1801?1807 French client state in Italy
This article is about the 1801?1807 kingdom in Tuscany. For the pre-Roman league of twelve city-states, see
Etruria
.
The
Kingdom of Etruria
(
ih-
TROOR
-ee-?
;
Italian
:
Regno di Etruria
) was an Italian
kingdom
between 1801 and 1807 that made up a large part of modern
Tuscany
. It took its name from
Etruria
, the old
Roman
name for the land of the
Etruscans
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The kingdom was created by the
Treaty of Aranjuez
, signed at
Aranjuez, Spain
on 21 March 1801. In the context of a larger agreement between
Napoleonic France
and
Spain
, the
Bourbons
of Parma were compensated for the loss of their territory in northern Italy (which had been occupied by French troops since 1796). The
King of Spain
decided that his cousin
Ferdinand, Duke of Parma
had to cede his
duchy
to France, and in return his son
Louis I
was granted the Kingdom of Etruria (which was created from the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
). Shortly after Ferdinand refused to leave, he suddenly died in suspect circumstances. To make way for the Bourbons, the
Habsburg
Grand Duke of Tuscany
Ferdinand III
was ousted and compensated with the
Electorate of Salzburg
by the
Treaty of Luneville
.
[2]
Outside the Treaty of Aranjuez, Spain also secretly agreed to retrocede the
Louisiana
territory (over 2 million square kilometers) back to France in order to secure the Kingdom of Etruria as a client state for Spain;
Louisiana
was first ceded by France to Spain in 1763 at the end of the
Seven Years' War
. Louisiana was duly transferred to France on 15 October 1802, after the signing of the Treaty of Aranjuez. Napoleon subsequently sold Louisiana to the
United States
in the
Louisiana Purchase
on April 30, 1803, in order to pay for his French armies during the
War of the Third Coalition
.
The first king (
Louis I
) died young in 1803, and his underage son
Charles Louis
succeeded him. His mother,
Maria Luisa of Spain
, was appointed regent. However, since Etruria was troubled with smuggling and espionage, Napoleon annexed the territory, thus it was the last non-Bonaparte Italian kingdom on the
Peninsula
to be absorbed into the French Empire. Since Spain's only hope of compensation lay in
Portugal
, co-operation with the emperor became more important.
[2]
In 1807, Napoleon dissolved the kingdom and integrated it into France, turning it into three French
departments
:
Arno
,
Mediterranee
and
Ombrone
. The king and his mother were promised the throne of a new
Kingdom of Northern Lusitania
(in
northern Portugal
), but this plan was never realized due to the break between Napoleon and the Spanish Bourbons in 1808. After Napoleon's downfall in 1814, Tuscany was restored to its Habsburg grand dukes. In 1815, the
Duchy of Lucca
was carved out of Tuscany, on the lands of the former
Republic of Lucca
, as compensation for the Bourbons of Parma until they resumed their rule in 1847.
[3]
As stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 1817, in execution of the art. 99 of the
Final Act of the Congress of Vienna
, the Duchy of Lucca was then annexed by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
[4]
Flags and coats of arms
[
edit
]
- Flags
-
State flag with the greater coat of arms
-
State flag with the lesser coat of arms
-
Merchant flag with the lesser coat of arms
-
Merchant flag (used by little tonnage ships)
- Coat of arms
-
Greater coat of arms
-
Middle coat of arms
-
Lesser coat of arms
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Norman Davies,
Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe
, Penguin, 2012, chapter 10, "Etruria: French Snake in the Tuscan Grass
(1801?1814)".
- ^
a
b
Charles Esdaile (14 June 2003).
The Peninsular War: A New History
. Palgrave Macmillan. p.
7
.
ISBN
978-1-4039-6231-7
. Retrieved
28 March
2013
.
- ^
"Article 101".
Atto finale del Congresso di Vienna fra le cinque grandi potenze, Austria, Francia, Inghilterra, Prussia e Russia del 9 giugno 1815
(in Italian). Milan: Sanvito. 1859. p. 61.
- ^
Atto Finale
1859
, p. 77, Article 3 of the Treaty concluded in Paris on 10 June 1817 about the reversion of the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza e Guastalla.
Works cited
[
edit
]