![]() The following duchies were part of the medieval Kingdom of Italy, which itself was part of the Holy Roman Empire:Īll provinces of Sweden have the right to have a ducal coronet in their arms. Duchy of Luxemburg (a Grand Duchy since 1815 see above).Duchy of Austria (later Archduchy of Austria, in German: Erzherzogtum Österreich).Duchy of Alsace (in English also ‘Alsatia’).Duchy of Holstein (formally part of the Holy Roman Empire)įurther information: List of dukes in Europe and Stem duchy.List of duchies Baltic provinces and governorates At present, all independent (i.e., sovereign) duchies have disappeared. Non-royal dukedoms are associated with ducal property, but this is meant as the duke's private property, with no other feudal privileges attached. Other than Cornwall and Lancaster, British royal dukedoms are titular and do not include landholdings. During the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York made a successful entry into the City of York, by merely claiming no harm and that it was his right to possess "his duchy of York." Any and all feudal duchies that made up the patchwork of England have since been absorbed within the Royal Family. These duchies today have mostly lost any non-ceremonial political role, but generate their holders' private income. Nowadays, the Duchy of Cornwall belongs to the sovereign's heir apparent, if there is one: it reverts to the Crown in the absence of an heir apparent and is automatically conferred to the heir apparent upon birth. The Duchy of Cornwall was created in 1337 and held successively by the Dukes of Cornwall, who were also heirs to the throne. Nowadays, the Duchy of Lancaster always belongs to the sovereign and its revenue is the Privy Purse. The Duchy of Lancaster was created in 1351 but became merged with the Crown when, in 1399, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, ascended the throne of England as Henry IV. In medieval England, duchies associated with the territories of Lancashire and Cornwall were created, with certain powers and estates of land accruing to their dukes. ![]() As mentioned above, such a duke was styled Herzog (literally "the one who is leading "). These were Schwaben (Swabia, mainly the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg), Bayern (Bavaria), and Sachsen (Saxony) in pre-Carolingian times, to which Franken (Franconia, at present the northern part of the German state of Bavaria) and Lothringen (Lorraine, nowadays mostly part of France) were added in post-Carolingian times. They formed the nuclei of the major feudal states that comprised the early era of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (961-1806 in German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation). The medieval German stem duchies ( German: Stammesherzogtum, literally "tribal duchy," the official title of its ruler being Herzog or "duke") were associated with the Frankish Kingdom and corresponded with the areas of settlement of the major Germanic tribes. In France, several duchies existed in the medieval period, including Normandy, Burgundy, Brittany, and Aquitaine. In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that had unified either partially or completely during the medieval era, such as France, Spain, Sicily, Naples, and the Papal States. Some historic duchies were sovereign in areas that would become part of nation-states only during the modern era, such as happened in Germany (once a federal empire) and Italy (previously a unified kingdom). There once existed an important difference between "sovereign dukes" and dukes who were ordinary noblemen throughout Europe. A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition.
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