Duchy of Savoy
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Motto: FERT (Motto for the House of Savoy) | |||||||||||||||
States of the Duke of Savoy around 1700; Savoy proper is in the northwest. | |||||||||||||||
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Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Savoyard | ||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
Duke | |||||||||||||||
• 1416–1440 | Amadeus VIII | ||||||||||||||
• 1831–1847 | Charles Albert | ||||||||||||||
Historical era | Modern Era | ||||||||||||||
• County of Savoy raised to duchy | 1416 | ||||||||||||||
• Occupied by France | 1536–59, 1630, 1690–96, 1703–13 | ||||||||||||||
11 April 1713 | |||||||||||||||
• Acquired Kingdom of Sardinia in exchange for Sicily | 1720 | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed by Revolutionary France | 1792–1814 | ||||||||||||||
1847 | |||||||||||||||
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Today part of |
The Duchy of Savoy (Italian: Ducato di Savoia; French: Duché de Savoie) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy for Amadeus VIII. The duchy was an Imperial fief,[1][2][3][4] subject of the Holy Roman Empire, until 1792, with a vote in the Imperial Diet. From the 16th century, Savoy belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle.
Its territory included the current French departments of Savoie, Haute-Savoie, and the Alpes-Maritimes, the current Italian region of Aosta Valley, a large part of Piedmont and the County of Geneva in Switzerland, which was then lost to the Old Swiss Confederacy.[5] The main Vulgar languages that were spoken within the Duchy of Savoy were Piedmontese and Arpitan.