Word Finder - duchies

definition

A dominion or region ruled by a duke or duchess. (A grand duchy may be a self-governing state. A simple duchy tends to be a part of a larger kingdom or empire.)

At length the hostility of the princes was overcome, and in December 1282 Rudolph invested his sons Albert and Rudolph with the duchies of Austria and Styria at Augsburg, and so laid the foundations of the greatness of the house of Habsburg.

It then passed to the counts of La Marck and was made a duchy in 1417, being united with the neighbouring duchies of Jiilich and Berg in 1521.

Spain reconquered the duchies in the war of succession (1745); they were recovered by Austria in 1746; and Maria Theresa again surrendered them to Don Philip, infante of Spain, in 1748.

On his death in 1802 the duchies were incorporated with the French republic and his son Louis became "king of Etruria."

As in the other Saxon duchies the population is almost exclusively Protestant; in 1905, 262,243 belonged to the Lutheran confession, 4845 were Roman Catholics and 1256 Jews.

Bruno, who kept for himself the title of archduke, divided the territory into the two duchies of Upper and Lower Lorraine.

Another stock, with no close allies nearer than the south of France, is found in the plain of Racconigi and Carmagnola; the mouse-colored Swiss breed occurs in the neighborhood of Milan; the Tirolese breed stretches south to Padua and Modena; and a red-coated breed named of Reggio or Friuli is familiar both in what were the duchies of Parma and Modena, and in the provinces of lJdine and Treviso.

The duchies of Spoleto in the centre, and of Benevento in the south, inserted wedge-like into the middle of the peninsula, and enclosing independent Rome, were but loosely united to the kingdom at Pavia.

The War of the Polish Succession which now disturbed Europe is only important in Italian history because the treaty of Vienna in 1738 settled the disputed affairs of the duchies Polish of Parma and Tuscany.

The former possessed the rich duchies Frecch of Milan (including Mantua) and Tuscany; while Revolu through a marriage alliance with the house of Este UoI, of Modena (the Archduke Ferdinand had married the heiress of Modena) its influence over that duchy was supreme.

Two months later Ferdinand of Naples sought for an armistice, the central duchies were easily overrun, and, early in 1797, Pope Pius VI.

In the Austrian provinces and in the duchies it carried all before it, and gained many adherents in the Legations, Rome and Naples, although in the latter regions the autonomist feeling was still strong even among the Liberals.

In August Marco Minghetti succeeded in forming a military league and a customs union between Tuscany, Romagna and the duchies, and in procuring the adoption of the Piedmontese codes; and envoys were sent to Paris to mollify Napoleon.

The king having formally accepted the voluntary annexation of the duchies, Tuscany and Romagna, appointed the prince of Carignano viceroy with Ricasoli as governor-general (22nd of March), and was immediately afterwards excommunicated by the pope.

An unworthy nephew, Carlo Caraffa, was made cardinal, and other relatives were invested with the duchies of Paliano and Montebello.

This category includes German places located in the Prussian provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia, Posen, Silesia, Brandenburg, and Pomerania, and places in the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

They had to combat the feudal nobility, and later, the younger branches of the royal house established in the great duchies, and the main reason for the permanence of their power was, perhaps, the fact that there were few minorities among them.

Germany comprised two other duchies, Saxony and Frisia, of each of which we possess a text of law.

At the Congress of Vienna the Powers awarded to her and her son the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, in conformity with the terms of the treaty of Fontainebleau (March, 1814); in spite of the determined opposition of Louis XVIII.

Previously the several districts formally recognized were Latium, the Marittima (or sea-board) and Campagna, the patrimony of Saint Peter, the duchy of Castro, the Orvietano, the Sabina, Umbria, the Perugino, the March of Ancona, Romagna, the Bolognese, the Ferrarese, and the duchies of Benevento and of Pontecorvo.

This country, north of the Main and the first residence of the Franks, then received the name of Francia Orientalis, and became the origin of one of the duchies into which Germany was divided in the Toth century - the duchy of Franconia (Franken).

During the disastrous Swedish War of 1643-1645 Frederick was appointed generalissimo of the duchies by his father, but the laurels he won were scanty, chiefly owing to his quarrels with the Earl-Marshal Anders Bille, who commanded the Danish forces.

While the persevering policy of the Capets, which aimed at reuniting the great fiefs, duchies, countships, baronies, &c., to the domain of the crown, gradually reconstructed for their benefit a territorial sovereignty over France, the institution of the appanage periodically subtracted large portions from it.

Altenburg is the seat of the higher courts of the Saxon duchies, and possesses a cathedral and several churches, schools, a library, a gallery of pictures and a school of art, an infirmary and various learned societies.

From 1731 to 1846 it was the seat of the Danish governor of the duchies.

Otto soon showed his intention of breaking with the policy of his father, who had been content with a nominal superiority over the duchies; in 937 he punished Eberhard, duke of Franconia, for an alleged infringement of the royal authority; and in 938 deposed Eberhard, who had recently become duke of Bavaria.

Conrad and Ludolf retained their estates, but their duchies were not restored to them.

About this time the king seems to have perceived the necessity of living and ruling in closer union with the church, a change of policy due perhaps to the influence of his brother Bruno, or forced upon him when his plans for uniting the duchies with the royal house brought rebellion in their train.

In both duchies the chief industry is agriculture, which employs about 30% of the entire population.

The manufactures of the duchies, especially in the mountainous parts less favourable for agriculture, are tolerably brisk, but there is no large industrial centre in the country.

Coburg (pop. 1905, 24,289) and Gotha (36,893) are the chief towns of the duchies, to which they respectively give name; the latter is the capital of the united duchy.

His father was Christian Augustus (1673-1726), duke of Schleswig-HolsteinGottorp, bishop of Lubeck, and administrator, during the war of 1700-1721, of the duchies of Holstein-Gottorp for his nephew Charles Frederick; his mother was Albertina Frederica of BadenDurlach.

From the early days of the conquest they spread to the south, and established the duchies of Spoletum and Beneventum in the modern kingdom of Naples.

The Danish army at once dispersed and the duchy of Bremen was recovered by the Swedes, who in the early autumn swarmed over Jutland and firmly established themselves in the duchies.

In secular affairs Charles abolished the office of duke, placed counts over districts smaller than the former duchies, and supervised their government by means of missi dominici, officials responsible to himself alone.

During the crisis in Schleswig and Holstein in 1850 he endeavoured in person to aid the duchies in their struggles.

Only a few scattered territories were reserved for John Frederick's sons, although these were increased by the treaty of Naumburg in 1554, and on them were founded the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg.

John George's will made the decline of the electorate even more inevitable by detaching from it the three duchies of Saxe-Weissenfels, Saxe-Merseburg and SaxeZeitz as appanages for his younger sons.

The principle of primogeniture was not introduced until the end of the 17th century, so that the Protestant Saxon dynasty, instead of building up a single compact kingdom for itself, has split into four petty duchies, of no political influence whatever.

In 1640 his three surviving sons ruled the duchies of Weimar, Eisenach and Gotha.

In that year the Gotha line expired, and a general redistribution of the lands of the " Nexus Gothanus," as this group of duchies was called, was arranged on the 12th of November 1826.

The existing duchies are separately noticed.

When the German party in the northern duchies rose against the Danish government, Waitz hastened to place himself at the service of the provisional government.

He was sent to Berlin to represent the interests of the duchies there, and during his absence he was elected by Kiel as a delegate to the national parliament at Frankfort.

He was at once attracted into the political movement for the defence of the rights of the Elbe duchies, of which Kiel was the centre.

C. Dahlmann, he placed his historical learning at the service of the estates of SchleswigHolstein and composed the address of 1844, in which the estates protested against the claim of the king of Denmark to alter the law of succession in the duchies.

During the next two years he continued to support the cause of the duchies, and in 1850, with Carl Samwer, he published a history of the dealings of Denmark with Schleswig-Holstein, Die Herzogthiimer Schleswig-Holstein land das Kiinigreich Ddnemark seit dem Jahre 1806 (Hamburg, 1850).

A translation was published in London in the same year under the title The Policy of Denmark towards the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.

The work was one of great political importance, and had much to do with the formation of German public opinion on the rights of the duchies in their struggle with Denmark.

This category includes German places in the Kingdom of Saxony, in the Prussian province of Saxony, in the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, in the Duchies of Anhalt, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, and Saxe-Meiningen, and in the Principalities of Reuss, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.