Until the 1620s Swedish provinces were granted as territorial appanages to royal princes which, as dukes thereof, they governed semi-autonomously. Beginning during the reign of Gustav III, and as codified in § 34 of the 1772 Instrument of Government, provincial dukedoms have existed in the royal family as nominal non-hereditary titles only, without any inherent property ownership or trust attached to them; although several members of the royal family have maintained a special public connection to, and sometimes a secondary residence in, "his or her duchy".