and the next year made him king of Bohemia. Among Jean’s children were the emperor
Charles IV (r. 1347–78) and a daughter, Bonne, who married the future John II of France.
Although she died before she could reign as queen, Bonne was the mother not only of
Charles V but also of Louis I of Anjou, John of Berry, and Philip the Bold, duke of
Burgundy and founder of the Burgundian state in the Low Countries.
Wenceslas I (1334–1383), the son of Jean l’Aveugle by his second wife, received
Luxembourg from Charles IV in 1353. The emperor raised it to the rank of a duchy in
1354, and Jeanne, wife of Wenceslas, inherited Brabant the next year. Subsequently, he
ruled as duke of Brabant and Luxembourg until his death without children. Luxembourg
then passed successively to his nephews the emperors Wenceslas II and Sigismund, sons
of Charles IV. They rarely appeared in Luxembourg and were chronically short of
money. As early as 1388, Wenceslas II pawned the duchy to his nephew Jost of Moravia,
who turned it over for awhile (1402–07) to Duke Louis of Orléans. A niece of the
emperors, Elizabeth of Goerlitz (d. 1451), held the duchy after 1411 amid growing
disorder and the counterclaims of her cousin Elizabeth, Sigismund’s daughter. She finally
sold her rights to the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, who took over Luxembourg in
1443, incorporating it into the Burgundian Netherlands.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
Gade, John A. Luxemburg in the Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 1951.
Goedert, Joseph. La formation territoriale du pays de Luxembourg depuis les origines jusqu’au
milieu du XVe siècle. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Central, 1963.
LYON
. Situated at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône, Lugdunum was the capital of Celtic
Gaul. Julius Caesar’s base camp for the conquest, it was made capital of Roman Gaul in
27 B.C. The five great Roman roads across Gaul—toward Aquitaine, the Atlantic, Rome,
Arles, and the Rhine—originated from Lugdunum, and the city held the monopoly for the
wine trade of the whole province. A powerful mercantile city, Lyon was also one of the
earliest Christian centers in Gaul and the site of the martyrdom of many early Christians
in A.D. 177. After the Carolingian era, and for most of the Middle Ages, Lyon was ruled
by its bishops; bridges were built over the Saône and Rhône. It was attached to the crown
early in the 14th century and was declared a commune in 1312. Its location and
commercial importance were at the origin of a semiannual fair created in 1419 by the
future Charles VII; after 1463, thanks to the patronage of Louis XI, the fairs were held
four times annually and Lyon became one of the leading economic centers of France.
Prosperity brought the construction of many churches and abbeys throughout the
Middle Ages, of which the most important are the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Jean and the
Franciscan church of Saint-Bonaventure. Saint-Jean, site of the two councils of Lyon
(1245 and 1274), was begun in 1165 but not completed until the late Middle Ages. The
first campaign of construction (1165-ca. 1180) consisted of the lower parts of the
aisleless chevet, aisle chapels flanking the choir, and the east walls of the transepts. The
lowest section of the apse has an arcade supported by channeled pilasters that recall the
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