It maintained this status until 1766, after which it was annexed under succession law by the Kingdom of France, via derivative aristocratic house alliances.

The succession within these houses, in tandem with other historical events, would have later restored Lorraine's status as its own duchy, but a vacuum in leadership occurred.

For political reasons, he decided to hide those heirs who were not born by his first wife, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, who was deceased when he took office.

Lorraine separatism today consists more of preserving its cultural identity rather than seeking genuine political independence.

Along with the rest of Europe, this prosperity was terminated in Lorraine in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death.

A strong centralised nationalism had only just begun to replace the feudalist system which had formed the multilingual borders, and an insurrection against the French occupation influenced much of the area's early identity.

French was allowed to remain in use only in primary and secondary schools in municipalities definitely considered Francophone, such as Château-Salins and the surrounding arrondissements,[4] as well and in their local administration.

[5] After 1877, higher education, including state-run colleges, universities and teacher seminaries, was conducted exclusively in German.

During the Battle of the Frontiers at the beginning of World War I, the French First Army invaded Lorraine and briefly occupied Mulhouse.

Lorraine remained under martial law, close to the Western Front in northeastern France, and suffering from refugee crises for the rest of the war.

The modern region includes provinces and areas that were historically separate from the duchy of Lorraine proper.

Thus the duchies of Bar and Lorraine were united in personal union under the same duke, although formally they were officially separate until being annexed and incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1766.

Lorraine is the only French region to have borders with three other countries: Belgium (Wallonia), Luxembourg, and Germany (Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate).

It also borders the French regions of Franche-Comté, Champagne-Ardenne, which were at times part of historical Lorraine (Lotharingia), and Alsace.

Most of the region forms part of the Paris Basin, with a plateau relief cut by river valleys presenting cuestas in the north–south direction.

Lorrainosaurus, a pliosaurid from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) deposits, was discovered in Lorraine and named after this region in 2023.

[11] Most of Lorraine has a clear French identity, with the exception of the northeastern part of the region, today known as Moselle, which historically has had a German-speaking population.

In 1871, Bismarck annexed about a third of today's Lorraine to the new federation of the German Empire following a decisive victory in the Franco-Prussian War.

Like many border regions, Lorraine was a patchwork of ethnicities and dialects not mutually intelligible with either standard French or German (see linguistic boundary of Moselle).

Recent efforts include the use of bilingual signs in Franconian areas, and Franconian-language classes for young children whose parents can no longer speak their ancestral language.

Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu suggested the adoption of the Cross of Lorraine as the symbol of the Free French.

2 of 3 July 1940, Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier, chief of the naval and air forces of the Free French for two days, created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red Cross of Lorraine, and a cockade also featuring the Cross of Lorraine.

De Gaulle is memorialised at his home village of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises by a gigantic 44.3-meter (145 feet) high Cross of Lorraine.

Desserts from the region include: madeleine, macaron, rum baba, plombières ice-cream, various pie recipes (brimbelles bilberry, mirabelle plum, rhubarb, quark...).

[14] Except for dispersed settlement in the Vosges mountains, traditional farms display linked houses, forming linear villages.

The traditional industries (textiles, mining, metallurgy) have undergone a decline due to restructuring and the move of some jobs offshore.