Lixheim is a
commune of France
A () is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in Canada and the United States; ' in Germany; ' in Italy; ' in Spain; or civil parishes in the U ...
in the northeastern
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...
department of
Grand Est
Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...
, a kilometre southeast of another commune,
Vieux-Lixheim.
History
The first Lixheim (now Vieux-Lixheim) was founded by a Benedictine priory in the 12th century.
The new town was founded by
Count Palatine
A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an or ...
George Gustavus in 1608 to replace
Phalsbourg, which his father Count Palatine
George John I had had to cede. In their small principality of the county of Lutzelstein (
La Petite-Pierre), the Counts Palatine wanted to create fortified towns capable of accommodating their Reformed co-religionists, who had been expelled from the
Duchy of Lorraine
The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...
.
Nevertheless, Lixheim was sold to the
Duke of Lorraine
The kings and dukes of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were ...
in 1623; despite his commitment to freedom of Protestant worship,
Duke Henry II ''The Good'' did little to resist the pressures that drove many of the Reformed inhabitants into exodus.
In 1629–1660, Lixheim and Phalsbourg formed the short-lived principality of Phalsbourg and Lixheim, for the benefit of Henriette de Lorraine and her three successive husbands, including Louis de Guise. The princess had coins minted in Lixheim.
On the death of the princess, the principality's territories reverted to the Duchy of Lorraine. Duke Leopold observed in his own way the tolerance promised by Henry II: the Reformed were allowed to worship in the neighboring county of Nassau-Sarrewerden (
Alsace bossue), a modest but commendable concession from a sovereign whose House had always fiercely defended Catholicism.
See also
*
Communes of the Moselle department
The following is a list of the 725 communes of the Moselle department of France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include Frenc ...
References
External links
*
Communes of Moselle (department)
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