Prior to the early 1800s, the only Grand duchies in Europe were located in what is now Italy: Tuscany (declared in 1569) and Savoy (in 1696).[1] During the 19th century there were as many as 14 grand duchies in Europe at once (a few of which were first created as exclaves of the Napoleonic empire but later re-created, usually with different borders, under another dynasty). Some of these were sovereign and nominally independent (Baden, Hesse and by Rhine, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Tuscany), some sovereign but held in personal union with larger realms by a monarch whose grand-dukedom was borne as a subsidiary title (Finland, Luxembourg, Transylvania), some of which were client states of a more powerful realm (Cleves and Berg), and some whose territorial boundaries were nominal and the position purely titular (Frankfurt).
In the 21st century, only Luxembourg remains a grand duchy.
The only grand duchy still extant is Luxembourg. It regained its independence from Napoleonic France and became a sovereign grand duchy in 1815 by decision of the Congress of Vienna which dealt with the political aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.
In order to act as a sufficient counterbalance to France, the Congress decided to grant the dignity of grand duke of Luxembourg to the monarch of the newly created United Kingdom of the Netherlands which comprised present-day Netherlands and Belgium. Luxembourg remained in personal union with the crown of the Netherlands until 1890 when William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg, died without leaving a male heir. He was succeeded on the Dutch throne by his daughter Wilhelmina, but she could not become Grand Duchess of Luxembourg under the semi-Salic law established by the Congress of Vienna. In terms of the law, the grand ducal throne had to be passed to a male dynast. If there were no male heirs in a specific branch of the House of Nassau, the throne would go to the next in line from any of the other branches. This resulted in the title of grand duke being bestowed on a distant male cousin of William III, Adolphe, from the elder branch of Nassau-Weilburg (at present Luxembourg-Nassau). The current monarch is Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg since 2000.
The term "grand duchy" is of relatively late invention, used at first in Western Europe in 1569 in the case of Tuscany, to denote either territories of a particularly mighty duke or territories of significant importance in political, economical or military matters without being of sufficient size or importance to be recognized internationally as a kingdom.
The number of duchies had inflated towards the end of the Middle Ages to an extent that included middle-sized towns or relatively small fiefs, as compared to the national, pre-medieval tribal provinces. As a consequence, a new title was needed to make the difference between important and unimportant regional powers: the title grand duke was born.
One of the first examples was the unofficial use of the title for the dukes of Burgundy, who almost succeeded in forming a new kingdom in the historical region of Lotharingia. Collectively known as the Burgundian State in modern historiography, they held lands in modern-day eastern France (Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Alsatia, Lorraine, Champagne, Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais) as well as most of modern Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and small parts of western Germany (Burgundian Netherlands).
The first monarchy ever officially titled a "grand duchy" was the Medici sovereignty over Tuscany thanks to a papal bull issued by Pope Pius V, the first rulers receiving the title in 1569. Tuscany remained a grand duchy until 1860, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia which succeeded in establishing a united Kingdom of Italy.[2]
In 1696, the Duchy of Savoy became the Grand Duchy of Savoy when its duke was promoted to grand duke by writ of the emperor. The title was considered a necessary bribe to keep Savoy aligned with the rest of the imperial states during the Nine Years War against France. From 1713, the primary title of the ruler of the Savoyard state became "king" instead (briefly of Sicily, then of Sardinia from 1720 onward).[3]
In the early nineteenth century, Napoléon I occasionally used the title "grand duchy" for several French satellite states given to his relatives or generals. Other allies abandoned the orbit of the Holy Roman Empire to join Napoleon's nominally independent Confederation of the Rhine. The elevation of these vassals to the title of grand duke was usually accompanied by an expansion of their realms with additional territory gathered at the expense of subdued powers such as Prussia. Though Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and most of his newly created satellite states abolished, the Congress of Vienna restored some of the previous sovereign duchies and principalities, while recognizing others as grand duchies. As a result, the 19th century saw the creation of a new group of grand duchies in central Europe, such as the grand duchies of Hesse, Baden and Oldenburg.
Historically, in Europe a sovereign grand duke was one of the highest ranks among hereditary rulers after emperor and king, and was equal to that of prince-elector; ranking as royalty, i.e., European rulers and, in Germany, the reigning nobility (Hochadel). The correct form of address (also for the heir apparent and his wife) is Royal Highness (HRH).
The title of grand duke borne under the Russian Empire by children and grandchildren of its rulers was a non-sovereign honorific, unrelated to any grand duchy, to which was attached the style of Imperial Highness (HIH). Ranking, internationally, no higher than the members of other reigning dynasties whose head held the title of emperor, the usage was an historical anomaly, persisting from the elevation of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy to the tsardom and, later, empire of All Russia, until its collapse in 1917.
In several Balto-Slavic languages (such as Russian and Lithuanian), the term often translated into English as "grand duke" is literally grand prince. In some western European languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.), the term "grand prince" was rare or non-existent, used to refer to some rulers of Russia, Transylvania or Tuscany prior to the 19th century. In German and Scandinavian languages, both titles co-exist: Großherzog ("grand duke") and Großfürst ("grand prince"). Fürst is specifically a monarchal title (as used, for example, by the imperial princes (Reichsfürsten) of the Holy Roman Empire and retained by several of the smaller post-1815 German states' rulers, and still in use today by the Prince of Liechtenstein) and is distinct from Prinz, which is used for a member of the dynasty of a monarch; both are translated as "prince" in English.
Emerging from the Middle Ages, the rulers of Lithuania and of historic Russian states, as well as other Eastern European princes and later Russian dynasts, were referred to by the title Великий Князь (Veliky Knyaz, German: Großfürst), whose literal English translation is "grand prince" rather than "grand duke". Although grand prince is found in historical references, since the reign of Catherine the Great, the Russian Veliky Knyaz has usually been translated into English as "grand duke". Since the 18th century it has also been used to refer to cadets of the imperial House of Romanov who were children or patrilineal grandchildren of a Russian emperor. More remote descendants of emperors were titled "prince" (князь, knyaz).
The Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire and established in 1809, was referred to in Swedish, Finnish and Russian as a Grand Principality (Swedish: Storfurstendömet Finland; Finnish: Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; Russian: Великое княжество Финляндское) Velikoye knyazhestvo Finlyandskoye; The Russian Tsar held title as Grand Duke of Finland.
The title Magnus Dux or "grand duke" (Lithuanian: Didysis kunigaikštis) is said to have been used by the rulers of Lithuania, and after rulers from the Jagiellonian dynasty became Kings of Poland, it was found among the titles used by the rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used this grand-princely title for their non-Polish territories.
On the other hand, the Habsburg (Austrian) Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen is referred to as the Grand Principality of Transylvania in English rather than as a Grand Duchy, since its name/title derives directly from Großfürst(entum). Until the 18th century it had been simply referred to as Fürstentum Siebenbürgen in German and the Principality of Transylvania in English, much like the Danubian Principalities.
Prior to the Napoleonic Wars, only two grand duchies were recognized in Europe. Both were in Italy, the first, Tuscany, was elevated to that status by a papal bull while the second, Savoy, was elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor:
Grand Duchy of Savoy (1696–1847, fused into the greater Kingdom of Sardinia, which was later absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy)
Other states whose names are translated as "grand duchy" in English were, properly, grand principalities:
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė, Ruthenian: Великое князство Литовське; established c.1183/1236, in personal union with the Kingdom of Poland in 1386–1401, 1447–1492, and 1501–1795)
Grand Duchy of Finland (Finnish: Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta, Swedish: Storfurstendömet Finland, Russian: Великое Княжество Финляндское; raised from duchy status, from c.1580 to 1809 as part of the Swedish Empire; conquered by the Russian Empire and held 1809–1917 in personal union with the Russian Empire; later became a fully independent Republic of Finland in 1917)
The Napoleonic Wars saw several minor ducal titles so elevated, and between then and World War I there were many grand duchies in Europe. Some were created in the Napoleonic era, others were recognized by the Congress of Vienna and were founding members of the German Confederation.
In Belgium and to some extent in France, Grand-Duché (French for "grand duchy") is often used as a metonym to refer to the neighbouring country, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This practice helps to avoid confusion with the adjacent Belgian Province of Luxembourg, i.e. the Walloon-speaking part of the portion of Luxembourg which was annexed by Belgium in 1839. It's comparable to how "the Republic" is used in the UK and Ireland as a shorthand to refer to the Republic of Ireland instead of the island of Ireland or Northern Ireland.
A prince is a male ruler or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. Prince is also a title of nobility, often hereditary, in some European states. The female equivalent is a princess. The English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun prīnceps, from primus (first) and caput (head), meaning "the first, foremost, the chief, most distinguished, noble ruler, prince".
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked below princes and grand dukes. The title comes from French duc, itself from the Latin dux, 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to a military commander without an official rank, and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province. In most countries, the word duchess is the female equivalent.
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.
Grand duke is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, equal to a King, grand prince, archduke, or prince-archbishop, and above a sovereign prince or sovereign duke. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly:
A principality can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under the generic meaning of the term prince.
The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been a grand duchy since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former Duchy of Luxembourg. It was in personal union with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1890 under the House of Orange-Nassau. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign Grand Duchy and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the incumbent, Henri.
Fürst is a German word for a ruler as well as a princely title. Fürsten were, starting in the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of the Holy Roman Empire and later its former territories, below the ruling Kaiser (emperor) or König (king).
The House of Welf is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meuse-Moselle area was closely related to the imperial family of the Carolingians.
Knyaz, kniaz or knez is a historical Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times of history and different ancient Slavic lands. It is usually translated into English as prince or duke, depending on specific historical context and the potentially known Latin equivalents of the title for each bearer of the name. These translations probably derive from the fact that the title tsar was often treated as equivalent to "king" by European monarchs. In Latin sources the title is usually translated as princeps, but the word was originally derived from the common Germanic *kuningaz (king).
A personal union is a combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent interlinked, such as by sharing some limited governmental institutions. Unlike a personal union, in a federation or a unitary state, a central (federal) government spanning all member states exists, with the degree of self-governance distinguishing the two. The ruler in a personal union does not need to be a hereditary monarch.
Grand Duke of Finland, alternatively the Grand Prince of Finland, was, from around 1580 to 1809, a title in use by most Swedish monarchs. Between 1809 and 1917, it was the official title of the ruler of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, who was also the Emperor of Russia. The anachronistic female form of the title in English would be Grand Duchess of Finland. The only women to have used the title were the Swedish queens regnant Kristina and Ulrika Eleonora. A few crown princes of Sweden also were called Grand Duke of Finland.
Grand prince or great prince is a title of nobility ranked in honour below Emperor, equal to Archduke, King, Grand duke and Prince-Archbishop; above a Sovereign Prince and Duke.
The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is also referred to as the Danubian monarchy or the Austrian monarchy.
A grand principality is the territory reigned by a grand prince.
The Principality of Moscow or Grand Duchy of Moscow, also known simply as Muscovy, was a principality of the Late Middle Ages centered on Moscow. It eventually evolved into the Tsardom of Russia in the early modern period. The princes of Moscow were descendants of the first prince Daniel, referred to in modern historiography as the Daniilovichi, a branch of the Rurikids.
The grand title of the emperor of Austria was the official list of the crowns, titles, and dignities which the emperors of Austria carried from the foundation of the empire in 1804 until the end of the monarchy in 1918.
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