Duke of Otranto


Duke of Otranto is a hereditary title in the nobility of the First French Empire which was bestowed in 1809 by Emperor Napoleon I upon Joseph Fouché, a French statesman and Minister of Police. Fouché had been made a Count of the French Empire previously.

Background

The dukedom was named after the town of Otranto on the east coast of the Salento peninsula in Italy and created - under the French name of Otrante - as a duché grand-fief in the satellite Kingdom of Naples.
The ducal house of Fouché d'Otrante is still extant in the Kingdom of Sweden, where the dukes have lived since the 19th century. In Sweden, they are considered to be part of the unintroduced nobility.
As of 2017, the title is held by Charles-Louis Armand Fouché d'Otrante, 8th Duc d'Otrante.