Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/423

LIGE LIEGNITZ 417 iron, lias acquired the title of the Birmingham of Belgium. The neighboring village of Se- raing is a focus of industry, iron furnaces, forges, and coal mines, the chief heing the establishment formed by John Cockerill, an English engineer, and now conducted by a company. Glons, a village K of Liege, is the centre of a great straw hat manufacture, em- ploying more than 6,000 persons; and 3 m. from the town is Herstal, from which Pepin the Fat took his name D'Heristal, and which is important for its steel works, coal mines, and iron f ounderies. The manufactures in and around the town include hardware, broadcloth, glass, leather, nails, steam engines, and all sorts of machinery, carriages, and linen and cotton goods. The manufacture of firearms, how- ever, is that for which Li6ge and its environs are most celebrated. The royal cannon foun- dery was established there in 1802. A village named Legia or Leodium occupied the site of the town in the 7th century. At the begin- ning of the 8th it became the seat of a bishop, who in the 10th was raised to the rank of an independent sovereign prince by the German emperor. At the beginning of the 12th the chapter of St. Lambert cathedral in Liege was the noblest in Europe. In 1212 Henry I., duke of Brabant, captured the city and pillaged it for six successive days. The struggles of the Liegeois with their bishops and the dukes of Burgundy are described in Scott's "Quentin Durward." Charles the Bold, to protect the bishop Louis de Bourbon, inflicted severe pun- ishment upon his mutinous subjects by abridg- ing their privileges and demolishing all the fortifications. In 1468, the citizens having resumed their rebellious conduct, Charles con- Court of the Palais de Justice, Liege. demned the town to destruction, and all the buildings except churches and monasteries were burned and many of the inhabitants slaughter- ed. Louis of Bourbon was murdered in 1482 by William de la Marck, the " wild boar of the Ardennes," who wished to obtain the mitre for his son. But the audacity of the bishops was not easily to be subdued, and one of them declared war against Louis XIV., in conse- quence of which the town was taken by the French. Marshal Bouflers bombarded it for five days in 1691, and eventually abandoned it to the duke of Marlborough, who stormed the citadel, Oct. 23, 1702. The bishops were ex- pelled on the outbreak of the French revolu- tion in 1789, but reinstated by Austrian troops. In 1794 Liege was annexed to France, and was comprised in the department of Ourthe till 1814, when it was included in the new king- dom of the Netherlands. In 1830 the Liegeois were the most enthusiastic in advocating the national independence of Belgium. LIEGNITZ, a town of Prussia, capital of a district of the same name in the province of Silesia, on the Katzbach, and on the Silesian and Saxon railway, 37 m. W. N. W. of Breslau and 147 m. S. E. of Berlin; pop. in 1871, 23,- 124. It is an old but well built and handsome town, with five suburbs, and is surrounded by a boulevard planted with trees. It contains seven churches, a synagogue, the Eitter acad- emy (a school for nobles), several hospitals, a public library, a gymnasium, industrial and other schools, and a deaf and dumb institu- tion. The Schloss or castle, a part of which dates from the 15th century, is now a museum of art and industry. In the Furstencapelle are the monuments of many of the dukes of