Note 456 — Chapter XL

Alsace had, with certain reservations,—especially as regarded Strasburg and the other free towns,—been ceded to the French king by the treaty of Westphalia (see above, p. 473). Louis XIV disregarded the reservations and seized Strasburg and the other towns (1681) and so annexed the whole region to France. The duchy of Lorraine had upon the death of its last duke fallen to France in 1766. It had previously been regarded as a part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1871 less than a third of the original duchy of Lorraine, together with the fortified city of Metz, was ceded back to Germany.