The Principality of Seborga is a micronation located in the northwestern Italian region of Liguria, near the French border, and in sight of Monaco.
Uniquely among micronations, Seborga possesses an undisputed history as a feudal state.
It came into being in 954, when the Count of Ventimiglia ceded Seborga to the monks of Lérins Abbey, at the foundation of the Cistercian monastery there. In 1079 the Abbot of this monastery was made a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, with temporal authority over the Principality of Seborga.
On 20 January 1729, this independent principality was sold to the Savoy dynasty's Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, then ruled by Victor Amadeus II.
The argument for Seborga's present-day status as an independent state is founded on the claim that this sale was never registered by its new owner, resulting in the principality falling into a kind of legal twilight zone.
Subsequently, in 1815, the Congress of Vienna overlooked Seborga in its redistribution of European territories after the Napoleonic Wars, and there is no mention of Seborga in the Act of Unification of Kingdom of Italy in 1861 .
In the early 1960s, Giorgio Carbone, then head of the local flower-growers co-operative, began promoting the idea that Seborga retained its historic independence as a principality.
By 1963 the people of Seborga were sufficiently convinced of these arguments to elect Carbone as their "Head of State". He then assumed the title and style Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga, which he has held ever since.
Carbone's status as "Prince" was confirmed on 23 April 1995, when, in an informal referendum, Seborgans voted 304 in favour, 4 against, for the Principality's constitution, and in favour of 'independence' from Italy.
Prince Giorgio is known locally as 'Sua Tremendità' ('Your Tremendousness' or 'Your Terrificness').
; "Seborga")
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