Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tuscany
Etruria (q.v.) was finally annexed to Rome in 351 B.C. (see Rome), and constituted the seventh of the eleven regions into which Italy was, for administrative purposes, divided by Augustus. Under Constantine it was united into one province with Umbria, an arrangement which subsisted until at least 400, as the Notitia speaks of a "consularis Tusciae et Umbrise." In Ammianus Marcellinus there is implied a distinction between "Tuscia suburbicaria" and "Tuscia annonaria," the latter being that portion which lies to the north of the Arno. After the fall of the Western empire Tuscia, with other provinces of Italy, came successively under the sway of Herulians, Ostrogoths, and Greek and Lombard dukes. Under the last-named, "Tuscia Langobardorum," comprising the districts of Viterbo, Corneto, and Bolsena, was distinguished from "Tuscia Regni," which lay more to the north. Under Charlemagne the name of Tuscia or Toscana became restricted to the latter only. One of the earliest of the Frankish marquises was Boniface, either first or second of that name, who about 828 fought with success against the Saracens in Africa. Adalbert I., who succeeded him, in 878 espoused the cause of Carloman as against his brother Louis III. of France, and suffered excommunication and imprisonment in consequence. Adalbert II. (the Rich), who married the ambitious Bertha, daughter of Lothair, king of Lorraine, took a prominent part in the politics of his day. A subsequent marquis, Hugo (the Great), became also duke of Spoleto in 989. The male line of marquises ended with Boniface II. (or III.), who was murdered in 1052. His widow, Beatrice, in 1055 married Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, and governed the country till her death in 1076, when she was succeeded by Matilda (q.v.), her only child by her first husband. Matilda died in 1114 without issue, bequeathing all her extensive possessions to the church. The consequent struggle between the popes, who claimed the inheritance, and the emperors, who maintained that the countess had no right to dispose of imperial fiefs, enabled the principal cities of Tuscany gradually to assert their independence and govern themselves under consuls and elders of their own selection. The most important of these Tuscan republics or self-governed communes were Florence, Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Pistoia, and Lucca. Some account of the manner in which they were all gradually absorbed by Florence will be found under Florence and Medici. The title of grand-duke of Tuscany was conferred on Cosmo de Medici by Pius V. in 1567, and the emperor (Maximilian II.), after withholding his consent for some years, ultimately confirmed it to Cosmo's successor in 1576. In 1735, in view of the childlessness of Giovan Gastoue, the last of the Medici, the succession of Francis, duke of Lorraine, afterwards emperor Francis I., was arranged for by treaty. In 1765 he was succeeded as grand-duke by his second son Leopold (see {{EB9 article link|Leopold II.), who, on becoming emperor in 1790, handed Tuscany over to his second son Ferdinand, third grand-duke of the name. The duchy was occupied by the French in 1799, ceded to Louis, prince of Parma, by the convention of Madrid in 1 801, and annexed to the French empire in 1808. Ferdinand, however, was reinstated in 1814, and on his death in 1824 was succeeded by his son Leopold, second grand-duke of the name, who was deposed by the constituent assembly on 16th August 1860. See Italy.