Duchy of Troppau

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Ducatus Oppaviensis (la) Opavské vévodství (cs) Herzogtum Troppau (de) Duchy of Troppau State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806) ← 1278 – 1919 → Capital Troppau (Opava) Government Principality Historical era Middle Ages  - Established 1278  - Partitioned into three 1366  - Further partitions 1424, 1433 and 1452  - Annexed by Bohemia 1462–1506  - Further partition 1742  - dissolved 1919

The Principality or Duchy of Troppau (German: Herzogtum Troppau, Czech: Opavské vévodství) was based for centuries in the city of Troppau (Opava) in Moravia.

The duchy was created on lands split off from the March of Moravia proper in 1269 ^[1], well before 1278, the year king Ottokar II of Bohemia died, to provide for his natural son, Nicholas I, Duke of Troppau, as he was known henceforth. Troppau's princely dynasty was thus first ruled by an illegitimate offshoot of the House of Premysl, and not by the Silesian Piasts, like many of the neighboring Duchies of Silesia.

In 1318, for Nicholas II, the Duchy was confirmed as fief by John I of Bohemia^[2] who soon had to fend off the Hungarian troops of Casimir III of Poland.^[3]

Nicholas II from 1336 to 1365 also ruled the Duchy of Ratibor in personal union, until in 1377, the Duchy of Jägerndorf was split off. Between 1460 and 1511, ownership changed several times, mainly by purchase and partitions. In 1521, with the death of Valentin, Duke of Ratibor, this line of the Premysls ended, and in 1526 it became a possession of the House of Habsburg. Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein^[4] was in 1614 invested with the Duchy of Troppau. Ever since, the heads of the Princely Family of Liechtenstein bear the title Duke of Troppau, resp. since 1621 Duke of Troppau and Jägerndorf.

In 1742, in the course of the War of the Austrian Succession, the Duchy was divided once more, with the part north of Opava River (Oppa) including Leobschütz and Neustadt becoming part of Prussian Province of Silesia, the southern part with Jägerndorf, Freudenthal, Fulnek and Troppau itself remaining in Austrian Silesia.

The Duchy ceased to exist when the Austrian Empire was dissolved in 1919 and its area (Troppauer Land) became part of Czechoslovakia, the city of Troppau itself becoming known as Opava. The Prussian share remained there until 1945, when becoming part of Poland.

The current Duke of Troppau and Jägerndorf is Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein.

[edit] Literature

• Seidl, Elmar: Das Troppauer Land zwischen den fünf Südgrenzen Schlesiens - Grundzüge der politischen und territorialen Geschichte bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Gebr. Mann. ISBN 3-7861-1626-1 [4]

[edit] External links

• Dynasty of Dukes of Troppau and Ratibor