Duke of Dino (Italian: ''Duca di Dino'') was a noble title of the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...

, later the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by popula ...

. The title referred to the island of Dino in the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...

, off Praia a Mare in

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

. It was created on 9 November 1815 by King Ferdinand for the French diplomat and statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, in recognition of his service at the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

. Talleyrand ceded the title to his nephew Edmond on 2 December 1817. To prevent the breakup of the estates, Edmond ceded the Dino property to his second son Alexandre (husband of Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde), while his elder son Louis was styled Duke of Valençay and later inherited the Duchy of Sagan. Alexandre in turn ceded the property to his elder son Maurice. Alexandre and Maurice were styled Duke of Dino, but the transfer of the associated property within the family had no power to alter the order of succession according to the original patent. The senior descendant of Edmond was confirmed as Duke of Dino by the King of Italy in 1912, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies having ended in 1861 during the process of

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

. The last male heir to the titles died in 1968. In 1975, the exiled former King of Italy

Umberto II Umberto II (; 15 September 190418 March 1983) was the last King of Italy. Umberto's reign lasted for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 until his formal deposition on 12 June 1946, although he had been the ''de facto'' head of state since 1944. Due to hi ...

issued a diploma confirming Manuel Gonzalez de Andia, Marquis of Villahermosa as Duke of Dino, with a remainder failing male issue to his elder daughter Maria Louisa and her husband. Manuel was the son of Luis Dreyfus y Gonzalez de Andia, Marquis of Villahermosa (son of Auguste Dreyfus by his second wife) and Félicie de Talleyrand-Périgord, sister of the last Duke. His daughter Maria Louisa assumed the title until her death in 2015, when it passed to her older surviving son, Javier de Villegas y Gonzalez de Andia.

Family tree of the Dukes of Dino

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dino, Duke of Dukes in the Kingdom of The Two Sicilies Dukes in Italy 1815 establishments in Italy Noble titles created in 1815