| rdfs:comment | - The treaties ending the War of Devolution (the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle [1668]) and the Franco–Dutch War (the Treaty of Nijmegen [1678]), as well as the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 (which ended the Thirty Years War), ceded a number of towns to France. By tradition, when a town changed hands so did the surrounding rural areas, which provided it with food and other such supplies. Often, the borders of these dependent regions were ill-defined. Thus Louis and his court, beginning in 1670, introduced several Chambers of Reunion that would investigate whether France had been granted all the territory it had been owed. The Chambers of Reunion, loyal to the king, ruled after a review of conflicting medieval documents that a number of outlying areas should be awarded to France. These territories
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| abstract | - The treaties ending the War of Devolution (the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle [1668]) and the Franco–Dutch War (the Treaty of Nijmegen [1678]), as well as the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 (which ended the Thirty Years War), ceded a number of towns to France. By tradition, when a town changed hands so did the surrounding rural areas, which provided it with food and other such supplies. Often, the borders of these dependent regions were ill-defined. Thus Louis and his court, beginning in 1670, introduced several Chambers of Reunion that would investigate whether France had been granted all the territory it had been owed. The Chambers of Reunion, loyal to the king, ruled after a review of conflicting medieval documents that a number of outlying areas should be awarded to France. These territories generally consisted of small towns and villages, and for the most part Louis's annexations went unopposed. The territory seized mainly came from the Spanish Netherlands and the western parts of the Holy Roman Empire, especially Alsace. Two of these territories seized by Louis as part of the Reunions were Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Officially, Strasbourg was intended to remain a neutral and independent city. However, this left large rural lands under Louis's control that were unprotected by major garrison towns, because Louis' advisors believed that as long as Strasbourg remained "independent" Alsace would never be secure from attack. Indeed, the bridge over the Rhine at Strasbourg had been used repeatedly by the Imperial (Holy Roman Empire) forces. Three times during the recent Franco-Dutch War Strasbourg had served as a gateway for Imperial invasions into Alsace. Thus, Strasbourg endangered Louis's newly annexed territories in Alsace, just as the great fortress of Luxembourg dominated the other regions Louis had annexed from the Spanish Netherlands. In 1681 Strasbourg, then a "so-called "independent" city in Holy Roman Empire, was annexed after Louis surrounded the city with overwhelming force. Louis marched into the city on 30 September 1681. Louis also ordered Marshal Louis-François Boufflers to surround and begin an artillery and mortar barrage of Luxembourg. The summer of 1683 was the peak of War of the Holy League, in which the eastern flank of the Holy Roman Empire went under the greatest ever offensive by Ottoman Empire. This war on the eastern front of the Holy Roman Empire, broke the momentum of Louis' confrontation with the Empire over Luxembourg. Louis decided that it would be impolitic for him to attack another Christian kingdom while that kingdom were under attack from the infidel Turk. Accordingly in March 1682, Louis ordered a halt to the bombardment of Luxembourg and withdrew his troops. On 12 September 1683, combined Imperial and German troops defeated the Turks right under the walls of Vienna. This was the high-water mark of Turkish expansion. The defeat before the walls of Vienna was a crucial turning point for Europe. The mistique and prestige of the Ottoman Turks was broken in the eyes of Europe. Turkey would never again be on the offensive in Europe and would be on the defensive until the downfall of the Ottomans in 1908.
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