced Versailles. Originally a Renaissance castle, it was extended in the 18th century and was once the residence of dukes and their royal guests. It has gardens including orange trees. The more than three-hundred-year-old orangeries are the oldest in the Low Countries.

Gennep is a municipality and a city in upper southeastern Netherlands. It lies in the very northern part of the province of Limburg, 18 km south of Nijmegen. Furthermore, it lies on the right bank of the Meuse river, and south of the forest of the Klever Reichswald. The municipality of Gennep has 17,277 inhabitants (2014).

Grave is a city and former municipality in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The former municipality had a population of 12,483 in 2019. Grave is a member of the Dutch Association of Fortified Cities.

Appeltern is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of West Maas en Waal, and lies about 9 km northeast of Oss. Until 1984, Appeltern was an independent municipality.

Ghent is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in size only by Brussels and Antwerp. It is a port and university city.

Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics, and history, and sometimes involving neighbouring countries. The demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is the City of Brussels, although the Brussels-Capital Region that includes it has an independent regional government. The powers of the government of Flanders consist, among others, of economic affairs in the Flemish Region and the community aspects of Flanders life in Brussels, such as Flemish culture and education.

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region.

Herri met de Bles, also known as Henri Blès, Herri de Dinant, Herry de Patinir, and il Civetta, was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter, native of Bouvignes or Dinant.

The Dieze is a short river in North Brabant, the Netherlands, tributary of the Meuse. It is formed by the confluence of the rivers Aa and Dommel in 's-Hertogenbosch. The part of the Dieze in the centre of 's-Hertogenbosch is called Binnendieze, a partly covered network of canals. The Dieze flows into the Meuse near Hedel.

's-Hertogenbosch, colloquially known as Den Bosch, is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of the Maas river and near the Waal.

The Aa is a small river in the Netherlands. It rises near Nederweert in the southeastern province of Limburg, in the Peel region. It flows northwest through the province of North Brabant towards 's-Hertogenbosch, roughly along the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal. In 's-Hertogenbosch, at the confluence of the Aa and the Dommel, the river Dieze is formed, which flows into the Meuse a few km further. The main cities and towns along the Aa's course are Asten, Helmond, Veghel and 's-Hertogenbosch.

Binnendieze is the common name for all rivers and canals inside the city walls of 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. It is a major tourist attraction. Near the north-west tip of the city walls, the confluence of the Binnendieze with the rivers Aa and Dommel forms the short river Dieze, tributary of the Meuse.

The Bergse Maas is a canal that was constructed in 1904 to be a branch of the river Maas in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Maas splits near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas and the Bergse Maas. The Afgedamde Maas flows north until its confluence with the river Waal to form the Merwede, while the Bergse Maas continues west as the main distributary of the Maas. Part of the Merwede rejoins the Bergse Maas to form the Hollands Diep estuary.

The Afgedamde Maas is a former distributary of the Maas River in the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Gelderland. The Maas splits near Heusden with one channel flowing north until its confluence with the river Waal to form the Merwede, while the other channel continues west as the main distributary of the Maas.

The Oude Maas is a distributary of the river Rhine, and a former distributary of the river Maas, in the Dutch province of South Holland. It begins at the city of Dordrecht where the Beneden Merwede river splits into the Noord and the Oude Maas. It ends when it joins the Nieuwe Maas to form Het Scheur.

The Nieuwe Maas is a distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Maas River, in the Dutch province of South Holland. It runs from the confluence of the rivers Noord and Lek, and flows west through Rotterdam. It ends west of the city where it meets the Oude Maas, near Vlaardingen, to form Het Scheur. After a few miles, the Scheur continues as the artificial Nieuwe Waterweg. The total length of the Nieuwe Maas is approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi).

The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It drains an area of 9,973 sq km and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Merwede is the name of several connected stretches of river in the Netherlands, between the cities of Woudrichem, Dordrecht and Papendrecht. The river is part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and is mostly fed by the river Rhine.

Hollands Diep is a wide river in the Netherlands and an estuary of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. Through the Scheldt-Rhine Canal it connects to the Scheldt river and Antwerp.

Heusden is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Doeveren, and Oudheusden, merged with Drunen and Vlijmen in 1997, giving the municipality its current form.

The Oude Maasje is a former distributary of the river Maas, which runs parallel to the current canalised Bergse Maas.

The Haringvliet sluices are a construction that closed off the estuary of the Haringvliet, Netherlands, as part of the Delta Works. The structure consists of 17 sluices, several kilometres of dam and a shipping lock.

Hook of Holland is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; hoek means "corner" and was the word in use before the word kaap – "cape", from Portuguese cabo – became Dutch. The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of the Dutch Hoek, but has become commonplace. It is located at the mouth of the New Waterway shipping canal into the North Sea. The town is administered by the municipality of Rotterdam as a district of that city. Its district covers an area of 16.7 km2, of which 13.92 km2 is land. On 1 January 1999 it had an estimated population of 9,400.

In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government under the national level, between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety-six departments are in metropolitan France, and five are overseas departments, which are also classified as overseas regions. Departments are further subdivided into 332 arrondissements, and these are divided into cantons. The last two levels of government have no autonomy, instead serving as the basis of local organisation of police, fire departments and, sometimes, administration of elections.

The Kingdom of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, Flanders and Wallonia, are each subdivided into five provinces. The third region, Brussels, does not belong to any province and nor is it subdivided into provinces. Instead, it has amalgamated both regional and provincial functions into a single "Capital Region" administration.

There are twelve provinces of the Netherlands, representing the administrative layer between the national government and the local municipalities, with responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Haute-Marne is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.

Neufchâteau is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.

Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse. Meuse is part of the current region of Grand Est and is landlocked and borders by the French departments of Ardennes, Marne, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Belgium to the north. Parts of Meuse belong to Parc naturel régional de Lorraine. It had a population of 184,083 in 2019. Front lines in trench warfare during World War I ran varying courses through the department and it hosted an important battle/offensive in 1916 in and around Verdun.

Commercy is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The 18th-century Lorraine historian Nicolas Luton Durival (1713–1795) was born in Commercy.

Ardennes is a department in the Grand Est region of northeastern France named after the broader Ardennes. Its prefecture is the town Charleville-Mézières. The department has 270,582 inhabitants. The inhabitants of the department are known as Ardennais or Ardennaises.

Charleville-Mézières is a commune of northern France, capital of the Ardennes department, Grand Est. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the river Meuse.

Givet is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France surrounded on three sides by the Belgian border. It lies on the river Meuse where Emperor Charles V built the fortress of Charlemont. It borders the French municipalities of Fromelennes to the east and Rancennes to the south and Foisches to the southeast.

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,528 km2 (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of 376/km2 (970/sq mi). Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven.

The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of nearly 447 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Grand Est is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, as a result of territorial reform which had been passed by the French Parliament in 2014.

Haute-Marne is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.

Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.

Dammartin-sur-Meuse is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.

Val-de-Meuse is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.

Dombrot-le-Sec is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. The Anger river rises in it.

Gare de Culmont-Chalindrey is a railway station serving the small towns Culmont and Chalindrey, Haute-Marne department, eastern France. It is an important railway junction, situated on the Paris–Mulhouse railway, the Is-sur-Tille–Culmont-Chalindrey railway and the Culmont-Chalindrey–Toul railway.

Toul is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

The A31 autoroute, also known as l'Autoroute de Lorraine-Bourgogne, is a French motorway. The road runs from the Franco-Luxembourg border to Beaune where it joins the A6. The northern part of the autoroute is free, as far as the town of Toul, but is a toll road south of there. The autoroute serves the cities of Metz, Nancy, and Dijon and is heavily used in the holiday season as it is a convenient route for those travelling from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany to the south of France.

Nancy is the prefecture of the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was annexed by France under King Louis XV in 1766 and replaced by a province, with Nancy maintained as capital. Following its rise to prominence in the Age of Enlightenment, it was nicknamed the "capital of Eastern France" in the late 19th century. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 511,257 inhabitants at the 2018 census, making it the 16th-largest functional urban area in France and Lorraine's largest. The population of the city of Nancy proper is 104,885.

William I was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The German Confederation was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806.

The Duchy of Limburg was a European polity created in 1839 from parts of the Dutch Province of Limburg as a result of the Treaty of London. Its territory was the part of Limburg that remained Dutch, with the exceptions of the cities of Maastricht and Venlo. The duchy was simultaneously a province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and a member of the German Confederation.

The Treaty of London, often called the Second Treaty of London after the 1839 Treaty, granted Luxembourg full independence and neutrality. It was signed on 11 May 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and the Luxembourg Crisis. It had wide-reaching consequences for Luxembourg and for relations among Europe's great powers.

The Weimar Republic, officially named the German Reich, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic. The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" not commonly used until the 1930s.

"Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse" is a French poem by Paul Cézano set to music by Robert Planquette and arranged and expanded into a military march by Joseph-François Rauski.

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to reassert its dominant position in continental Europe, which appeared in question following the decisive Prussian victory over Austria in 1866. According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to induce four independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—to join the North German Confederation; other historians contend that Bismarck exploited the circumstances as they unfolded. All agree that Bismarck recognized the potential for new German alliances, given the situation as a whole.