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The Grand Duke and Wife of Andorra and the British King
On September 20, local time, British King Charles arrived in France and began his first state visit since his succession. That night, Macron, President of France and Grand Duke of Andorra, hosted a banquet at the Palace of Versailles to entertain the King of England.
As a monarch, due to the history of his country, Charles unsurprisingly possessed a long list of symbolic, fictitious and real titles, his complete titles are: King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its kingdoms and territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Guardian of the Faith, Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Normandy and Lord of the Isle of Man. In republican France, the President of France is elected by the people and his full titles are: President of France and Grand Duke of Andorra.
According to common sense, Grand Duke is a title for the head of state of the monarchy, and in the feudal era the status was between the emperor/king and the duke, and the powerful feudal autocratic royal power in history would also make the direct descendants of the emperor grand dukes in order to highlight their superiority, such as Habsburg Austria and Tsarist Russia. In France, which overthrew the monarchy through violent revolutions, how was the president given the title of Grand Duke? What is the relationship between Andorra and France?
Andorra location
I. Where is Andorra
Andorra, located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is a landlocked mini-country with a land area of 468 square kilometers.
Topographically, Andorra is surrounded by high mountains on three sides, the highest peak, Mount Coma Pedrosa, is 2,946 meters above sea level, and the terrain is relatively open and flat only southward to Spain. There are no navigable rivers for large vessels, but there is a narrow El Pas de la Case in the northeast that can be used for north-south traffic. In ancient warfare, this terrain was conducive to the defense of the side located in the north, and also to the north to launch a surprise attack to the south when it was fully prepared.
The Constitution of Andorra stipulates that Andorra is a constitutional monarchy, and the democratically elected President of France automatically receives the title of "Grand Duke of Andorra". The formation of this status quo dates back to the medieval history of France and Spain.
In 805, a small force in Andorra resisted the Arab invasion and guided Charlemagne of the Frankish kingdom, allowing him to lead his army through the Pyrenees and capture parts of present-day northern Catalonia. As a token of gratitude, Charlemagne allowed local autonomy and named it after the biblical place name "Hidden Dor", which later evolved into Andorra.
charlemagne
In 819, Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, officially issued an edict defining the borders of modern Andorra and declaring that Andorra would be granted independent territorial status, making the Count of Uger of Spain a local lord. Later, the Count of Ugle incorporated Andorra into the diocese of Urgle (which, in addition to Andorra, included parts of northwestern Catalonia, Spain). By this stage, the secular rule of Andorra belonged to the Spanish nobility, while the religious administration belonged to the Bishop of Urgell.
In essence, the Andorran state originated from the invasion of Christian civilization in Europe by the Arab Empire. In order to resist the Arab Empire's continued northward encroachment on Christian civilization, Christian monarchs worked with the Catholic Church to maintain religious influence, while Andorra's terrain also met the needs of the Christians' war to "regain lost territories" to the south.
Reconquista
How Andorra and France came to be connected
In the second half of the 13th century, with the strengthening of French centralization, France's overall strength rose and began to covet Andorra's sovereignty.
From the time Andorra was granted an independent fiefdom until the 13th century, due to family marriages, Andorra's secular rule was first transferred from the Spanish counts of Ugle to the Kingdom of Castile, and from the Kingdom of Castile to the French nobility. When secular rule came to the French Count of Foix, the French side began to claim full sovereignty over Andorra, including religious administration.
In 1278, the heir to the French state of Fuire had a dispute with the Spanish bishop of Urgell, and under the mediation of the Kingdom of Aragon, the bishop of Ougel and the count of Foix reached the Nagon Agreement, which made it clear that Andorra was obliged to pay tribute to both sides, France had secular rule, and Spain had the right to administer religion.
Although secular rule was officially transferred to France, Andorra's southward opening valley terrain was actually more conducive to the influence of the Catalan region of Spain, and Andorra's official language is still Catalan to this day. Spaniards, especially Catalans, still remember Andorra's full sovereignty.
Third, Andorra in the fasciotic game
After the 15th century, with the end of the Reconquista, Spain rose to challenge France's dominance on the continent.
On the French side, after the 15th century, the state of Fuivarre was incorporated into the Kingdom of Navarre. In 1589, due to the extinction of the Valois dynasty, Henri de Bourbon of Navarre received the French throne and became Henry IV, the founding monarch of the Bourbon dynasty.
Spain could not tolerate French strength, and Britain across the Channel still coveted the French throne, so Britain and Spain formed several alliances to attack France, but they were defeated by Henry IV. In order to consolidate the southwestern border, in 1607, the Bourbon dynasty officially issued a decree emphasizing that the secular rule of Andorra belonged to France, and Andorra was officially included in the French Bourbon crown.
Henry IV
Throughout the 16th century, Spain upset the balance of power on the European continent with its geographical discoveries, and once Spain crossed the mountain passes in Andorra, large areas of southwestern France, which had almost no geographical barriers, would soon fall into Spanish hands. Andorra was therefore of great strategic value to the French defense against the Spanish offensive.
In the face of national interests, the two major powers of France and Spain play back and forth around Andorra and do not give in to each other, and Catalonia often sends small armies to try to seize Andorra. The French side was determined not to surrender its secular rule over Andorra and held firm control over Andorra's administration and finances until the outbreak of the French Revolution.
After the outbreak of the French Revolution, Spain, which pursued absolute monarchy, firmly sided with the anti-French alliance, and France was forced to give up its suzerainty over Andorra in 1793, and Spain briefly had full sovereignty over Andorra.
However, in 1806, Napoleon regained suzerainty over Andorra in order to march into Spain.
The violent competition between France and Spain for full sovereignty over Andorra continued until the middle of the 19th century. On the one hand, at this time, Spain withdrew from the ranks of European powers, domestic contradictions intensified, and after the Carlos War and a series of violent revolutions, the rule of the Spanish crown and the Catholic Church behind it was weak. On the other hand, France was also mired in panic over the rise of Prussia and the imminent unification of Germany. And because France was in the period of the Second Empire in the 60s of the 19th century, Napoleon III imitated his uncle Napoleon as emperor, in order to show the legitimacy of his "inheritance" of his uncle's throne, Napoleon III particularly respected the pope, and even directly sent troops to protect the Vatican Papal States, so he did not dare to hit himself in the face and touch the religious harvest.
Anti-monarchical revolution in Spain in 1854
In 1868, with the consent of France and Spain, Andorra established an independent state and promulgated a constitution confirming that the French Head of State and the Bishop of Ugell of Spain jointly served as Andorra's head of state, but the Chief Executive was no longer sent and appointed by France, but was instead recommended by the Andorran Parliament and appointed by two Heads of State.
4. Why the "Grand Duke"
According to the feudal hierarchy of the Middle Ages, the rank below the emperor was the "Grand Duke". The early twelve nobles of France included six religious noble titles. At the same time, since the feudal era, Andorra has always been the bishop's quarry for Spain, a territory under feudal rule that pays tribute on time, and also applies to the feudal aristocratic rank of "Grand Duke". After consultation between the two sides, Andorra designated the name of the head of State as "Grand Duke of Andorra" and the name of the State of Andorra as "Grand Duchy of Andorra".
After World War II, as the French economy weakened, the royalists were completely emptied, but due to the influx of immigrants from the former colonies, Catholicism was still needed in France to consolidate its identity, and the French side continued to acquiesce to Andorra's religious identity. And the Spanish side went around in circles and restored the Bourbons. The title of Grand Duke of Andorra has thus been preserved to this day.
In the history that followed, Andorra's relations with France and Spain gradually entered the orbit of normal inter-state exchanges. Cooperation with France in areas such as water management, infrastructure development, technology transfer, etc., while Catalonia, Spain, retains its cultural influence on Andorra. In terms of trade, Spain is Andorra's largest trading partner and France is the second, but the amount is not large.
Wen Shijun said
The formation of the Andorran state stemmed from the Reconquista movement, and as a small country on the edge of the mountain pass, it witnessed the rise and fall of Spain from the rise to the weak, France from weak to dominating the European continent and then to the decline of national strength. Under the compromise between France and Spain, Andorra became the last religious quarry in the world, and the Grand Duke of Andorra eventually became a "cultural fictitious title" tied to the title of French president.
bibliography
France Diplomacy. Andorra–France Relations.2012.
The France in Andorra-Embassy of France in Andorra la Vella. Bilateral relations. 2022.
(Author: Andrea)
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