Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The United Baltic Duchy [1] (German: Vereinigtes Baltisches Herzogtum; Latvian: Apvienotā Baltijas hercogiste; Estonian: Balti Hertsogiriik), or alternatively the Grand Duchy of Livonia, [2] was the name of a short-lived state during World War I that was proclaimed by leaders of the local Baltic German nobility.
On April 12, 1918, Baltic German representatives from all Baltic provinces met in Riga and called on the German Emperor to annex the Baltic lands. Subsequently, a plan for a United Baltic Duchy ruled by Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, instead of outright annexation, was developed. Its regency council met on November 9, 1918, but collapsed ...
The proposed United Baltic Duchy was to be located in the future territory of Latvia and Estonia covering the territory of the medieval Livonian Confederation. According to some sources [ better source needed ] , the first head of the future United Baltic Duchy was planned to be Adolf Friedrich, however he never assumed office.
The United Baltic Duchy, alternately known as the "Grand Duchy of Livonia", proclaimed by the Baltic German nobility on 12 April 1918, was never recognised by any state, and dissolved at the German surrender in November 1918. Livonia had ceased to exist.
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia [a] was the name for a proposed client state of the German Empire during World War I which did not come into existence. It was proclaimed on 8 March 1918, in the German-occupied Courland Governorate by a council composed of Baltic Germans, who offered the crown of the once-autonomous duchy to Kaiser Wilhelm II, despite the existence of a formerly sovereign ...
Duchy of Arenberg, an imperial estate (county) from 1549, raised to princely county in 1576 and duchy in 1644; Duchy of Bavaria, elector since 1623; Duchy of Bremen (1648–1806) Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, divided into various lines, one of which became the electorate of Hanover in 1692, another became the independent Duchy of Brunswick in 1815.
The Baltic German minority tried to found the United Baltic Duchy. When signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, Soviet Russia formally transferred Estonia to German military administration, its future status having to be determined later.
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between "sovereign dukes" and dukes who were ordinary noblemen throughout Europe.