Originally styled "Duca di Nocera", it was granted in 1656 by Philip IV to Francisco de Moura Corterreal, Viceroy of Sardinia and Catalonia and governor of the Spanish Netherlands.

Few months after her succession, however, following the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples by the Habsbourgs in 1707, Juana was stripped of her titles for "felony", having refused to render homage to the new King Charles III (later to become Holy Roman Emperor under the name of Charles VI) and in 1709 her pro-Habsburg second-born son Luigi Pio di Savoia [it] was invested with the duchy of Nocera in her stead, taking effective possession of it.

When Juana died in 1717, she was nominally succeeded, according to Spanish law, by her eldest son Francesco Pio di Savoia, who had meanwhile gained a prominent place in the Spanish Bourbon court, and subsequently, on the latter's death in 1723, by his son Giberto [it] (called in Spain Gisberto Pío de Saboya y Spínola), but the duchy effectively remained in Luigi's possession according to Austrian law then still in force in the Kingdom of Naples.

In 1734, however, the Kingdom was again conquered, this time by the Infante of Spain, Don Carlos, and, the following year, the 1707 confiscation of Juana's titles was annulled and the same, including the duchy of Nocera, were reincorporated into the Pio di Savoia majorat with Gisberto as its titular.

No further opposition was offered by Luigi, at the time the Austrian ambassador in Venice, who had no legitimate children and of whom Gisberto was the legal heir as well.