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The Grand Duchy of Berg was established by Napoleon Bonaparte after his victory over the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as the first Grand Duke of Berg.
[edit] History
The French annexation of Jülich (French: Juliers) during the French revolutionary wars separated the two duchies of Jülich and Berg, and in 1803 Berg separated from the other Bavarian territories and came under the rule of a junior branch of the Wittelsbachs. In 1806, in the reorganization of Germany occasioned by the end of the Holy Roman Empire, Berg became a Grand Duchy under the rule of Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. Murat's arms combined the red lion of Berg with the arms of the duchy of Cleves. The anchor and the batons came to the party due to Murat's position as Grand Admiral and as Marshal of the Empire. As the husband of Napoleon's sister, Murat also had the right to use the imperial eagle.
In 1809, one year after Murat's promotion from Grand Duke of Berg to King of Naples, Napoleon's infant nephew, Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831, elder son of Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland) became the Grand Duke of Berg; French bureaucrats administered the territory in his name. The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end with Napoleon's defeat in 1813 and the peace settlements that followed.
 States of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806–13) |
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