next year the marriage of Herman's daughter, Christine of Salm signalled the dividing of the county between Herman's son, Henry and Christine who through her marriage transferred that part of the territory on the other side of the Plaine River to what would become a separate branch of the family. A new village grew up on the opposite bank of the river in the form of Raon-lès-Leau which now, thanks to events in the second half of the nineteenth century, is not even in the same département as Raon-sur-Plaine. Through and beyond the later medieval period, the history of the villages in the valley dominated by Celles-sur-Plaine was effectively the history of Salm-Salm. After the French revolution the territory was 'voluntarily' attached to France after the revolutionary army blocked the valley and the inhabitants ran out of food. Under the revolutionary settlement, Raon-sur-Plaine found itself in the canton of Allarmont. Under Napoleon I the administrative map of France was extensively reworked and in 1805 Raon was incorporated into the commune of Schirmeck, which at this stage was still part of the Vosges département. In 1871, following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt, Raon-sur-Plaine and its close neighbour Raon-lès-Leau were initially annexed by Prussia, along with the rest of Alsace-Lorraine. However, due to repetitive protests from the local population, the two villages were soon returned to France, but not without the loss of most of their surrounding forests, which the Germans intended to keep as a glacis for the defensive position of Mount Donon. These terms were accepted by the French government which was desperately trying and more focused on retaining territorial control of a private railway line at Avricourt. Opinions vary as to which nation state benefited from this last minute revision of the Treaty of Frankfurt, but for the villagers stripped of most of their rich forests, the deal was poor. Local discontent was perpetuated after 1919 and 1945 when France found itself on the winning side of both World Wars against Germany, but Paris decided against restoring the borders from before the Franco-Prussian War. Most of the woodland which before 1871 belonged to Raon-sur-Plaine and Raon-lès-Leau an thus to Lorraine therefore remains, since that date, a part of Grandfontaine in Alsace. See also Communes of the Vosges department References Communes of Vosges (department) Salm-Salm