Luxembourg – Petrus Kaerius / Ludovico Guicciardini, 1609

“Lutzenburgensis Ducatus Veriss Descript.” [A Most True Description of the Duchy of Luxembourg. Copper engraving made by Pieter van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius) after the design by Jacques Surhon, published in Lodovico Guicciardini‘s “Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi” in Amsterdam by Willem Blaeu in 1609. Coloured by a later (?) hand. Size: ca. 23.5 x 31 cm.

Unlike almost all other provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands, Luxembourg had relatively few Calvinists. The duchy was therefore spared the Iconoclastic Fury and remained in the background during the Eighty Years’ War. Owing to its distance from the other Netherlands, and to the fact that it was separated from them by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Luxembourg had a sense of identity of its own and was rather inward-looking. The province remained loyal to Spain and the King.

Thus the Pacification of Ghent (1576) was not signed by the duchy. Luxembourg remained an extremely useful base of support for the Spanish army, especially in the years 1576–1579. In 1593 the Duke of Bouillon and the States army commander Philip of Nassau invaded Luxembourg, but governor Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld was able to prevent an occupation of the territory.

More than forty years after the publication of this map, at the Peace of Münster in 1648, the Duchy of Luxembourg was assigned to the Spanish Netherlands.

Price: Euro 275,-
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