Bouillon, town, Luxembourg prov., SE
Belgium, in the Ardennes on the Semois River, near the French border. It is
a small manufacturing and tourist center. Its old castle belonged to Godfrey
of Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, who pledged (1095) the
town and the surrounding duchy to the bishop of Liège to raise funds for the
Crusade. Bouillon was nominally under the suzerainty of the prince-bishops
of Liège until it passed (15th cent.) to William de la Marck, the
“Boar of the Ardennes,” whose descendants assumed the titles
duke of Bouillon and prince of Sedan. The duchy was taken (1676) by Louis
XIV of France and given to the La Tour d'Auvergne family. It was under
direct French rule from 1794 to 1815, when it passed to the Netherlands. It
became part of Belgium in 1830.
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