The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Italian: Granducato di Toscana, Latin: Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. Before the advent of the House of Lorraine, Tuscany was nominally a state of the Holy Roman Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The grand duchy, initially, was ruled by the House of Medici until its extinction in 1737. Under the Medici, Tuscany thrived. While not as internationally renowned as the old republic, it bore witness to unprecedented economic and military success under Cosimo I and his sons, until the reign of Ferdinando II, whose reign saw the beginning of the state's long economic decline. It peaked under Cosimo III. The Medici's only advancement in the latter days of their existence was their elevation to royalty, by the Holy Roman Emperor, in 1691. The senior branch of the Medici line went extinct in 1737.
Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a cognatic descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family and ascended the throne of his Medicean ancestors. Tuscany was governed by a viceroy, Marc de Beauvau-Craon, for his entire rule. His descendants ruled, and resided in, the grand duchy until 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to the House of Bourbon-Parma. Following the collapse of the Napoleonic system in 1814, the grand duchy was restored. The United Provinces of Central Italy, a client state of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, annexed Tuscany in 1859. Tuscany was formally annexed to Sardinia in 1860, following a landslide referendum, in which 95% of voters approved.
The House of Habsburg, also spelled Hapsburg, was one of the most important royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740. The house also produced kings of Bohemia, England, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, as well as rulers of several Dutch and Italian countries.
The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland by Count Radbot of Klettgau, who chose to name his fortress Habsburg. His grandson, Otto II, was the first to take the fortress name as his own, adding "Count of Habsburg" to his title. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
By 1276, Count Radbot's seventh generation descendant, Rudolph of Habsburg, had moved the family's power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918.
A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to vastly expand its domains, to include Burgundy, Spain and her colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary, and other territories into the inheritance. In the 16th century, the family separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches, who settled their mutual claims in the Oñate treaty.
The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century. The senior branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. The remaining branch went extinct in the male line in 1740 with the death of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and completely in 1780 with the death of his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, and was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine. The new successor house styled itself formally as House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: Habsburg-Lothringen), although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg.
The Present Heir to the Grand Ducal Throne is HI&RH Archduke Sigismund of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany (Sigismund Otto Maria Josef Gottfried Henrich Erik Leopold Ferdinand von Habsburg-Lothringen; born 21 April 1966) who is the titular Grand Duke of Tuscany and current head of the Tuscan branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Archduke Sigismund is Grand Master of the Order of Saint Joseph and Order of Saint Stephen, the two orders of knighthood of the Grand Ducal House of Tuscany.
The Website of the Grand Ducal House of Tuscany:
http://www.granducato.org/
Almanach de Saxe Gotha Page:
http://
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