Dukes of Bar

County (Duchy) of Bar
Grafschaft (Herzogtum) Bar (de) Comté (Duché) de Bar (fr) Barensis Comitatus (Ducatus) (la)
Vassal of Holy Roman Empire
1033–1766
Coat of arms
France in 1477, showing the duchy of Bar in "Valois-Anjou" colours
The Duchy of bar in the 17th century, as against the modern administrative divisions of France
Capital		Bar-le-Duc
Government		Feudal monarchy
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Established	1033
•	Divided from the Duchy of Lorraine	1033
•	Divided between France and the Empire	1301
•	Raised to a duchy	1354
•	United with the Duchy of Lorraine	1480
•	Passed by treaty to the French crown	1766
Preceded by Succeeded by Upper Lorraine Crown lands of France

Coat of arms

The County of Bar, from 1354 the Duchy of Bar, was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire encompassing the pays de Barrois and centred on the city of Bar-le-Duc. Part of the county, the so-called Barrois mouvant, became a fief of the Kingdom of France in 1301. The Barrois non-mouvant remained a part of the Empire. From 1480, it was united to the imperial Duchy of Lorraine. Both imperial Bar and Lorraine were ceded to France in 1738. With the death of the last duke, Stanislaus Leszczynski, in 1766, the duchy escheated to the French crown.

The county of Bar originated in the frontier fortress of Bar (from Latin barra, barrier) that Duke Frederick I of Upper Lorraine built on the bank of the river Ornain around 960. The fortress was originally directed at the counts of Champagne, who had made incursions into Frederick's allodial lands. Frederick also confiscated some lands from the nearby Abbey of Saint-Mihiel and settled his knights on it. The original Barrois was thus a mixture of the duke's allodial lands and confiscated church lands enfeoffed to knights. On the death of Duke Frederick III in 1033, these lands passed to his sister, Sophia (died 1093), who was the first person to associate the comital title with Bar, styling herself "Countess of Bar".