Grand Duchy of Tuscany

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.