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Bar and Lorraine were reunited when Lorraine passed by marriage
to Ren? in 1409 1480.
At Nancy, Ren? II of Lorraine helped to defeat Charles the Bold (the last reigning duke
of Burgundy, son and successor of Philip the Good
In the 16th century a cadet branch of the house of Lorraine, the Guise Louis de Lorraine,
Cardinal de Guise, 1555-88, was killed at the same time as Henri.
The Charles de Lorraine family, gained tremendous influence in France, while Lorraine
itself, under Duke Charles II (1559-1608), enjoyed a period of relative order and
prosperity amid a Europe torn by religious and imperialistic strife.
Lorraine was occupied by France in the Thirty Years War (from 1618 to 1648).
In 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, the eastern part of Lorraine was ceded to
Germany and united with Alsace as the imperial land (Reichsland)
of Alsace-Lorraine. Those parts of Lorraine remaining French were organized into the
present department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Many Alsacians emigrated to France rather
than submit to a policy of Germanisation.
Clamour for the return of Alsace-Lorraine became the chief rallying force for French
nationalism and was a major cause of the armaments race that led to World War I.
After World War I, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, but it was again annexed by
Germany during World War II.
France's recovery of this territory in 1918 was confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles in
1919.
Yet unfortunately, during both world wars Lorraine suffered heavily.
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