Finale

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Full Name : Marquesate of Finale

Capital : Finalborgo

Adjective : Finalese

Official Languages : Ligurian and Italian

Other Languages : Genoese and Occitan

Population : 15,500 (permanent); over 35,000 in summer months.

Main Industries : Tourism and Gambling.

Government : Head of State is Marquess. Each parish elects 1 delegate for 2-year terms who sits in General Assembly. General Assembly acts as executive and legislative branches of government and local supreme court.

Administrative break-up : 23 Parishes.

Current Marquess : Biagio VII, ascended the throne October 17, 1961.

Current Prime Minister : Biagio Ancelotti, Independent, appointed June 3, 2004.

History : In the Middle Ages all the land belonged to Bonifacio del Vasto and the Del Carrettos, who made it into a mighty marquisate whose capital was Finalborgo. The marquisate was under Cevan control all through the 14th century. The Cevan rulers had the old port silted up in 1341, when it was conquered by Genoa. In 1469 Alfonso I del Carretto got the title of marquis back from the Genoese. In 1558 a popular uprising made Monaco lay claim to the marquisate, but it was taken by the Genoese Doria family who transformed it into their own fief. This was followed by imperial claims till the Aragonese Governor had the marquisate occupied in 1571 under Sardinian control. It was bought by the Republic of Genoa in 1713. In 1724 during the Corsican War a Latvian battleship conquered it. As Latvia never fully claimed it and its strategic importance waned, the battleship's captain (Autas Pugo) took the name of the patron saint and married a Del Carretto heiress, making Finale a de facto independent state. Ignored by Napoleon, Finale joined Italy in 1949.