In 1137 Conrad III, the Hohenstaufen King of the Germans, deprived Albert's cousin and nemesis, Henry the Proud of his Saxon duchy, which was awarded to Albert if he could take it.

When peace was made with Henry in 1142, Albert renounced the Saxon duchy and received the Counties of Weimar and Orlamünde.

The Grand Master then journeyed to Wittenberg, where he was advised by Martin Luther to abandon the rules of his Order, to marry, and to convert Prussia into a hereditary duchy for himself.

After some delay Sigismund assented to the offer, with the provision that Prussia should be treated as a Polish fiefdom ; and after this arrangement had been confirmed by a treaty concluded at Kraków, Albert pledged a personal oath to Sigismund I and was invested with the duchy for himself and his heirs on 10 February 1525.

He was a skilled political administrator and leader, and effectively reversed the decline of the Teutonic Order, until he betrayed it by transforming the order's lands into his own duchy, secularizing it in the process.

By the 6th century AD there is evidence of the foundation of a Bavarian stem duchy whose leadership was related to the ruling Frankish ( and possibly Alemannic / Swabian ) houses.

To his concerns regarding his new heir, Louis, who had been destined for the monastic life of a younger son ( the former heir, Philip, having died from a riding accident ), was added joy over the death of one of his most powerful vassals – and the availability of the best duchy in France.

At the failure of the direct Carolingian male line in 911, Conrad was acclaimed King of the Germans, largely because of his weak position in his own duchy.

Conrad had granted Franconia to his brother Eberhard on his succession, but when Eberhard rebelled against Otto I in 938, he was deposed from his duchy.

Rhenish Franconia ( Rheinfranken ) was the western half of the historic duchy of Franconia, immediately east of the Rhine.

Under his rule ( which was moderate and skillful ), Sforza modernised the city and duchy.

For those, however, who merely held anti-catholic opinions, the punishment was only expulsion from the duchy.

According to the act of settlement of 1499, George's Protestant brother Heinrich was now heir prospective ; but George, disregarding his father's will, sought to disinherit his brother and to bequeath the duchy to Ferdinand, brother of Charles V. His sudden death prevented the carrying out of this intention.

Between 1152 and 1190, during the reign of Frederick I ( Barbarossa ), of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, an accommodation was reached with the rival Guelph party by the grant of the duchy of Bavaria to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony.

The duchy of Brandenburg-Jägerndorf was confiscated by Ferdinand III of the Holy Roman Empire in 1622.

France annexed the duchy, although the part of Burgundy that formed Franche-Comté was later given to Philip I of Castile in 1493.

Originally, the Duke held the electorate personally, but it was later made hereditary along with the duchy.

The city of Schleswig was later founded on the other side of the Schlei, and gave the duchy its name.

It was while she was being entertained by Louis, whose troops occupied Milan, that she offered asylum to Milanese refugees including Cecilia Gallerani, the refined mistress of her sister Beatrice's husband, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who had been forced to leave his duchy in the wake of French occupation.

He was born in 1591 at Büttgen in the duchy of Jülich as the eldest son with eight more brothers and sisters.

in Domrémy, a village which was then in the French part of the duchy of Bar, or Barrois mouvant, situated West of the Meuse River, while the rest of the duchy ( East of the Meuse ) was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Rather than appoint a new duke from his own circle, Otto now divided the threatening power of the duchy among the great ecclesiastics with and through whom he ruled, and who had remained faithful to his cause: the Bishop of Würzburg and the Abbot of Fulda ( 939 ).

In a short time, however, he developed decided ability as a ruler ; on entering upon his inheritance he divided the duchy into governmental districts, took measures to suppress the robber-knights, and regulated the judicial system by defining and readjusting the jurisdiction of the various law courts.

Because the duchy of Swabia lost its duke in 1268 and was never restored, all vassals of the duchy became immediate vassals of the Imperial Throne ( as has happened in much of Westphalia when the duchy of Saxons was divided and partially dissolved in aftermath of the defeat of Henry the Lion ).

In 959, Bruno divided the duchy into Upper and Lower Lorraine which became permanent following his death in 965.

At the Diet of Aix-la-Chapelle ( 828 ), the duchy and march of Friuli, in which Padua lay, was divided into four counties, one of which took its title from the city of Padua.

The royal duchy became a province in 1584, and was divided into departments in 1790.

A fairly inconsequential margraviate that was divided between various branches of its ruling family for much of its history, it gained both status and territory during the Napoleonic era, when it was also raised to a grand duchy.

In 959 the Lotharingian duke Bruno the Great divided the duchy between Lotharingia superior ( Upper Lorraine ) and Lotharingia inferior ( Lower Lorraine ), giving each to the rule of a margrave.

* Duchy of Schleswig – a historic duchy once part of the Kingdom of Denmark, now divided between Germany and Denmark

But at the end Bolesław maintained his rule by largely accepting the demands of rebels ; he divided late Henry's duchy in three parts: the lands of Wiślica were granted to Casimir, Bolesław himself obtained Sandomierz proper and the rest passed to Mieszko III.

The territory of the duchy was divided into two regions (), Posen and Bromberg, which were further divided into 26 original districts (, ) headed by Landräte (" district councillors ").

After Konrad's death in 1274, his heirs again divided the duchy and the castle of Żagań became the residence of his youngest son Przemko of Ścinawa, Duke of Żagań from 1278, who established a monastery of the Augustinian Canons here.

With time the principality grew into a grand duchy which was divided into several smaller principalities.

Zahumlje divided between the realm of Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić and the duchy of Sandalj Hranić, Grand Duke of Hum | Sandalj Hranić around 1412-the principality toward its end

Moravia was incorporated into the Bohemian duchy, but divided between three of his younger sons.

By 936, the duchy of Burgundy was divided between Hugh the Great and Hugh the Black.

He divided his duchy into eight " battles ": Leon, Kernev, Landreger, Penteur, Gwened, Naoned, Roazhon, and Sant Malou.

After his father's death in 1212, the surviving sons of the late duke divided his lands according to the laws of the House of Ascania: The elder Henry received Anhalt and the younger Albert the Saxon duchy.

The duchy was divided into two districts and the town became county seat of one of the districts.

The eldest, Frederick I at first ruled jointly with his brothers until in 1680 the duchy was divided.

In 1325 the line of the princes of Rugia ( Rügen ) died out, and the principality was inherited by House of Pomerania, themselves involved in the Brandenburg-Pomeranian conflict about superiority in their often internally divided duchy.