ick, duke of Brieg. In the
Thirty Years' War it suffered greatly; in that of the Austrian succession
it was heavily bombarded by the Prussian forces; and in 1807 it was
captured by the French and Bavarians. From 1311 to 1675 Brieg was the
capital of an independent line of dukes, a cadet branch of the Polish dukes
of Lower Silesia, by one of whom the castle was built in 1341. In 1537
Frederick II., duke of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau, concluded with Joachim
II., elector of Brandenburg, a treaty according to which his duchy was to
pass to the house of Brandenburg in the event of the extinction of his
line. On the death of George William the last duke in 1675, however,
Austria refused to acknowledge the validity of the treaty and annexed the
duchies. It was the determination of Frederick II. of Prussia to assert his
claim that led in 1740 to the war that ended two years later in the cession
of Silesia to Prussia.

See Stokvis, _Manuel d'histoire_, iii. pp. 54, 64.

BRIEG, often now spelt BRIG (Fr. _Brigue_, Ital. _Briga_), a picturesque
small town in the Swiss canton of the Valais, situated at the foot of the
northern slope of the Simplon Pass, on the right bank of the Saltine
stream, and a little above its junction with the Rhone. Its older houses
are very Italian in appearance, while its most prominent buildings (castle,
former Jesuits' college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th
century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local
Stockalper family. The prosperity of Brieg is bound up with the Simplon
Pass (_q.v._), so that it gradually supplanted the more ancient village of
Naters opposite, becoming a separate parish (the church is at Glis, a few
minutes from the town) in 1517. Its medieval name was _Briga dives_. The
opening of the carriage road across the Simplon (1807) and of the tunnel
beneath the pass (1906), as well as the fact that above Brieg is the
steeper and less fertile portion of the Upper Valais (now much frequented
by tourists), have greatly increased the importance and size of the town.
The opening of the railway tunnel beneath the Loetschen Pass, affording
direct communication with Bern and the Bernese Oberland, is calculated
still further to contribute to its prosperity. The new town extends below
the old one and is closer to the right bank of the Rhone. In 1900 the
population was 2182, almost all Romanists, while 1316 were German-speaking,
719 Italian-speaking (the Simplon t