Moselle Franconian

The Moselle Franconians speak West Central German dialects of the Moselle valley, including Luxembourgish. Saxon emigrants carried their speech to Transylvania after 1100. The Treveri gave their name to Trier, a bishopric since Roman times. Under Charlemagne Trier became an archbishopric, and its archbishop ruled the Electorate of Trier from the late ninth century.

Luxembourg grew from Lucilinburhuc castle, acquired by Count Siegfried in 963, and became a duchy under Charles IV in 1354. Its dynasty gave the empire several emperors; John the Blind, king of Bohemia, fell at Crécy in 1346. Burgundy took the duchy in 1443 and the Habsburgs in 1482; Vauban enlarged its fortress.

The region remained largely Catholic through the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna made Trier Prussian and Luxembourg a grand duchy in personal union with the Netherlands.