Under the reign of the Ottonian rulers, the kingdom of the Eastern Franks finally became Germany with the conclusion of the unification of the duchies of Lorraine, Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Thuringia and Bavaria into one empire.

In 221 BCE, after the then King of Qin completed the conquest of the various kingdoms / duchies of the Warring States Period, he adopted a new title to reflect his prestige as a ruler greater than the rulers before him.

Both these rulers, by the institution of separate and almost independent duchies, attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar to that already established elsewhere in Europe ; the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications by the opponents, the Folkung party.

Candidates for the kingship were at first the heads of the great stem duchies of Germany ; as these units broke up over time, rulers of smaller principalities and even foreign rulers came to be considered for the position.

Though Conrad never used the title rex Teutonicorum (" king of the Germans ") nor rex Romanorum (" King of the Romans "), he was the first king of East Francia who was elected by the rulers of the German stem duchies as successor of the last Carolingian ruler Louis the Child.

The duchies of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen were in personal union from 1909, when Prince Günther of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt succeeded also to the throne of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, until 1918, when he ( and all the other rulers of German monarchies ) abdicated.

In return for their cooperation some state rulers were given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg were made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms.

Danish troops now marched in to coerce the refractory duchies ; but while the fighting went on negotiations among the powers continued, and on August 2, 1850 Great Britain, France, Russia and Norway-Sweden signed a protocol, to which Austria subsequently adhered, approving the principle of restoring the integrity of the Danish monarchy.

The Crimean War had crippled the power of Russia, and France was prepared to renounce support for Danish interests in the duchies in exchange for compensations to herself elsewhere.

Some of the Mishar duchies were never controlled from Kazan and instead gravitated towards the Qasim Khanate or Muscovite Russia.

" Choiseul's suggestion, advanced to the other ambassadors, was that they should press, in addition to the Jesuit issue, territorial claims upon the Patrimony of Peter: the cession of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin to France ; to Spain the duchies of Benevento and Pontecorvo ; for Naples an extension of territory adjoining the Papal States ; and for Austria an immediate and final settlement of the vexed question of Parma and Piacenza that had occasioned a diplomatic rift with Pope Clement XIII.

( d. 973 ) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine, on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse.

In 1282 his father, the first German monarch from the House of Habsburg, invested him and his younger brother Rudolph II with the duchies of Austria and Styria, which he had seized from late King Ottokar II of Bohemia.

Since Otto III had intentions to renew the Empire based on a federal concept he called " Renovatio Imperii Romanorum ", and within that federal framework, Polish and Hungarian duchies were to be upgraded to eastern federati of the empire it was towards this end that the Emperor placed his Imperial crown on Bolesław I's brow and invested him with the titles frater et cooperator Imperii (" Brother and Partner of the Empire ") and populi Romani amicus et socius.

Barbarossa had the duchies of Swabia and Franconia, the force of his own personality, and very little else to construct an empire.

The duchy of Bavaria was transferred from Henry II Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria, to Frederick's formidable younger cousin Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, of the House of Guelph, whose father had previously held both duchies.

At the conclusion of peace on 13 November 1738, control of Parma and Piacenza was ceded to Austria, which had occupied the duchies but was now forced to recognise Charles as King of Naples and Sicily.

The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire and some Lombards.

Ottokar refused to appear or to restore the duchies of Austria, Styria and Carinthia with the March of Carniola, which he had claimed through his first wife, a Babenberg heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, Margrave Hermann VI of Baden.

The stem duchies of the German kingdom inside the Empire had strong and powerful dukes ( originally, war-rulers ), always more looking out for their duchy's " national interest " than for the Empire's.

( d. 973 ) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine, on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse.

Sweden had a history of making the sons of its kings real ruling princes of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622.

King Conrad III had dispossessed Henry the Proud, who had been his rival for the crown in 1138, of his duchies in 1138 and 1139, handing Saxony to Albert the Bear and Bavaria to Leopold of Austria.

Often these were further supplemented by troops loyal to particular duchies which had sided with one or more of the belligerents.

It was with the help of the gentry of the Germanic duchies that Christian had conquered Denmark.

Frederick's birthplace: the Yellow Palace, Copenhagen | Yellow Palace in CopenhagenFrederick was born on 3 June 1843 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen as Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior male line of the House of Oldenburg descended from Christian III of Denmark and who had since ruled as non-souvereign dukes of successive duchies in Schleswig-Holstein for eight generations including his grandfather.

They had various tasks: representatives of the king in the provinces, they were responsible for the administration of the royal domain and for the protecting and guiding the legal system in certain duchies, such as Saxony and Bavaria, and, in particular, Lotharingia.

In 1500 he had convinced his brother and co-duke to conquer Dithmarschen, and a great army was called from not only the duchies, but with additions from all of the Kalmar Union for which his brother briefly was king.

In 1544 they partitioned the Duchies of Holstein ( a fief of the Holy Roman Empire ) and of Schleswig ( a Danish fief ) in an unusual way, following negotiations between the brothers and the Estates of the Realm of the duchies, which had constituted in 1460 by the Treaty of Ribe and strictly opposed a factual partition.

By the High Middle Ages, the title " count " had become increasingly common, to the point that both great magnates who ruled regions that were the size of duchies, and local castle-lords, might style themselves " count ".

In 939 the East Frankish king Otto I brought the reigning duke Gilbert to heel and incorporated Lotharingia into his realm as one of the " younger " stem duchies, whose dukes had a vote in royal elections.

However, the constitutions of both duchies excluded the British heir apparent from the ducal thrones if there were other eligible male heirs, although Albert Edward, Prince of Wales had already renounced his claim to the ducal throne in favour of his next brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

The Ottoman state had started out as one of a dozen Turkish Ghazi Beyliks, roughly comparable to western European duchies, into which Anatolia ( i. e., Asian Turkey, or Asia Minor ) had been divided after the break-up of the Seljuk Sultanate of Ikonion ( Konya ) and the military demise of the Byzantine Empire.

A vast number of minor independent duchies, free cities, abbeys, prince-bishoprics, and petty lordships ( whose authority sometimes extended to no more than a single village ) rounded out the Empire.

In the Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as appanages.

Frederick, duke of Augustenburg, son of the prince who in 1852 had renounced the succession to the duchies, now claimed his rights on the ground that he had had no share in the renunciation.

An article drafted by Austria, intended to safeguard the settlement of 1852, was replaced at Bismarck's instance by another which stated that the two powers would decide only in concert on the relations of the duchies, and that they would in no case determine the question of the succession save by mutual consent ; and Bismarck issued an ultimatum to Denmark demanding that the November Constitution should be abolished within 48 hours.

On March 11 a fresh agreement was signed between the powers, under which the compacts of 1852 were declared to be no longer valid, and the position of the duchies within the Danish monarchy as a whole was to be made the subject of a friendly understanding.

After 1569 no more countships were made into peers, and peerage was exclusively given to duchies ( duc et pair ).

Such modern duchies have always been named for the historical provinces of Sweden, which are no longer governmental entities.

This list of dukes and duchesses in Sweden excludes minor duchies ( individual towns, manors, mines, estates ) as well as former lands and provinces such as Finland and Estonia which are no longer in the kingdom.

) Further, it was affirmed that the duchies were to remain as independent entities, and that Schleswig would have no greater constitutional affinity to Denmark than Holstein.

A fresh agreement was signed between the powers on March 11, under which the compacts of 1852 were declared to be no longer valid, and the position of the duchies within the Danish monarchy as a whole was to be made the subject of a friendly understanding.

Ernest's support of the Prussians in the Austro-Prussian War and later Franco Prussian War meant he was no longer the potential leader of a political movement ; although it was true that he had been able to retain his duchies, it had come at a price.

Some of these titles have merged with the Crown of Monaco as a result of the Grimaldi family's acquisition of various duchies, counties, baronies, and other fiefs, though they are almost all extinct and carry no administrative power.

Further, it was affirmed that the duchies were to remain as independent entities, and that Schleswig would have no greater constitutional affinity to Denmark than Holstein.