Style His/Her Royal Highness Last monarch Robert I Abolition 3 December 1859 | First monarch Pier Luigi Formation 16 September 1545 Pretender(s) Carlos, Duke of Parma | |
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The Duke of Parma was a small historical title which existed between 1545 and 1802, and again from 1814 to 1859.
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The Duke of Parma was also Duke of Piacenza, except for the first years of the rule of Ottavio Farnese (1549–1556), and the time of the Napoleonic wars, when the two were established as separate positions held by two individuals. The Duke of Parma also usually held the title of Duke of Guastalla from 1735 (when Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor took it from Mantua) to 1847 (when the territory was ceded to Modena), again, except for the Napoleonic dukes, when Napoleon's sister Pauline was Duchess of Guastalla and of Varella.
The position is currently claimed by a member of the Bourbon family, which also holds the Spanish throne. Therefore, the current claimant to the Duchy of Parma is a legitimate (though not prime) claimant to the Kingdom of Spain; indeed, the recent pretender to the Parmese throne, the late Carlos-Hugo, was also a pretender to the Spanish throne in the 1970s (see Carlism).
Honorary Dukes of Parma (1808–1814)
These did not actually rule over any territory of Parma and Piacenza, but were of the honorary, hereditary type duché grand-fief, granted by Napoleon in 1808.