The territory of Limburg was that of the Eburones, whom the Romans exterminated, and was afterwards inhabited by the Tungri and Tαxαndri. It was one of the first conquests of the invading Franks, who established themselves and proclaimed their first kings there. In the Middle Ages it constituted the county of Looz, holding of the bishop of Liège; afterwards it became the duchy of Limburg, which was taken possession of in the 13th century by the duke of Brabant. From the 12th to the end of the 18th century the duchy included only a small portion of the present province; it extended eastward from the Meuse as far as to Aix-la-Chapelle, and southward to the Vesdre. In the 16th century Limburg remained in the possession of Spain, and it passed to Austria in 1713. After the treaty of Campo Formio (1797) it became a French department, Meuse-Inférieure, with Maestricht as capital. By the treaty of Vienna (1815) it formed one of the nineteen provinces of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and by that of London (1831) the eastern portion was ceded to Holland, becoming a Dutch province, the remainder constituting the present province of Belgium.

LIMBURG, or Limbourg, one of the eleven provinces of Holland, is bounded on the W. by Belgium (Limburg) and North Brabant, on the N. by North Brabant and Guelderland, on the E. by Rhenish Prussia, and on the S. by Belgium (Liége), and has an area of 851 square miles, with a population in 1876 of 235,135 (97 per cent, being Roman Catholics). The surface, which is flat, is partly covered with heaths and fens; of the latter the most considerable is the “peel” or marsh in the north, which extends into North Brabant. The province is traversed by the Maas, of which the chief affluents here are the Geule, the Geleen, and the Roer, all on the right; means of water communication are also supplied by the Zuid Willem’s canal and its branches. The agricultural products are similar to those of Belgian Limburg; bee-keeping is also engaged in. Coal occurs within the province, and there is a mine at Kerkrade. The arrondissements are two in number,—Maestricht and Roermonde,—Maestricht being the capital. For the history of the province see the preceding article.

LIMBURG, a town in the circle of Unterlahn and district of Wiesbaden, Prussia, is situated 360 feet above the sea-level, on the Lahn, here crossed by a bridge dating from 1315, and on the Nassau Railway midway between Coblentz and Wetzlar. A local branch line connects it with Hadamar, It is the seat of a Catholic bishep, and has one evangelical and four Catholic churches. The only prominent architectural feature is the small seven-towered semi-Byzantine cathedral, picturesquely situated on a rocky site overhanging the river; it was founded by Conrad Kurzbold, count of Niederlahngau, in 905, and finally consecrated in 1235 (restored 1872-78). Limburg has a seminary for the education of priests, and a variety of schools; the industries, which are unimportant, include manufactures of cloth, tobacco, machinery, pottery, and leather. The population in 1875 was 5161.

Limburg, which was a flourishing town during the Middle Ages, passed in 1404 into the possession of the archbishops of Treves after the extinction of its own line of counts, and in 1803 fell to the duke of Nassau. It was the scene of a victory of the archduke Charles of Austria over the French under Jourdain on September 16, 1796. It possesses an interesting MS. fragment of its chronicles, the Fasti JL·impurgenses. The original writer is supposed to have been the recorder Tillmann (ob. 1400), additions being made by subsequent copyists; the document, which has been more than once printed, is valuablè especially for the ancient rhymes it embodies, and for its notices of old German poets.