Duke of Galliera is an
Italian noble title that has been created several times for members of different families. The name of the title refers to the ''
comune
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
'' of
Galliera, which is located in the
Province of Bologna in
Emilia–Romagna.
History
The title was first created in 1812 by
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
for
Josephine of Leuchtenberg, daughter of
Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, ...
(and granddaughter of Napoleon's first wife,
Josephine). She kept the title even after she married
Oscar, Crown Prince of Sweden. Napoleon had already given her the
Palazzo Caprara in Bologna in 1807, which was renamed the Palazzo Galliera.
In 1837, after a decade of negotiations, Crown Prince Oscar sold properties attached to the dukedom to Marquis
Raffaele de Ferrari of
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
. The following year, the marquis received the title of Duke of Galliera from Pope
Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...
. In 1839, King
Charles Albert of Sardinia
Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state from 27 April 1831 until his abdication in 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constit ...
confirmed the grant to the marquis and added the title of Prince of Lucedio.
With his wife,
Maria Brignole-Sale, the new Duke of Galliera had three children, but two of them died young and childless. The third, the famous
philatelist
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...
Philipp von Ferrary
Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (January 11, 1850 – May 20, 1917) was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare ...
, renounced the title and the inheritance to which it was linked.
In 1877, after the death of her husband, Maria Brignole-Sale (a fervent
Orléanist
Orléanist () was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported a constitutional monarchy expressed by the House of Orléans. Due to the radical political changes that occurred during France in the long nineteenth ...
) bequeathed his Italian properties to
Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, the youngest son of
Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. After the death of Maria Brignole-Sale in 1888, Prince Antoine received the ducal title of Galliera from King
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I (; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw Italy's expansion into the Horn of Africa, as well as the creation of the Triple Alliance (1882), Triple Alliance a ...
. Since then, the title of Duke of Galliera has belonged to the
Orléans
Orléans (,["Orleans"](_blank)
(US) and [Spanish royal family
The Spanish royal family constitutes the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon (), also known as the House of Bourbon-Anjou (). The royal family is headed by King Felipe VI and currently consists of the King; Queen Letizia; their children, Leono ...]
, although the properties attached to the dukedom were sold by
Infante Antonio in 1920.
Bernadotte-Leuchtenberg dukes
Ferrari Brignole-Sale dukes
Orléans dukes
See also
*
Duchess of Galliera
*
Palais Galliera
Notes and references
History of the Duchy of Galliera.{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711063531/http://www.galeriekugel.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=7&tabindex=6&objectid=31181&categoryid=0 , date=2011-07-11
*Dominique Paoli, Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Princes of Orleans, 1848-1918, Artena, 2006, p. 248. 248.
''Duke of Galliera Escapes. Appears in Italy from Madrid, where King was his Guardian.'' The New York Times. September 12 1919.Franco Ardizzoni, 'Il Ducato di Galliera, Dalle terre della "bassa" all'Europa'