Bouillon

Bouillon, -- ancient town in Luxembourg Province, Belgium, on the Semois River in the Ardennes. It was long known for the ducal title connected with it. Bouillon in the 11th century was held by the Counts of Ardennes, whom German kings invested with the Dukedom of Lower Lorraine. Because Bouillon was their chief stronghold. Bouillon was not yet a duchy. In 1096 the Bishopic of Leige received the town, and the bishops thereafter often styled themselves Dukes of Bouillon. One Guillaume de La Marck received Bouillon in 1482; and, although Liege took it back twice in the following century, Bouillon now formally a dukedom  eventually descended, by marriage, to Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne in 1591. The duchy remained in this line until 1794, when Bouillon declared itself a republic (it was annexed by France the next year). On the defeat of Napoleonic France, the victorious powers in November 1815 gave the sovereignty, with Luxembourg, to the Netherlands. The Ducal title was adjudged in 1816 to Charles-Alain Gabriel de Rohan, duc de Montbazon (a descendant of Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne), in whose family it remains. On the partition of Luxembourg in 1831, Bouillon became Belgian. The town, a popular summer resort, is noted for its well-preserved medieval castle, which is located in the Ardennes Hills above the town.