Principality of Piombino

The Lordship of Piombino (Signoria di Piombino), and after 1594 the Principality of Piombino (Principato di Piombino), was a small state on the Italian peninsula centred on the town of Piombino and including part of the island of Elba. A vassal of the Kingdom of Naples associated to the State of the Presidios and a territory of the Holy Roman Empire formed from the remnants of the Republic of Pisa, it existed from 1399 to 1805, when it was merged into the Principality of Lucca and Piombino. In 1815 it was absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. History Founding and early history of the Lordship of Piombino (1399-1445) On February 19, 1399 Gherardo Appiani ceded Pisa and the majority of its territories, which his family had owned since 1392, to the Visconti of Milan for 200,000 florins, reserving the commune of Piombino for himself and his successors; moreover he also took possession of Populonia, Suvereto, Scarlino, Buriano, Abbey of San Pancrazio al Fango and the islands of Pianosa, Montecristo, and Elba; forming a newly established state, the Lordship of Piombino. Gherardo had his residence built in Piombino in the small square (now Piazza Bovio) and on his death, in 1405, he left the state to his son Iacopo II. The latter, born in 1400, for the first years was under the tutelage of his mother, Donna Paola Colonna. During the years of regency and afterwards, the politics of the Appiani family were oriented first towards an alliance (obtaining protection with a deed of pardon) with the Republic of Florence, then that of Siena, and finally again with Florence.