Impact of French society: towns such as Chartres are becoming "TGV commuter belt"; Brussels - Paris in 90 minutes has increased commuting between the two capitals; likewise Paris - Marseille time greatly reduced recently
Impact of the building of the lines: many years of wrangles over the Lyon-Marseille line
... 1548 he made the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands an entity separate from both the Empire and from France (the "Pragmatic Sanction[?]").
In 1556 Charles abdicated ...