Principality of Lucca and Piombino | |||||||||||||||
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| 1805–1814 | |||||||||||||||
 Principality of Lucca in 1806 | |||||||||||||||
| Status | Client state of theFrench Empire | ||||||||||||||
| Capital | Lucca | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Italian,French | ||||||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||||||||
| Government | Principality | ||||||||||||||
| Princess | |||||||||||||||
• 1805–1809 | Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars | ||||||||||||||
| 23 June 1805 | |||||||||||||||
| 3 March 1814 | |||||||||||||||
| Currency | French Franc | ||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Italy | ||||||||||||||
ThePrincipality of Lucca and Piombino was created in July 1805 byNapoleon I for his sisterElisa Bonaparte. It was a state located on the centralItalian Peninsula (present-dayItaly) and was aclient state ofNapoleonic France.
The state was the result of the annexation of the Principality of Lucca (est. 22 June 1805), the formerRepublic of Lucca and occupied by France since late 1799, and the ancientPrincipality of Piombino, with Elisa the Princess of Piombino since that March. The combined principalities then were ruled as a singlemonarchy. Elisa was the ruling princess of Piombino and Lucca. Her husbandFelice Pasquale Baciocchi became the titular prince of Piombino.
The Constitution of the principality was written by Napoleon on 22 June (1805), establishing a Council of State to assist the princess and a legislative Senate.
The principality adopted theFrench franc as its currency, though few special local coins were minted.
On 3 March 1809, as part of theTreaty of Fontainebleau, her brother Napoleon created theGrand Duchy of Tuscany, with Elisa ruling as Grand Duchess of allTuscany fromFlorence. The region had been annexed to the French Empire two years before, from the formerKingdom of Etruria (1801-1807). Henceforth the Principality of Lucca and Piombino became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and consequently a territory of theFirst French Empire. It did have special status, and aprefect was appointed (Antoine-Marie-Pierre de Hautmesnil). However, the territory was never named aDepartment of France.
In 1814, theImperial Austrian Army occupied Lucca, ending French control with the fall of Napoleon. Under theCongress of Vienna Piombino was given to theGrand Duchy of Tuscany, andElba to the exiled Napoleon.
Lucca was restored to separate state status as theDuchy of Lucca (1815–1847). The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) bestowed the duchy upon theInfanta of SpainMaria Louisa, erstwhileQueen of Etruria and the matriarch of theHouse of Bourbon-Parma. This was a form of compensation for not having returned theirDuchy of Parma to them and instead having granted it toNapoleon's wife,Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine. Initially the Infanta stubbornly opposed, refusing to move from Rome where she was in exile, and accepted the new duchy only after the1817 Treaty of Paris [it] awarded her, her sonCharles Louis and his male successors the right ofreversion over their eponymous duchy upon the death of Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine.
| Sister republics |
|  Europe at the height of Napoleon's Empire | |||||||||||
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| Napoleonic creations |
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