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For the operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan, see The Grand Duke. For the Grand Duke butterfly, see Bassarona iva.
The
title grand duke is used in
Western Europe and particularly in
Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns.
Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a
king but higher than a sovereign
duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of
grand prince in languages which do not differentiate between
princes who are children of a monarch (e.g.
German Prinz) and ruling princes (e.g.
German Fürst). English and French also use Grand Duke in this way. The title grand duke as translation of
grand prince and the proper title
grand duke have clearly different meanings and a separate background. Compare with the article
grand prince. The territory of a grand duke is referred to as a
grand duchy.
The feminine form of grand duke is
grand duchess.
Translations for
grand duke include: in
Latin,
magnus dux; in
Spanish,
gran duque; in
Russian,
великий князь (
velikiy kniaz); in
German,
Großherzog,
Italian gran duca; in
French,
grand-duc; in
Portuguese,
grão-duque; in
Finnish,
suurherttua; in
Polish,
wielki książę; in
Hungarian,
nagyherceg; in
Swedish,
storhertig; in
Dutch,
groothertog; in
Danish,
storhertug; in
Lithuanian,
didysis kunigaikštis; in
Czech velkovévoda or
velkokníže.
Western Grand Dukes
The proper term of grand duke was a later invention, probably originating in Western Europe, to denote a particularly mighty duke, as the title
duke has until the end of Middle Ages been deflated to belong to rulers of relatively small fiefs (such as a city state or a district), instead of the big provinces it once was attached to.
One of the first examples, occurred when Count
Gonçalo I Mendes of
Portucale (in northwest Portugal and considered as the country’s original nucleus) took, in
987, the personal title of
Magnus Dux Portucalensium (
Grand-Duke of Portucale) and rebelled against King
Bermudo II of León. He was defeated by the royal armies but he obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux.
Another example was the semi-official use of grand duke meaning the later Dukes of
Burgundy, i.e., in the 15th century, when they ruled a portion of eastern France as well as most of the Netherlands.
Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (ruler 1419–67) assumed the subsidiary, legally void style and title
Grand Duke of the West in 1435, having recently consolidated the duchies of
Brabant and
Limburg as well as the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Hainaut and Namur under his possession. His son and successor
Charles the Bold (ruler 1467–77) continued to use the same style.
The title
magnus dux or grand duke (
Didysis Kunigas,
Didysis Kunigaikštis in Lithuanian) is said to have been used by the rulers of
Lithuania, and after
Jagiello also became kings of
Poland. From 1573, both the Latin and the Polish equivalent
wielki ksiaze, in chief of Lithuania as well as Russia, Prussia, Mazovia, Samogithia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Podlachia, Livonia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernigov (including hollow claims), were used as part of the respective versions of the full style officially used by the kings (title
Krol) of Poland during the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the
Medici sovereigns of
Tuscany beginning from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by
Pope Pius V in 1569, but the lands in question were under the vassalage of the
Holy Roman Empire.
Napoleon used to award that title extensively: during his era, several of his allies were allowed to assume the title of grand duke, usually at the same time as their inherited fiefs were enlarged by additional lands obtained thanks to being his allies. His conquerors, for example the
Congress of Vienna, consented to yet more uses of the title. Thus, the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled grand duke all around Central Europe. A list of such is available at
grand duchy.
At the same century, the courtesy use of the title, translated grand duke, in Russia expanded because of the births of several male dynasts, instead of the earlier precarious situations when Russia barely had only one or two to succeed.
The term can be said to originate in
Germany, in a sense that a ruler in the then Germany's western borders was the first to be called so, and that it was a German overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, whose vassal (although an Italian) was first granted the official title by the Pope.
The German and Dutch languages, which have separate words for royal prince (
Prinz, Prins) and for sovereign prince (
Fürst, Vorst), mark the Grand Princes of Lithuania, Ruthenian states and other Eastern European nations as higher princes, as well as the Russian rulers and later princes of the blood, by the terms
Grossfürst, Grootvorst, not
Grossherzog, Groothertog.
In 1582, king
John III of Sweden added
Grand Duke of Finland to the subsidiary titles of the Swedish kings, however without any factual consequences,
Finland already being a part of the Swedish realm.
After the Russian conquests, it continued to be used by the Russian emperor in his role as ruler of
Lithuania (1793–1918) and of
autonomous Finland (1809–1917) as well. The
Holy Roman Empire ruling house of
Habsburg instituted a similar
Grand Principality in
Transylvania in 1765.
Grand Prince
Grand princes or
great princes were medieval monarchs who ruled usually several tribes and/or were overlords of other princes. At the time, they were usually treated and translated as
kings. However, grand princes were not as elevated sovereign as later Western kings, and thus they are treated lower than kings, particularly in later literature.
Grand Princes ruled in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs and Balts.
The title
grand prince is
Velikiy Knjaz (
Великий князь) in Russian. The Slavic word
knjaz and the Baltic
kunigas (today translated as prince) are actually cognates of
King. Thus,
Veliki Knjaz and
Didysis Kunigas was more like "high king" than "grand duke".
These countries developed in a way that the position of the head of the dynasty became more elevated. In such situations, those monarchs assumed a higher title, such as
tsar or king. Grand Prince
Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to rule without any higher title, until he assumed the style
Tsar of Russia in 1547.
The rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs on their conquest of Hungary. The Polish kings of the Swedish
Vasa dynasty also used the grand-princely title for their non-Polish territory.
The title grand prince (which in many of those lands already was in later
medieval centuries awarded simultaneously to several rulers of the more expanded dynasty) continued, in modern times, as a courtesy title for all or several members of the Russian dynasty, such as the
Grand Duke of Russia (
veliki knjaz) in Russia's imperial era.
Byzantine Grand Dukes
The Latin title
dux (the etymological root of
duke), which was phonetically rendered
δουξ in Greek, was a common title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires (west and east), but note it was
lower in rank than
Comes (the etymological root of
Count). In the
Eastern Empire, a
dux ranked just below a
strategos.
Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine
theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a dux. The title of "Grand Duke" (
megas doux) was created by
Alexios I Komnenos and was conferred upon the commanding admiral of the
Byzantine navy. The title remained in use until the Empire's end, by which time the office had become a virtual chief minister, heading both civil and military administration.
Russian Grand Dukes
"Grand duke" is the traditional translation of the title
Velikiy Kniaz, which from the 11th century was at first the title of the leading
Prince of
Kievan Rus', then of several princes of the
Rus'. From 1328 the
Velikii Kniaz of
Muscovy appeared as the grand duke for "all of Russia" until
Ivan IV of Russia in 1547 was
crowned as
Tsar. Thereafter the title was given to sons and grandsons (through male lines) of the Tsars and Emperors of Russia. The daughters and paternal granddaughters of Russian emperors, as well as the consorts of Russian grand dukes, were generally called "grand duchesses" in English.
Another translation of the Russian title would be
grand prince while this term is a more precise translation, is neither standard nor widely used in English. In German, however, a Russian grand duke was known as a
Großfürst, and in
Latin as
Magnus Princeps.
From 1809 to 1917 the Emperor of
Russia was also the
Grand Duke of Finland, which he held as an autonomous state. Before the Russian conquest Finland had been held by the Swedish kings, first as a
royal duchy, since 1581 with the King assuming the secondary title
Grand Prince of Finland (Finnish:
Suomen suuriruhtinas, Swedish:
Storfurste av Finland), also often translated as Grand Duke of Finland.
See also:
Styles
Tuscany's sovereign obtained in 17th century the status of Royal Highness.
Most often, a reigning grand duke or grand duchess was
styled Royal Highness. Other members of the families differed in style. Junior members of the
Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg are also
Royal Highnesses; however, this derives from their status apparently as cadet members of the dethroned royal house of Bourbon-Parma and not from the Grand Ducal title.
In
Hesse-Darmstadt and
Baden, however, junior members of the ruling dynasty bore the style of
Grand Ducal Highness (
Großherzogliche Hoheit). For instance, prior to her marriage, Empress Alexandra of Russia was known as "Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine" (
Ihre Großherzogliche Hoheit Prinzessin Alix von Hessen und bei Rhein).
A Russian grand duke or grand duchess was an
Imperial Highness.
Sources and references
(incomplete)
See also
Category:Heads of stateCategory:Royal titlesCategory:Noble titles Category:Titles of national or ethnic leadershipCategory:Men's social titlesaf:Groothertogar:دوق أكبرbe:Вялікі князьcs:Velkovévodada:Storhertugde:Großherzogeo:Granddukofr:Grand-ducko:대공is:Stórhertogiit:Granducalb:Groussherzoghu:Nagyhercegnl:Groothertogja:大公no:Storhertugpt:Grão-duquero:Mare Duceru:Великий герцогsk:Veľkovojvodash:Veliki vojvodafi:Suurherttuasv:Storhertiguk:Великий герцогtr:Grandükzh:大公 
