Duke

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v t e

Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a

origin), and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province. In most countries, the word duchess is the female equivalent.

Following the reforms of the emperor

was introduced for the post of commander-in-chief of the entire navy.

During the

) existed.

During the 19th century, many of the smaller German and Italian states were ruled by dukes or grand dukes. But at present, with the exception of the

rather than by members of reigning dynasties, varied—e.g., in Italy and Germany.

A woman who holds in her own right the title to such duchy or dukedom, or is married to a duke, is normally styled duchess.

in Lancashire.

Duchy and dukedom

A duchy is the territory or geopolitical entity ruled by a duke, whereas his title or area is often called a dukedom. The

is a fully independent state and its head, the Grand Duke, is a sovereign monarch reigning over his Luxembourgish subjects.

The Duke of Cornwall holds both the dukedom (title) and duchy (estate holdings), the latter being the source of his personal income; those living on the ducal estates are subjects of the British sovereign and owe neither fealty nor services to the duke per se.^{[citation needed]} In Scotland, the male heir apparent to the British crown is always the Duke of Rothesay as well, but this is a dukedom (title) without a duchy. Similarly, the British monarch rules and owns the Duchy of Lancaster as Duke of Lancaster, but it is held separately from the Crown, with the income of the duchy estates providing the sovereign's Privy Purse.

The Channel Islands are two of the three remaining Crown Dependencies, the last vestiges of the lands of the Duchy of Normandy. The Islanders in their loyal toast will say "Le Roi, notre Duc" (The King, Our Duke). Though the title was apparently renounced under the Treaty of Paris in 1259, the Crown still maintains that the title is retained: "In 1106, William's youngest son Henry I seized the Duchy of Normandy from his brother Robert; since that time, the English sovereign has always held the title Duke of Normandy", and that "By 1205, England had lost most of its French lands, including Normandy. However, the Channel Islands, part of the lost Duchy, remained a self-governing possession of the English Crown. While the islands today retain autonomy in government, they owe allegiance to The King in his role as Duke of Normandy."^[1]

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed, the title was still employed in the Germanic kingdoms, usually to refer to the rulers of old Roman provinces.

Albania

The Venetians installed a "Duke of Durazzo" (today Durrës) during their brief rule over the city and its environs in 1205–1213.

In 1332,

.

In 1368, Durazzo fell to Karl Thopia, who was recognized by Venice as Prince of Albania.

Visigoths

The Visigoths retained the Roman divisions of their kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and it seems that dukes ruled over these areas.^{[citation needed]} 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 1,000 people from each civitas (city district). The cities were commanded by counts, who were in turn answerable to the dukes, who called up the thiufae when necessary.

Lombards

When the

.

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

were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to the greater Romanization of those provinces. But the titles were basically equivalent.

In late

Carolingian

dynasty in France in 987.

Holy Roman Empire

Stem duchies

The stem duchies were the constituent duchies of the kingdom of Germany at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (the death of Louis the Child in 911) and the transitional period leading to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire later in the 10th century.

England

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v t e

Anglo-Saxon times

In Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the highest political rank beneath that of king was

Late medieval times

.

The title of

.

All five of Edward III's surviving sons eventually became dukes. In 1385, ten years after their father's death, his heir Richard II created dukedoms for his last two uncles on the same day.

.

By 1483, a total of 16 ducal titles had been created: Cornwall, Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester, York,

was Duke of Norfolk (2nd creation), while the duchy of Cornwall was reserved as a title and source of income for the eldest son of the sovereign, and the duchy of Lancaster was now held by the monarch.

Norfolk perished alongside

Tudor dynasty

over the ensuing century. England's premier ducal title, Norfolk, remains in the Howard family to this day.

Modern age

In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of

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

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

).

All dukedoms in the UK apart from the Duchy of Lancaster are inherited through the male line only, and the word duchess is only used for the wife of a duke. Dukes of Lancaster are called dukes even when they are female, and by tradition the monarch of the UK, whether male or female, is known in the Channel Islands as the Duke of Normandy.

Royal dukes

"Royal duke" redirects here. For the South Korean car, see

Daewoo Royale Duke

.

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, a royal duke is a duke who is a member of the

.

There are also

non-royal dukes

in the United Kingdom.

Belgium

In

Baudouin I

).

Iberian peninsula

When the

) 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

Main article:

List of dukedoms in Portugal

In Portugal, the title of duke was granted for the first time in 1415 to

.

From the reign of king Manuel I, the title of Duke of Beja was given to the second son of the monarch. This was changed during the Liberal regime in the 19th century (with Queen Maria II), when the first infante (second son of the monarch) got the title of Duke of Porto and the second infante (third son) was known as Duke of Beja.

There are examples of duke as a subsidiary title, granted to the most powerful noble houses:

• Duke of Barcelos, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Braganza;
• Duke of Torres Novas, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Aveiro;
• Duke of Miranda do Corvo, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Lafões.

Usually, the title of duke was granted to relatives of the royal family, such as the infantes or natural sons of the monarch. There are exceptions, such as António José de Ávila, who, although not having any relation to the royal family, was given the title of Duke of Ávila and Bolama in the 19th century.

Spain

Spanish infantes and infantas are usually given a royal dukedom upon marriage, excepting the heir apparent who is the Prince of Asturias. Those titles are nowadays not hereditary but carry a grandeeship of Spain. The current royal duchesses are Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (although she inherited the title of Duchess of Hernani from her cousin and is the second holder of the title), and Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo. In Spain all dukes hold the court rank of grandee, which has precedence over all other noble titles.

The last non-royal hereditary dukedom created was the title of Duke of Suárez in favour of former primer minister Adolfo Suárez in 1981. Since the accession of King Felipe VI to the throne in 2014, no new noble title has been created.^[3][4]

Nordic countries

The Northern European duchies of

" in the 19th century.

Denmark

Beginning in the 11th century, Danish kings frequently awarded the title of jarl (earl) or duke of Schleswig to a younger son of the monarch. Short-lived dukedoms were created for the same purpose in Lolland and Halland.

After the accession to the throne of

.

Finland

Key parts of Finland were sometimes under a Duke of Finland during the Swedish reign (until 1809). Some of the provinces are still considered duchies for the purposes of heraldry.

Norway

In Norway, Skule Bårdsson was first jarl in 1217, and as such got responsibility for the army, and then in 1237, as another attempt at compromise, Skule was given the first Norwegian title of duke (hertug). There is no indication that those two titles meant the same thing, or was mixed. He was first jarl, and then also hertug, but after he became hertug he kept the title jarl.

Sweden

Sweden has a history of making the sons of its kings ruling princes of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622. Only one non-royal person was ever given a dukedom.

In 1772, King

.

France

The highest precedence in the realm, attached to a feudal territory, was given to the twelve original

(en: peers), who 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)
• Two suffragan bishops, styled evêque-duc pair de France :
  • 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

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 Duke of Burgundy or duc de Bourgogne (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)
• The Duke of Normandy or duc de Normandie (holds the first square banner)
• The Duke of Aquitaine or duc d'Aquitaine or de Guyenne (holds the second square banner)

The theory of the participation of the peers in the coronation was laid down in the late 13th 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 these duchies were also peerages (the so-called 'new peerages').

Italy, Germany and Austria

In Northern Italy, Germany and Austria the title of "duke" (duca in Italian, and Herzog in German) was quite common. As the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) 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 Northern 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 Northern Italy some important sovereign ducal families were the

In Germany, important ducal families were the

and the Ernestine lines of the Saxon duchies were the sovereign ducal families.

In Austria, "Archduke" was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty.

Elsewhere in Europe

Hungary

In the

dukes held territorial powers, some of them even minted coins, but later this title became more often nominal. These duchies usually were

• the Duchy of Nitra
• the Duchy of Bihar
• the Duchy of
  voivodship
  of Transylvania and some other counties)

In the Jagiellonian era (1490–1526) only two dukes did not belong to the royal dynasty:

), and both bore the title as royal dukes.

After the

Esterházys

) with princely titles, but they created these titles as Holy Roman Emperors, not as kings of Hungary.

Greece

The Byzantines retained the title dux, transcribed as δούξ (doux) in Medieval Greek. As in the later Roman Empire, it remained a military office and was not a feudal or hereditary rank. 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.

When the Catholic crusaders overran the Byzantine Empire in the

), some of which were of ducal rank:

• the Duchy of Athens, to which the Duchy of Neopatras was later linked
• the Aegean insular
  Duchy of Naxos
  , officially the "Duchy of the Archipelago"
• the
  Duke of Candia

In Italy and other western countries, the later Byzantine

.

In the independent

.

Slavic and nearby countries

Generally, confusion reigns whether to translate the usual ruler titles, knyaz/ knez/ książe etc. as Prince (analogous to the German Fürst) or as Duke;

• In splintered
  Masovia, Sandomir, Greater Poland and Kalisz as well as various minor duchies, often short-lived or in personal union or merger, named after their capitals, mainly in the regions known as Little Poland and Greater Poland, including (there are often also important Latin or German forms) Kraków, Łęczyca and Sieradz
  .
• 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.
• In Bohemia was
  Duchy of Reichstadt and Duchy of Friedland
  .
• In
  King of Bohemia
  .
• In
  Latin: magnus dux), who acted as the monarch of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
  until 1795 when Russians took over the land.

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).

Georgia

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In Georgia, the title of

eristavt-eristavi

, duke of dukes.

In the 6th to 9th centuries,

. Erismtavari was the first among equal dukes.

Georgians use the title eristavi only for Georgian dukes. When talking about foreign dukes, they use the German word Herzog, which is the German equivalent of "duke".

In the late 15th and early 16th century, the kingdom of Georgia collapsed and most of the western Georgian dukes became princes. In the 19th century the title of eristavi was abolished by the Russian conquerors and the former dukes took the word Eristavi as their last names.

Post-colonial non-European states

Empire of Brazil

In the

. 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 short-lived and only recognized in the country.

Analogues

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.

Indian Subcontinent

The

. Thus, a Rao (in the ruling system) or a Jagirdar, Deshmukh, Patil, and Zamindar (in a feudal way) are closely equivalent to a Duke.

Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran

Duke in Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran after Mongolian war against them, was added as generals and kings of districts or states. In the Kingdom of Persians and Ottomans, the systems cannot be fully translated to its European counterparts so they called those generals and kings as Khan, a Mongolian royal and noble rank from the Turco-Mongol word for "lord", analogous to Duke. After revolutions and the falling Empire system in those countries (changing the ruling system to democratic and republic systems), those Khans and the other equal ranks titles added to the titleholder's surnames, and the ranking system, as usual, was disqualified as an official ranking.

China

During the era of fengjian in Ancient China (Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period), the title of gōng (公; sometimes translated as "Duke", sometimes as "Lord") was sparingly granted. Under the principle of "Three Deferences and Two Royal Descendants" (三恪二王後), the three former royal houses were granted the title of gōng; however, not all scholars recognize such a tradition in the Western Zhou dynasty. For that dynasty, this would be the descendants of the Xia dynasty and Shang dynasty; their dukedoms were respectively Qi (杞) and Song (宋). According to tradition, these states were considered the king's guests rather than subjects. However, recent scholarship has identified multiple other meanings for gōng, including the patriarch of a lineage, a non-inheritable title signifying a very broad and senior position within the court, or a respectful appellation for any regional ruler or deceased ancestor.^[8]

In works like

, usurpers typically sought the title of duke, then prince, before compelling the monarch to abdicate.

The

Republic of China

.

The title gōng and others were also awarded, sometimes

Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi.^[12]

Indonesia

The Javanese kingdom of

Apanage system in Western Europe.^{[citation needed}

]

Sultan Agung, king of Mataram in Central Java (r.  1613–1645), would entrust the administration of territories he gradually conquered all over the island of Java, to officials bearing the title of Adipati, this title is hereditary. Such territories were called Kadipaten. Prior to the unification of Java by Sultan Agung, independent kadipatens also exist, e.g. the Duchy of Surabaya which was conquered

by Agung in 1625.

The VOC (Dutch East Indies Company), while gradually taking control of Javanese territory, would maintain the existing Mataram administrative structure. Adipati were called "regenten" in Dutch,^{[citation needed]} and the territories they administered, "regentschappen".

In the 19th century, the Javanese term for 'regent' was bupati. French traveller Gérard Louis Domeny de Rienzi mentions bapati.^[13]

The bupati have been maintained in the modern Indonesian administrative subdivision structure, heading a kabupaten, the subdivision of a provinsi or province.

The word Adipati is still found in the official title of the hereditary dukes

Mangkunegara of Surakarta and Paku Alam of Yogyakarta

—i.e., Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya (shortened into KGPAA).

Nigeria

In the

chieftain that is known as an Enogie in the Edo language is usually referred to as a duke in English. Often a cadet of the dynasty that produces the oba of Benin

, the enogie is expected to rule his domain as he sees fit, subject to the approval of the oba.

In

, the monarch who has the right to wear one.

Myanmar

In Myanmar (Burma), since the

See also

• Archduke
• Duchy
  • Duchies in Sweden
  • Duchy of Amalfi
  • Duchy of Brittany
  • Duchy of Gaeta
  • Duchy of Naples
• Lists of dukes
• List of fictional dukes and duchesses
• The dictionary definition of Duke at Wiktionary

References

General sources

• Hodgkin, Thomas. Italy and her Invaders. Clarendon Press: 1895.
• Lewis, Archibald R. "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550–751". Speculum, Vol. 51, No 3 (July 1976), pp. 381–410.
• Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Duke" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). pp. 650–651.
• Stenton, Sir Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition. Oxford University Press: 1971.
• Thompson, E. A. The Goths in Spain. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1969.