#ThisDayInHistory Napoleon Established The Republic of Lucca
On this day in 1801, Napoleon established the Republic of Lucca after conquering Italy.
The Republic of Lucca (Italian: Repubblica di Lucca) was a medieval and early modern state centered on the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, which lasted from 1160 to 1805.
Its territory extended beyond the city of Lucca, reaching the countryside in the northwestern part of today's Tuscany region, to the borders of Emilia-Romagna and Liguria.
The Republic of Lucca remained independent until 1799. Later the state continued to exist but was, de facto, dependent upon Napoleonic France. It officially ceased in 1805 when it was transformed into the Principality of Lucca and Piombino.
The independent course of the Republic changed in February 1799, before the Second Coalition invasion (1799–1800), one of the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars.
French Jacobins created a centralized republic, the State of Lucca, with a democratic constitution. The constitution granted the government an Executive Directory, with a bicameral legislature composed of the Council of Juniors and the Council of Seniors. The democracy did not last long.
Five months later, in July 1799, after the French army retreated, forces of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy conquered the city and established a Provisional government.
In the middle of 1800, the French army returned, reconquering Lucca. A new constitution for the State of Lucca was published in 1801, restoring the office of Consul of Justice as the president of the Executive branch, with a parliament called the Great Council.
The oligarchy was restored.
In 1805, the governance of Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who merged the State of Lucca with the Principality of Piombino to become the Principality of Lucca and Piombino (1805–1809).
He put his favored sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in place to rule, his only female sibling to gain political power. Elisa began to rule as the Duchess of Lucca and Princess of Piombino, based at Villa Reale di Marlia.
#ThisDayInHistory
December 27, 1801