1839-1890 - Consolidation of Autonomy
From 1839 onwards, Luxembourg had no territorial link to the Netherlands and the king-grand duke was obliged to grant it a separate administration. The new sovereign, William II (1840-1849), who visited the Grand Duchy in 1841, declared: "I want Luxembourg to be governed by the Luxembourg people." Gradually, the structures of an autonomous state were put in place. As early as 1841, the king-grand duke granted a constitutional charter. A series of fundamental laws laid down community organisation, education, public charity and justice, while maintaining the Napoleonic Code. The Luxembourg state thus took shape, but could such a small country - 170,000 inhabitants on a territory of 2,586 km2 in 1839 - be entirely independent?
In the beginning, the Grand Duchy remained attached to both Germany through its membership in the German Confederation and the Netherlands through its dynastic link. Gradually, it succeeded in breaking free of these attachments. In 1866, the Austro-Prussian War triggered the dissolution of the German Confederation. Now that the old Confederation had come to an end, and since Luxembourg did not belong to the new one, the Emperor Napoleon conceived that it might furnish him with an opportunity for reaping some advantage to set against the manifest aggrandisement of Prussia. The population of the Grand Duchy did not amount to a quarter of a million. But its strategical position was important, and the Emperor was unpleasantly conscious of the need for showing Prance that he had not become a mere cipher in the European account. He suggested to the King of Holland, through the Marquis de Moustier, Foreign Minister in succession to M. Thouvenel, that Luxembourg was more naturally French than Dutch, and the King was not unwilling to gratify his powerful neighbor. Napoleon III suggested the following deal to the king-grand duke: the Grand Duchy in exchange for five million gold francs. William III (1849-1890) accepted the proposal. But his Dutch Majesty forgot that he had more neighbors than one. Prussia, whose garrison still occupied the fortress of Luxembourg, opposed it.
The people of Luxembourg were German, and the idea of handing them over to France was intolerable to the German mind. Count Bismarck did not ostensibly interfere. But his influence, felt rather than seen, prevented the conclusion of the compact, and the Emperor had once more to acquiesce in a rebuff which he had brought upon himself. Baffled in his main object, Louis Napoleon fell back upon the comparatively harmless, and in the circumstances most reasonable, suggestion that Prussia should evacuate a fortress which was not now on German soil. From this second position he could scarcely have afforded to recede, and the peace of Europe hung, as it seemed, upon the advice tendered by Bismarck to his Sovereign. "Peace or war," wrote Lord Stanley to Lord Malmesbury, "depends on whether Bismarck consents to withdraw the Prussian garrison from Luxembourg. If he consents, France will raise no difficulties as to the disposal of the territory. If he refuses, the Emperor must fight."
Lord Stanley, on behalf of the British Government, advised Prussia to give way on a point of no real importance. The Queen wrote strongly in the same sense to King William. Russia proposed a Conference, and this was held in London at the beginning of May. Lord Stanley, a born man of business, presided; and though the plenipotentiaries only met on the 7th, by the 11th the Treaty was signed. Luxembourg was to be evacuated, the fortress demolished, and the territory neutralised under a joint guarantee. Seldom indeed has a question so critical been settled so rapidly, in so friendly a manner, and with such complete success. The Treaty of London (11 May 1867) resulted in a compromise which, while satisfying the Prussian Chancellor Bismarck and the French Emperor Napoleon III, also consolidated the international status of Luxembourg. Prussia withdrew its garrison, the fortress was dismantled and the Grand Duchy was declared perpetually neutral under the guarantee of the signatory powers. In return, France renounced its territorial claims.
The crisis of 1867 had exposed the conflict of interest that could arise for the king-grand duke owing to his two crowns. In 1890, when William III died, the personal union linking the Netherlands and Luxembourg came to an end, both countries being governed by different laws of succession. While Wilhelmina, the daughter of William III, succeeded to the Dutch throne, as a patrimonial asset under the Sallic Law under which inheritance is restricted to a male line, the Grand Duchy passed to Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg. A family pact concluded in 1783 between all the lines of the house of Nassau determined that in the event of an extinction of male heirs in one branch, in this case that of the Orange-Nassau, the family possessions would be passed on to the next branch. As a result, Luxembourg had its own dynasty from 1890 onwards, the Nassau- Weilburg, who to date have provided the country with six sovereigns: Adolf (1890-1905), William IV (1905-1912), Marie-Adélaïde (1912-1919), Charlotte (1919-1964), Jean (1964-2000) and Henri (since 2000).
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