The Seventeen Provinces of the former Burgundian Netherlands were formed into an integral union by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549.

In 963, Count Siegfried, probably a younger brother of Duke Frederick I, purchased some land from Abbot Wikerus of St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier.

This land was centered on a ruined (supposedly Roman) fort by the Old High German name of Lucilinburhuc (commonly translated as "little castle").

In the following years, Count Siegfried had a new castle built on the site of these ruins, on a rock that would later be called Bock Fiels.

This castle dominated a stretch of the old Roman road linking Reims, Arlon, and Trier, and opened some prospects for trade and taxation.

In addition to the small town near Bock Fiels and the Roman road, another settlement was formed in the Alzette Valley (today the Grund quarter).

Around this fort, the town gradually developed and became the center of a small, but important state of great strategic value to France, Germany, and the Low Countries.

The House of Luxembourg provided several Holy Roman Emperors, kings of Bohemia, and archbishops of Trier and Mainz.

From the Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Luxembourg bore multiple names, including Lucilinburhuc, Lutzburg, Lützelburg, Luccelemburc, and Lichtburg, among others.

Luxembourg remained an independent fief (county) of the Holy Roman Empire, when, in 1354, Emperor Charles IV elevated it to the status of a duchy for his brother Wenceslaus.

The dukes of Burgundy had previously acquired a number of other possessions in the Low Countries, including Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Brabant, Zeeland, Holland, and Namur; Luxembourg and these other Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries are collectively referred to during this period (1384–1482) as the Burgundian Netherlands.

After the Kingdom of Belgium gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1830, Luxembourg was partitioned in the Treaty of London (1839), with the larger western portion of the grand duchy going to Belgium (as the Province of Luxembourg); only the smaller eastern portion remained part of the grand duchy.