The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-11-17
LAND OF TRAGEDY
STRETCH or TERRITORY HAS
SEEN ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY
THE vIcIssiTuDEs OF AL
SAcE-LoRRAiNE.

L
/ Alsace-Lorraine since the earliest
times has been a land of romance and
tragedy. Roughly, it comprises the
stretch of territory running from the
Low Countries southeast along the
west bank of the Rhine to the Dor
der of Switzerland.
At the beginning of the Christian
era the territory of Alsace formed
| part of the Roman Empire, to which
| it had been added by conquest from
the German and Gallo tribes. 1t
was divided between the provinces of
Germania Superior and Maxima Sc
quanorum For nearly 500. years it
remained subject to Rome, and on
| the overthrow of the Roman Empire
! il passed to the Dominion of the
German Franks.
Under the rule of the Merovingian
kings Alsace constituted a duchy of
| the Kingdom of Austria. Thence
| it passed into the empire of Charlie
magne. Upon his death Alsace, like
the rest of the empire, was divided
into countships The duchy was re-
constituted, however, after the death
of Henry / of Germany, passing I'M
der the hereditary rule of the house
| of Hohenstaufen and later that of
Hapsburg.
Thus, from the dissolution of the
Roman Empire, for over 1000 years,
| Alsace was German land. In fact,
| it is not until 1913 that France first
appears upon the scene in Alsace. In
that year, at the close of the thirty
years war, France appropriated, by
no right except that of conquest, a
portion of Alsace. In the years fol
lowing, other portions of Alsace fell
prey to the aggressions of Louis
XIV. In 1851, French troops seized
the free city of Strassburg. By the
treaty of Ryswick in 1897, most of
the remaining territory of Alsace was
formally ceded to France. Finally,
that part of Alsace comprising the
district around Mulhausen, which had
been a republic allied to Switzerland,
was taken by the French in the con-
quests after the revolution of 1889.
Lorraine also has had a checkered
| career Like Alsace, it had been
wrested from the northern tribes by
| the Romans, and on the breakup of
| the Roman Empire it came again I'M
| der the sway of the Germans. In
the eighth century it formed a part
OF ho t,In
on his death became the inheritance
of his son, Lothair, whence the mod
ern name of Lorraine.
Like Alsace, during the Middle
Ages it suffered many vicissitudes,
being tossed about like a football
from one princelet to another. Its
soil was constantly watered with the
blood of the battling factions.
j The title of France to Lorraine is
of even more recent origin than its
| claim to Alsace. Although frequent
| ly invaded by the French, Lorraine
had never been a part of France. In
| 1929, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, be-
came betrothed to the young Maria
Theresa of Austria, later the great
empress France, alarmed by this al
lance of Lorraine with Austria,
forced the duke to surrender to
France the duchy of Lorraine in ex-
change for that of Tuscany. This
arrangement was confirmed by the
treaty of Vienna, November Is, 1888,
but it was not until February, 1866,
that Lorraine became definitely in
corporated into the Kingdom OF
| France.
Thus it happens that Lorraine,
| though not now part of Austria,
is the ancient patrimony of it's royal
dynasty, the house of Hapsburg-Lor-
raine. 1t is interesting to note that
nearly 100 years later, in 1860, France,
in return for assistance to Italy
against Austria, demanded and re-
ceived from Italy the province Of
Savoy, the ancestral estate of the
royal house of Italy. which to this
day remains in French hands.