on
silver coin 10 paoli as he inherited
Grand Duchy of Tuscany Lorraine's predecessors were duchies and realms from the
Carolingian and post-Carolingian era. The initial Mosellan duchy () existed in the first half of the 9th century. It was followed by the old
Lotharingia, a distinctive Carolingian realm ruled by kings
Lothair II (855–869) and
Zwentibold (895-900). That realm was transformed into the
Stem Duchy of Lotharingia, that existed during the first half of the 10th century. In 953, the German king
Otto I awarded the governance over the Stem Duchy of Lotharingia to his brother
Bruno the Great, the
Archbishop of Cologne, who thus became the Duke of Lotharingia. In 959, Bruno divided the duchy in two distinctive jurisdictions, one for the southern half (Upper Lorraine), and the other for the northern half (
Lower Lorraine); this division became permanent following his death in 965, but the chronology and nature of those divisions, that resulted in the creation of two distinctive duchies, is debated among scholars.
Duchy of Upper Lorraine Since the southern half was located further "up" the river system, it was designated as the "upper" duchy. In time, disputes over the rightful use of
Lotharingian designations in ducal titles arose between two ducal centres, both of them claiming precedence. Since it was situated along the river
Moselle, the southern duchy was at first also known as the
Duchy of Mosellans (), and particularly during the 11th and 12th centuries (later also) its duke was commonly titled as the
Duke of Mosellans (), while the region itself was referred to as
Mosellania, both in charters and narrative sources. Lower Lorraine disintegrated into several smaller territories and only the title of a "
Duke of Lothier" remained, held by
Brabant. By the time Upper Lorraine came into the possession of
René of Anjou, several territories had already split off, such as the
County of Luxembourg, the
Electorate of Trier, the
County of Bar and the "
Three Bishoprics" of
Verdun,
Metz and
Toul. The border between the
Empire and the
Kingdom of France remained relatively stable throughout the
Middle Ages. In 1301, Count
Henry III of Bar had to receive the western part of his lands (
Barrois mouvant) as a fief by King
Philip IV of France. In 1475, the
Burgundian duke
Charles the Bold campaigned for the Duchy of Lorraine, but was finally defeated and killed at the 1477
Battle of Nancy. In the 1552
Treaty of Chambord, a number of insurgent
Protestant Imperial princes around
Maurice, Elector of Saxony ceded the Three Bishoprics to King
Henry II of France in turn for his support. Due to the weakening of Imperial authority during the 1618–1648
Thirty Years' War, France was able to occupy the duchy in 1634 and retained it until 1661 when
Charles IV was restored. In 1670, the French invaded again, forcing Charles into exile; his nephew and heir
Charles V (1643–1690) spent his life in the service of the Imperial
House of Habsburg. France returned the Duchy in the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick ending the
Nine Years' War and Charles' son
Leopold (1679–1729), became duke and was known as 'Leopold the Good;' in the 1701–1714
War of the Spanish Succession, parts of Lorraine, including the capital Nancy, were again occupied by France, but Leopold continued to reign at the
Château de Lunéville. In 1737, after the
War of the Polish Succession, an agreement between France, the Habsburgs and the Lorraine House of Vaudémont assigned the Duchy to
Stanisław Leszczyński, former king of
Poland. He was also father-in-law to King
Louis XV of France, and had recently lost out to a
candidate backed by
Russia and
Austria in the War of the Polish Succession. The duke of Lorraine,
Francis Stephen, betrothed to the Emperor's daughter Archduchess
Maria Theresa, was compensated with the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where the last
Medici ruler had recently died without issue. France also promised to support Maria Theresa as heir to the Habsburg possessions under the
Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. Leszczyński received Lorraine with the understanding that it would fall to the French crown on his death. The
title of Duke of Lorraine was given to Stanisław, but also retained by Francis Stephen, and it figures prominently in the titles of his successors (as a non-claimant family name), the
House of Habsburg-Lorraine. When Stanisław died on 23 February 1766, Lorraine was annexed by France and reorganized as a
province by the French government. ==Culture==