A
duke is a member of the
nobility, historically of highest rank below the
monarch, and historically controlling a
duchy. The title comes from the
Latin Dux Bellorum, which had the sense of "military commander" and was employed by both the
Germanic peoples themselves and by the
Roman authors covering them to refer to their war leaders.
In the
Middle Ages the title signified first among the
Germanic monarchies. Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the
counts in the cities and later, in the
feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king.
In the
Modern Age, with the exception of the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, it mostly became a nominal rank without an actual principality. It remains the highest titular
peerage in France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The Pope, as a temporal sovereign, has also but rarely granted the title of Duke and Duchess to persons for services to the Holy See. The last American to be titled a papal duke was
Nicholas Frederic Brady in the 1930s by
Pope Pius XI.
A woman who holds in her own right the title to such duchy or dukedom, or is the wife of a duke, is normally styled
duchess. However,
Queen Elizabeth II is known as
Duke of Normandy in the
Channel Islands and
Duke of Lancaster in
Lancashire.
East Asia
During the era of feudalism in Ancient China (
Spring and Autumn and the
Warring States), the equivalent titles to Grand Marquis or Grand Duke were often granted to the nobility and governors of the individual kingdoms and principalities.
Middle Ages
During the
Middle Ages following the collapse of Roman power in Western Europe, the title was still employed in the Germanic kingdoms, most often to refer to the rulers of the old Roman provinces.
Visigoths
The Visigoths retained the Roman divisions of their kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and it seems that dukes ruled over these areas. They were the most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected the king, usually from their own midst. They were the military commanders and in this capacity often acted independently from the king, most notably in the latter period before the Muslim invasions.
The army was structured decimally with the highest unit, the
thiufa, probably corresponding to about one thousand people from each
civitas (city district). The cities were commanded by counts, who were in turn aswerable to the dukes, who called up the
thiufae when need be.
Lombards
When the
Lombards entered Italy, the Latin chroniclers called their war leaders
duces in the old fashion. These leaders eventually became the provincial rulers, each with a recognized seat of government. Though nominally loyal to the king, the concept of kingship was new to the Lombards and the dukes were highly independent, especially in central and southern Italy, where the
Duke of Spoleto and the
Duke of Benevento were
de facto sovereigns. In 575, when
Cleph died, a period known as the
Rule of the Dukes, in which the dukes governed without a king, commenced. It lasted only a decade before the disunited magnates, in order to defend the kingdom from external attacks, elected a new king and even diminished their own duchies to provide him with a handsome royal
demesne.
The Lombard kings were usually drawn from the duke pool when the title was not hereditary. The dukes tried to make their own offices hereditary. Beneath them in the internal structure were the counts and
gastalds, a uniquely Lombard title initially referring to judicial functions, similar to a count's, in provincial regions.
Franks
The Franks employed dukes as the governors of Roman provinces, though they also led military expeditions far from their duchies. The dukes were the highest ranking officials in the realm, typically Frankish (whereas the counts were often Gallo-Roman), and formed the class from which the kings' generals were chosen in times of war. The dukes met with the king every May to discuss policy for the upcoming year, the so-called
Mayfield.
In
Burgundy and
Provence, the titles of
patrician and
prefect were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to the greater Romanization of those provinces. The titles, however, were basically equivalent.
In late
Merovingian Gaul, the
mayors of the palace of the
Arnulfing clan began to use the title
dux et princeps Francorum: "duke and prince of the Franks". In this title, "duke" implied supreme military control of the entire nation (
Francorum, the Franks) and it was thus used until the end of the
Carolingian dynasty in France in 987.
Stem duchies
See
Stem duchy England
Anglo-Saxon times
The highest political division beneath that of kingdom among the
Anglo-Saxons was the
ealdormanry and, while the title ealdorman was replaced by the
Danish eorl (later
earl) over time, the first ealdormen were referred to as
duces (the plural of the original Latin
dux) in the chronicles. Thus, in Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the grade of duke was retained as supreme landlord after the king.
However, following the
Norman conquest, their power and regional jurisdiction was limited to that of the Norman
counts.
Late medieval times
Edward III of England created the first three dukedoms of England (Cornwall, Lancaster and Clarence) with his eldest son,
Black Prince, who became the first English Duke as the
Duke of Cornwall in 1337. Upon his death the dukedom passed to his 9 year old son who would eventually succeed his grandfather as
Richard II.
The dukedom of Lancaster was created by Edward III in 1351 for
Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1st creation), but became extinct upon Henry's death in 1361. It was re-created for
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (2nd creation) who was both the 1st Duke's son-in-law and the fourth son of Edward III.
On the same day Edward III also created the Duke of Clarence for his second son,
Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence.
Ten years after the death of Edward III, his heir Richard II created dukedoms for his last two uncles on the same day.
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York and
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. So all five sons of Edward III eventually became dukes.
By the end of the Middle Ages, traditionally marked by the
Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485 a total of 30 dukedoms had been created (and one Duchess for life). However, none of them were extant except for Cornwall and Lancaster which had become titles for the heir apparent and a source of income for the crown.
The Duke of Norfolk had died in the battle of Bosworth Field. However, three decades later the Dukedome of Norfolk was restored to his son. Today the Duke of Norfolk is considered the premier duke of England.
The modern age
In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of
Parma and
Modena in Italy, and of
Anhalt,
Brunswick-Lüneburg,
Nassau,
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
Saxe-Meiningen and
Saxe-Altenburg in Germany survived Napoleon's reorganization.
Since the unification of Italy in 1870 and the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918, there have no longer been any
reigning dukes in Europe;
Luxembourg is ruled by a
grand duke, a higher title, just below king.
In the United Kingdom, the inherited position of a duke along with its dignities, privileges, and rights is a
dukedom. However, the title of
duke has never been associated with independent rule in the British Isles: they hold dukedoms, not duchies (excepting the
Duchy of Cornwall and the
Duchy of Lancaster). Dukes in the United Kingdom are addressed as "Your Grace" and referred to as "His Grace". Currently, there are twenty-seven dukedoms in the
Peerage of England,
Peerage of Scotland,
Peerage of Great Britain,
Peerage of Ireland and
Peerage of the United Kingdom, held by twenty-four different people (see
List of Dukes in order of precedence).
Equivalents in other European languages
Royal dukes
Various royal houses traditionally awarded (mainly) dukedoms to the sons and in some cases, the daughters, of their respective sovereigns; others include at least one dukedom in a wider list of similarly granted titles, nominal dukedoms without any actual authority, often even without an estate. Such titles are still conferred on royal princes or princesses in the current European monarchies of Belgium, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Other historical cases occurred for example in Denmark, Finland (as a part of Sweden) and France, Portugal and some former colonial possessions such as Brazil and Haiti.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, ducal titles which have been given within the royal family include
Duke of Cornwall,
Duke of Lancaster,
Duke of Clarence,
Duke of York,
Duke of Gloucester,
Duke of Bedford,
Duke of Cumberland,
Duke of Cambridge,
Duke of Rothesay,
Duke of Albany,
Duke of Ross,
Duke of Edinburgh,
Duke of Kent,
Duke of Sussex, and
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
Belgium
In
Belgium, the title of
Duke of Brabant (historically the most prestigious in the
Low Countries, and containing the federal capital
Brussels), if still vacant, has been awarded preferentially to the eldest son and
heir presumptive of the king, other male dynasts receiving various lower historical titles (much older than Belgium, and in principle never fallen to the Belgian crown), such as Count of Flanders (
King Leopold III's so-titled brother held the title when he became the realm's temporary head of state as
prince-regent) and Prince of Liège (a secularised version of the historical
prince-bishopric; e.g., the present
King Albert II until he succeeded his older brother
Baudouin I).
Denmark
Denmark's kings gave appanages in their twin-duchies of
Schleswig-Holstein (now three-fourths of them is part of Germany, but then the Holstein half of it was part of the Holy Roman Empire in personal union with Denmark proper) to younger sons and/or their male-line descendants, with a specific though not sovereign title of Duke, e.g.,
Duke of Gottorp,
Duke of Sonderburg,
Duke of Augustenborg,
Duke of Franzhagen,
Duke of Beck,
Duke of Glucksburg and
Duke of Norburg.
Iberian peninsula
When the
Christian Reconquista, sweeping the
Moors from the former
Caliphate of Córdoba and its
taifa-remnants, transformed the territory of former
Suevic and
Visigothic realms into
Catholic feudal principalities, none of these warlords was exactly styled Duke. A few (as Portugal
itself) started as
Count (even if the title of
Dux was sometimes added), but soon all politically relevant princes were to use the royal style of
King.
Portugal
Spain
Spanish
infantes and
infantas were usually given a dukedom upon marriage, excepting the heir apparent who is the
Prince of Asturias. This title is nowadays not hereditary but carries a
Grandeza de España. The current royal duchesses are:
HRH the Duchess of Badajoz (Infanta Maria del Pilar),
HRH the Duchess of Soria (Infanta Margarita) (although she inherited the title of Duchess of Hernani from her cousin and is second holder of that title),
HRH the Duchess of Lugo (Infanta Elena) and
HRH the Duchess of Palma de Mallorca (Infanta Cristina).
In Spain all the dukes hold the court rank of
Grande, i.e.,
Grandee of the realm, which had precedence over all other
feudatories.
Finland and Sweden
Sweden had a history of making the sons of its kings real ruling princes of vast
duchies, but this ceased in 1622. Title-wise, however, all Swedish princes since 1772, and princesses since 1980, are given a dukedom for life. Currently, there are one duke and three duchesses. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to five of the
Provinces of Sweden.
Key parts of Finland were sometimes under a
Duke of Finland during the Swedish reign.
France and other former monarchies
See
appanage (mainly for the French kingdom) and the list in the geographical section below, which also treats special ducal titles in orders or national significance.
France
The highest precedence in the realm, attached to a feudal territory, was given to the twelve original
pairies, which also had a traditional function in the royal coronation, comparable to the German imperial archoffices. Half of them were ducal: three ecclesiastical (the six prelates all ranked above the six secular peers of the realm) and three temporal, each time above three counts of the same social estate:
The
Prince-Bishops with ducal territories among them were:
- The Archbishop of Reims, styled archevêque-duc pair de France (in Champagne; who crowns and anoints the king, traditionally in his cathedral)
- *the bishop-duke of Laon (in Picardy; bears the 'Sainte Ampoule' containing the sacred ointment)
- * the bishop-duc de Langres (in Burgundy; bears the scepter)
Later, the
Archbishop of Paris was given the title of
duc de Saint-Cloud with the dignity of peerage, but it was debated if he was an ecclesiastical peer or merely a bishop holding a lay peerage.
The secular dukes in the peerage of the realm were, again in order of precedence:
- the duc de Bourgogne, i.e., Duke of Burgundy (known as Grand duc; not a separate title at that time; just a description of the wealth and real clout of the 15th century Dukes, cousins of the Kings of France) (bears the crown, fastens the belt)
- Duke of Aquitaine or duc d'Aquitaine or - de Guyenne (holds the second square banner)
It should be noted that the theory of the participation of the peers in the coronation was laid down in the late
XIIIth century, when some of the peerage (the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Toulouse) had already been merged in the crown.
At the end of this same century, the king elevated some counties into duchies, a practice that increased up until the Revolution. Many of this duchies were also peerages (the so-called 'new peerages').
Italy, Germany and Austria
In Italy, Germany and Austria the title of "duke" ("duca" in Italian, and "Herzog" in German) was quite common. As the
Holy Roman Empire was until its dissolution a feudal structure, most of its Dukes were actually reigning in their lands. As the titles from the HRE were taken over after its dissolution, or in Italy after their territories became independent of the Empire, both countries also had a share of fully sovereign dukes. Also, in Germany in many ducal families every agnate would bear the ducal title of the family as a
courtesy title.
In Italy some important sovereign ducal families were the
Visconti and the
Sforza, who ruled
Milan; the
Medici of
Florence; the
Farnese of
Parma and Piacenza; the
Cybo-Malaspina of
Massa; the
Gonzaga of
Mantua; the
Este of
Modena and
Ferrara.
In Germany, important ducal families were the
Wittelsbachs in
Bavaria, the
Welfs in
Hannover, the ducal family of
Cleves, the
Wettins in
Saxony (with its
Ernestine branch divided into several duchies), the
Württembergs, the
Mecklenburgs and finally of course also the
Habsburgs in
Austria as "Archdukes". In the German Confederation the
Nassaus, the
Ascanians of
Anhalt, the Welf branch of
Brunswick and the Ernestine lines of the Saxon duchies were the sovereign ducal families.
Elsewhere in Europe
Nordic countries
- In Denmark, the longest-surviving duchy was Schleswig, i.e., Sonderjylland (part of which later was transferred to Germany). Its southern neighbour Holstein in personal union with the Danish crown was always a German principality. Ultimately both ended up joined as the German federation's Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein.
Hungary
In the
Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as
appanages. During the rule of the
Árpád dinasty dukes held territorial powers, some of them even minted coins, but later this title became more often nominal.
These duchies usually were
In the Jagellonian era (1490-1526) only two dukes did not belong to the royal dynasty:
John Corvin (the illegitimate son of
Matthias Corvinus) and
Lőrinc Újlaki (whose father was the king of
Bosnia), and both bore the title as royal dukes.
After the
Battle of Mohács the Habsburg kings rewarded Hungarian aristocrats (like the
Esterházys) with princely titles, but they created these titles as Holy Roman Emperors, not as kings of Hungary.
Greece
As the Catholic crusaders overran orthodox parts of the Byzantine empire, they installed several
crusader states (see
Frangokratia), some of which were of ducal rank:
- the Aegean insular Duchy of Naxos, officially the "Duchy of the Archipelago"
The Byzantines retained the title
dux, transcribed as
doux in Greek. As in the later Roman Empire, it remained a military office. In the 10th century, it was given to the military commanders over several
themata (also known as
katepano), and in the late 11th century it became used for the governor of a
thema.
In Italy and other western countries, the later Byzantine
appanages of the
Palaiologan period were sometimes translated as duchies: the
Morea,
Mesembria,
Selymbria and
Thessalonike. However, as these had Greek holders, they were titled
Archon ("magistrate") or
Despotes.
In the independent
Kingdom of Greece, the style of
Duke of Sparta was instituted in 1868 upon the birth of
Constantine I as a distinct title for the crown prince of Greece.
Slavic countries
Generally, confusion reigns whether to translate the usual petty ruler titles,
knyaz/ knez/ ksiaze etc. as Prince (analogous to the German Fürst) or as Duke;
- In Pomerelia and Pomerania (inhabited by the Kashubians, different Slavic people from the Poles proper), branches of native ruling dynasties were usually recognized as dukes, quite similarly to the pattern in Poland.
- in Russia, before the imperial unification from Muscovy; sometimes even as vassal, tributary to a Tartar Khan; later, in Peter the Great's autocratic empire, the russification gertsog was used as the Russian rendering of the German ducal title Herzog, especially as (the last) part of the full official style of the Russian Emperor: Gertsog Shlesvig-Golstinskiy, Stormarnskiy, Ditmarsenskiy i Oldenburgskiy i prochaya, i prochaya, i prochaya "Duke of Schleswig-Holstein [see above], Stormarn, Dithmarschen and Oldenburg, and of other lands", in chief of German and Danish territories to which the Tsar was dynastically linked.
Netherlands
After Belgium and the Netherlands separated in 1830, the title of duke no longer existed in the Netherlands. There is, however, one exception; the title
Hertog van Limburg (
Duke of Limburg) still exists. This title, however, is an exclusive title for the head of state (the monarch, i.e., the king or queen of the Netherlands).
Post-colonial non-European states
Brazilian empire
In this former Portuguese
kingdom, ruled after separation by a branch of the Portuguese royal dynasty (
House of Bragança), only three dukedoms were created, as the highest rank for people outside of the imperial dynasty. Two of these titles were for relatives of
Peter I: an illegitimate daughter and a
brother-in-law who received the title when married with Peter's daughter
Mary II. The third, given to the most important Brazilian military man,
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, was the only dukedom created during the
reign of
Peter II. A fourth title was created for another illegitimate daughter of Peter I, but she died before receiving the title (and so it is seldom considered). None of these titles were hereditary, just like every other title in the Brazilian nobility system.
Haiti
The royal
Christophe dynasty created eight hereditary dukedoms, in rank directly below the nominal princes. They were shortlived, only recognised in the country and of no importance.
Equivalents
Like other major Western noble titles,
Duke is sometimes used to render (translate) certain titles in non-western languages. "Duke" is used even though those titles are generally etymologically and often historically unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered roughly equivalent, especially in hierarchic aristocracies such as feudal Japan, useful as an indication of relative rank.
The Indian cognate is
Senapati (leader of an army).
See also
