Editing March (territory) (section)

==Frankish Empire and successor states==

===Marca Hispanica===
{{Main|Marca Hispanica}}
In the early ninth century, [[Charlemagne]] issued his new kind of land grant, the ''[[aprisio]]'', which redisposed land belonging to the Imperial ''[[fisc]]'' in deserted areas, and included special rights and immunities that resulted in a range of independence of action.{{sfn|Lewis|1965}} Historians interpret the ''aprisio'' both as the basis of [[feudalism]] and in economic and military terms as a mechanism to entice settlers to a depopulated border region. Such self-sufficient landholders would aid the counts in providing armed men in defense of the Frankish [[frontier]]. ''Aprisio'' grants (the first ones were in [[Septimania]]) emanated directly from the Carolingian king, and they reinforced central loyalties, to counterbalance the local power exercised by powerful marcher counts.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}}

After some early setbacks, Emperor [[Louis the Pious]] ventured beyond the province of [[Septimania]] and eventually took [[Barcelona]] from the [[Moors|Moorish]] [[emir]] in 801. Thus he established a foothold in the borderland between the Franks and the Moors. The Carolingian "Hispanic Marches" (''[[Marca Hispanica]]'') became a buffer zone ruled by a number of feudal lords, among them the [[count of Barcelona]]. It had its own outlying territories, each ruled by a lesser ''miles'' with armed retainers, who theoretically owed allegiance through a count to the emperor or, with less [[fealty]], to his Carolingian and Ottonian successors.  Such territory had a ''catlá'' ("castellan" or lord of the castle) in an area largely defined by a day's ride, and the region became known, like Castile at a later date, as "Catalunya". {{Cn|date=January 2021}} Counties in the [[Pyrenees]] that appeared in the 9th century, in addition to the [[County of Barcelona]], included [[Cerdanya]], [[Girona]] and [[Urgell]].

Communications were arduous, and the power centre was far away. Primitive [[feudal]] entities developed, self-sufficient and agrarian, each ruled by a small hereditary military elite. The sequence in the County of Barcelona exhibits a pattern that emerges similarly in marches everywhere: the count is appointed by the king (from 802), the appointment settles on the heirs of a strong count (Sunifred) and the appointment becomes a formality, until the position is declared hereditary (897) and then the count declares independence (by Borrell II in 985). At each stage the ''de facto'' situation precedes the ''de jure'' assertion, which merely regularizes an existing fact of life. This is [[feudalism]] in the larger landscape.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}}

Some counts aspired to the characteristically Frankish (Germanic) title "[[Margrave]] of the Hispanic March", a "margrave" being a ''graf'' ("count") of the march.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}}

The early [[history of Andorra]] provides a fairly typical career of another such march county, the only modern survivor in the Pyrenees of the Hispanic Marches.{{citation needed|date=August 2014}}

=== Marches set up by Charlemagne ===

* The [[Danish March]] (sometimes regarded as just a series of forts rather than a march) between the [[Eider River|Eider]] and [[Schlei]] rivers, against the [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Danes]];
* the [[Saxon Eastern March|Saxon]] or [[Nordalbingen]] march between the [[Eider River|Eider]] and [[Elbe]] rivers in modern [[Holstein]], against the [[Obotrites]];
* the [[Thuringian March|Thuringian]] or [[Sorbian March|Sorbian march]] on the [[Saale]] river, against the [[Sorbs]] dwelling behind the ''[[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]] sorabicus'';
* the [[March of Lusatia]], [[March of Meissen]], [[March of Merseburg]] and [[March of Zeitz]];
* the [[Franconian march]] in modern [[Upper Franconia]], against the [[Czechs]];
* the [[Avar march]] between [[Enns (river)|Enns]] river and [[Vienna Woods|Wienerwald]] (the later [[Eastern March (Austria)|Eastern March]] that became the Margraviate of Austria);
* the [[March of Pannonia|Pannonian march]] east of [[Vienna]] (divided into ''Upper'' and ''Lower'');
* the [[Carantania|Carantanian march]];
* [[Styria (duchy)|Steiermark (Styria)]], established under Charlemagne from a part of [[Carantania]] ([[Carinthia (duchy)|Carinthia]]), erected as a border territory against the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] and Slavs;
* the [[March of Friuli]];
* the [[Marca Hispanica]] against the Muslims of [[Al-Andalus]]

===France===

The [[province of France]] called '''[[County of Marche|Marche]]''' ({{langx|oc|la Marcha}}), sometimes ''Marche Limousine'', was originally a small border district between the Duchy of Aquitaine and the domains of the Frankish kings in central France, partly of [[Limousin (province)|Limousin]] and partly of [[Poitou]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=689–690}}

Its area was increased during the 13th century and remained the same until the [[French Revolution]]. Marche was bounded on the north by [[Berry (province)|Berry]], on the east by [[Bourbonnais]] and [[Auvergne (province)|Auvergne]]; on the south by Limousin itself and on the west by Poitou. It embraced the greater part of the modern ''[[département]]'' of [[Creuse]], a considerable part of the northern [[Haute-Vienne]], and a fragment of [[Indre]], up to [[Saint-Benoît-du-Sault]]. Its area was about {{convert|1900|mi2|km2}} its capital was [[Charroux, Vienne|Charroux]] and later [[Guéret]], and among its other principal towns were [[Dorat, Vienne|Dorat]], [[Bellac]] and [[Confolens]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=690}}

Marche first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century when [[William III, duke of Aquitaine]], gave it to one of his vassals named [[Boso, Count of Marche|Boso]], who took the title of [[count]]. In the 12th century it passed to the family of [[Lusignan]], sometimes also [[counts of Angoulême]], until the death of the childless [[Count Hugh]] in 1303, when it was seized by King [[Philip IV of France|Philip IV]]. In 1316 it was made an [[appanage]] for his youngest son [[Charles IV of France|Charles]] and a few years later (1327) it passed into the hands of the [[family of Bourbon]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=690}}

The family of [[Armagnac (party)|Armagnac]] held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons, and in 1527 it was seized by King [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute-Marche (i.e. "Upper Marche") and Basse-Marche (i.e. "Lower Marche"), the estates of the former being in existence until the 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution the province was under the jurisdiction of the ''[[parlement]]'' of Paris.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=690}}

Several communes of France are named similarly:
* [[Marches, Drôme]] in the [[Drôme]] ''département''
* [[La Marche, Nièvre|La Marche]] in the [[Nièvre]] ''département''

===Germany and Austria===
The Germanic tribes that Romans called [[Marcomanni]], who battled the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries, were simply the "men of the borderlands".

[[File:Limes.saxoniae.wmt.png|thumb|The {{lang|la|[[Limes Saxoniae]]}} was an unfortified [[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]] or border between the [[Saxons]] and the Slavic [[Obotrites]], established about 810]]
'''Marches''' were territorial organisations created as borderlands in the [[Carolingian Empire]] and had a long career as purely conventional designations under the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. In modern German, "Mark" denotes a piece of land that historically was a borderland, as in the following names:

====Later medieval marches====
*[[Northern March|Nordmark]], the "Northern March", the [[Ottonian empire]]'s territorial organisation on the conquered areas of the [[Wends]]. In 1134, in the wake of a German crusade against the Wends, the German magnate [[Albert the Bear]] was granted the [[Northern March]] by the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Lothar II, Holy Roman Emperor|Lothar II]].
* the [[March of the Billungs]] on the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic coast]], stretching approximately from [[Stettin]] (Szczecin) to [[Schleswig]];
* [[Marca Geronis]] (''march of Gero''), a precursor of the [[Saxon Eastern March]], later divided into smaller marches (the [[Northern March]], which later was reestablished as [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]]; the [[Lusatian March]] and the [[Margraviate of Meissen|Meißen March]] in modern [[Saxony|Free state of Saxony]]; the [[March of Zeitz]]; the [[Merseburg March]]; the [[Milceni|Milzener March]] around [[Bautzen]]);
* [[March of Austria]] (''marcha Orientalis'', the "Eastern March" or "Bavarian Eastern March" ({{langx|de|Ostmark}}) in modern lower Austria);
* the [[Hungarian March]]
* the [[Carantania|Carantania march]] or [[March of Styria]] (Steiermark);
* the [[Drau March]] ([[Maribor|Marburg]] and [[Pettau]]);
* the [[Mark an der Sann|Sann March]] ([[Celje|Cilli]]);
* the Krain or [[March of Carniola]], also [[Windic march]] and [[White Carniola]] (''White March''), in modern [[Slovenia]].
* three marches were created in the [[Low Countries]]: [[Margraviate of Antwerp|Antwerp]], [[Valenciennes]], [[Ename]].

====Other====
*The [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]], its ruler designated {{lang|de|Markgraf}} (margrave, literally "march-count"). It was further divided into regions also designated "Mark":
**[[Altmark]] ("Old March"), the western region of the former margraviate, between [[Hamburg]] and [[Magdeburg]].
**[[Mittelmark]] ("Central March"), the area surrounding Berlin. Today, this region makes up for the bulk of the German [[States of Germany|federal state]] of [[Brandenburg]], and thus in modern usage is referred to as Mark Brandenburg.
**[[Neumark (region)|Neumark]] ("New March") since the 1250s was Brandenburg's eastern extremity between [[Pomerania]] and [[Greater Poland]]. Since 1945, the area is a part of Poland.
**[[Uckermark]], the Brandenburg–Pomeranian borderland. The name is still in use for the region as well as for a [[Uckermark (district)|Brandenburgian district]].
*[[Mark (county)|Mark]], a medieval territory that is recalled in the [[Märkischer Kreis]] district (formed in 1975) of today's [[North Rhine-Westphalia]]. The northern portion (north of the [[Lippe River]]) is still called '''Hohe Mark''' ("Higher Mark"). The former "Lower Mark" (between Ruhr and Lippe rivers) is the present [[Ruhr area]] and is no longer called "Mark". The title, in the form "Count of the Mark", survived the territory as a subsidiary title of the Dukes of [[Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]]
*[[Saxon Eastern March|Ostmark]] ("Eastern March") is a modern rendition of the term ''marchia orientalis'' used in Carolingian documents referring to the area of [[Lower Austria]] that was later a ''markgraftum'' ([[Margrave|margraviate]] or "county of the mark"). ''Ostmark'' has been variously used to denote Austria, the [[Saxon Eastern March]], or, as '' [[Ostmarkenverein]]'', the territories Prussia gained in the [[partitions of Poland]].

===Habsburg Empire===
{{See|Military Frontier|Croatian Military Frontier|Slavonian Military Frontier}}
 [[File:Militargrenze, Wojwodowena und Banat.jpg|400px|thumb|Map of the [[Military Frontier]] against incursions from the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the middle of the 19th century (marked with a red outline)]]

===Italy===
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
{{For|the modern Italian region|Marche}}

From the Carolingian period onwards the name ''marca'' begins to appear in Italy, first the [[Marca Fermana]] for the mountainous part of [[Picenum]], the Marca Camerinese for the district farther north, including a part of [[Umbria]], and the Marca Anconitana for the former [[Pentapolis]] ([[Ancona]]). In 1080, the ''marca Anconitana'' was given in investiture to [[Robert Guiscard]] by [[Pope Gregory VII]], to whom the [[Matilda of Tuscany|Countess Matilda]] ceded the marches of [[Camerino]] and [[Fermo]].

In 1105, the [[Emperor Henry IV]] invested [[Werner II of Spoleto|Werner]] with the whole territory of the three marches, under the name of the [[March of Ancona]]. It was afterwards once more recovered by the Church and governed by papal legates as part of the [[Papal States]]. The Marche became part of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1860. After [[Italian unification]] in the 1860s, [[Austria-Hungary]] still controlled territory Italian nationalists [[Italian irredentism|still claimed as part of Italy]]. One of these territories was [[Austrian Littoral]], which Italian nationalists began to call the [[Julian March]] because of its positioning and as an act of defiance against the hated Austro-Hungarian empire.

''Marche'' were repeated on a miniature level, fringing many of the small territorial states of pre-[[Risorgimento]] Italy with a ring of smaller dependencies on their borders, which represent territorial ''marche'' on a small scale. A map of the [[Duchy of Mantua]] in 1702 (Braudel 1984, fig 26) reveals the independent, though socially and economically dependent arc of small territories from the [[principality of Castiglione]] in the northwest across the south to the duchy of [[Mirandola]] southeast of [[Mantua]]: the lords of [[Bozzolo|Bozolo]], [[Sabbioneta|Sabioneta]], [[Dosolo]], [[Guastalla]], the count of [[Novellara|Novellare]].