- Dukes in Italy, Germany and Austria
There used to be many Dukes in Italy, Germany and Austria, although these countries are now republics and no longer have aristocracies.
Germany
Although the titled aristocracy of Germany no longer holds a legal rank, nearly all ducal families in
Germany continued to be treated as dynastic (i.e., "royalty") for marital and genealogical purposes after 1918. Some maintain dynastic traditions that are reflected in roles they still play in highsociety ,philanthropy and Germany's version of local "squirearchy".At first, the highest nobles -de facto at par with several Kings/emperors- were the Dukes of each "
tribal duchy ":
*Duchy of Saxony the original one in Lower Saxony
*Duchy of Franconia
*Duchy of Bavaria
*Duchy of Swabia
*Duchy of Lorraine (replacing Duchy of Thuringia)Later, the precedence shifted to the
prince-elector s, the first order amongst the princes of the empire, regardless of the actual title attached to the fief. This college originally included only one Duke, theDuke of Saxony . The ducal title, however, was not limited byprimogeniture in the post-medieval era. All descendants in the male line, including females, shared the original title, but each male added as a suffix the name of his inherited domain to distinguish his line from that of other branches. From the 19th century, somecadet s of the kingly houses ofBavaria andWurttemberg , and all those of the grand-ducal houses ofMecklenburg-Schwerin ,Mecklenburg-Strelitz andOldenburg , took the ducal prefix as their primary style instead of that of Prince ("Prinz").There were many other duchies, some of them insignificant petty states (
Kleinstaaterei ):
*Duchy of Bavaria, elector since 1623
*Duchy ofBrunswick-Lüneburg , divided into various lines, one of which became the electorate ofHanover in 1692
*Duchy ofFranconia , the secular title of theBishop of Würzburg
*Duchy ofHolstein , in union withSchleswig , inpersonal union with the Danish crown.
*Duchy ofJülich andBerg
*Duchy of Lorraine
*Duchy ofMagdeburg , the former prince-archbishopric after being acquired byBrandenburg-Prussia in 1680
*Duchy ofMecklenburg , later divided into various lines
*Duchy ofPomerania
*Grand Duchy of Salzburg, the secularized prince-archbishopric 1803-1806
*Duchies of Saxony, in Upper Saxony, the successor state(s) of the original (stem)Duchy of Saxony after dismissal of Duke Henry the Lion by the Emperor, collateral lines of the elector
*Duchy ofSilesia
*Duchy ofWestphalia , a territory under theArchbishop of Cologne , either a successor-state of the original Duchy of Saxony, which was divided into Eastphalia (which later became Brunswick-Lueneburg), Engern and Westphalia
*Duchy of Würtemberg, became an electorate in 1803On the Baltic south coast
*The duchy of
Pomerellen (Pomerelia; capitalDanzig , now Gdańsk in Poland) was part of the "Ordensstaat" of theTeutonic Knights until its takeover by thePolish Crown in 1466.
*The duchy ofCourland (now inLatvia ) was a Polish vassal state and once a colonial power from its foundation in 1562 for the last Master ofLivonian Order ,Gotthard Kettler , until 1795.
*The "Ordensstaat " became the Duchy ofPrussia in 1525, part of the dynastic home country of the later German (Hohenzollern) Emperor.The Low countries (Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg)
*Duchy of Brabant
*Duchy ofGuelders
*Duchy ofBouillon in the Ardenne
*Duchy ofLuxembourg Austria
*the Austrian lands: the Duchies of
Austria proper, the Duchy ofHohenberg , theDuchy of Carinthia (today in Austria and Slovenia) , Duchy ofStyria (today in Austria and Slovenia), the Duchy of Krain (todaySlovenia ). TheHabsburg dukes came to style themselvesArchduke sItaly
The earliest territorial titles in Italy rendered as Duke were officially styled
Dux in Latin, as they were appointed under Byzantine suzerainty (in the Exarchate of Ravenna), notably in chief of the essentially republican virtual Tyrhenean port cities ofAmalfi ,Gaeta ,Naples until the Germanic takeover by the Italian kingdom of the Longobards.More conventional feudal dukedoms include:
*Duchy of Acerenza , created by the Kings of Spain and Naples for the ancestors of thePrince Belmonte
*Duchy of Spoleto , in the Longobard kingdom
*Duchy of Savoy , originally a countship; also partly in present France and Switzerland
*Dukes of Modena and Reggio
*Duchy of San Donato, created by the Kings of Spain and Naples for the ancestors of the PrinceSanseverino
*Duchies ofBenevento (787-873 under Frankish suzerainty, then again Byzantine; later a principality, since 1051 held from the Pope) andPontecorvo , both of which became part of thePapal states
*theDoge s (a variant in Italian) of Genua and of Venice were elective crowned heads of commercial maritime 'most serene republics', in style echoed by the minute Adriatic republic ofSenarica :"See alsoHistorical states of Italy "*Duke of
Calabria was the primogeniture for the crown prince of the Neapolitan kingdom.A unique Napoleonic particularity was the creation by decree of 30 March 1806 of a number of "duchés grand-fiefs". As the name suggests, these were duchies, but forming an exclusive order of 'great fiefs' (twenty among some 2200 noble title creations), a college nearly comparable in status to the original "anciennes
pairie s" in the French kingdom. SinceNapoleon I wouldn't go back on the Revolution's policy of abolishing feudalism in France, but didn't want these grandees to fall under the 'majorat' system in France either, he chose to create them outside the French "metropolitan" empire, notably in the following Italian satellite states, and yet all awarded to loyal Frenchmen, mainly high military officers:In the Kingdom of Italy, in personal union with France, personally held by Napoleon I:
*Dalmatia (now in Croatia): for maréchalNicolas Jean de Dieu Soult (1808, extinguished 1857)
*Istria (now in Croatia): for maréchalJean-Baptiste Bessières (1809, ext. 1856)
*Frioul , i.e Friuli: for the widow of generalGeraud Christophe Michel Duroc (1813, ext. 1829)
*Cadore : for AdmiralJean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny (ext. 1893)
*Bellune , i.e. Belluno: formaréchal Victor (1808, ext. 1853)
*Conegliano : for maréchalBon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey (1808, ext. 1842)
*Trévise , i.e. Treviso: for maréchalÉdouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier (1808, ext. 1912)
*Feltre : forgeneral Clarke (ext. 1852, extended 1864)
*Bassano: forHugues-Bernard Maret , minister (ext. 1906)
*Vicence , i.e. Vicenza: for generalArmand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt , also imperialGrand-Écuyer (ext. 1896)
*Padoue , i.e. Padua (Padova in Italian): for generalArrighi de Casanova (24 April 1808, ext. 1888)
*Rovigo : for generalAnne Jean Marie René Savary (extinguished in 1872)In the Principality of
Lucca-Piombino , onlyMassa et Carrara : for Régnier, judge (extinguished 1962); Massa and Carrara were separated from the kingdom of Italy by article 8 of the decree ofMarch 30 ,1806 and united to the principality of Lucca-Piombino by another decree of March 30, 1806.In the
Kingdom of Naples :
*Gaete , i.e. Gaeta: forMartin-Michel-Charles Gaudin , finance minister (1809, extinguished 1841)
*Otrante , i.e. Otranto: forJoseph Fouché , minister of Police (1809)
*Reggio: for maréchalCharles Nicolas Oudinot (1810, main line extinguished 1956, but special clause of the letters patent authorizing a substitution were applied)
*Tarente , i.e. Tarento: for maréchalÉtienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald (1809, extinguished 1912)In the states of Parma and Piacenza, ceded to France by the treaty of Aranjuez of 21 March 1801, shortly before both territories were united to the French Empire on 24 May 1808:
*Parme , i.e. Parma: for lawyerJean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès , author of the Code (the main European revision since Roman law, still influential in most democratic societies),Arch-Chancellor (24 April 1808, extinguished 1824)
*Plaisance , i.e. Piacenza: forCharles-François Lebrun , also imperialArch-Treasurer (24 April 1808, ext. 1926)
*Guastalla (extinguished in 1842)
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