Duke

For other uses, see Duke (disambiguation).

The term duke is a title of nobility which refers to the sovereign male ruler of a Continental European Duchy, to a nobleman of the highest grade of the British Peerage, or to the highest rank of nobility in various other European countries, including Portugal, Spain and France (in Italy, principe is held to be the highest grade). The wife of a duke, or a woman who rules a duchy, is known as a duchess.

History

Dux was a title given by the Romans to a general commanding a single military expedition and holding no other power than that which he exercised over his soldiers. The designation first arose in the early part of the second century AD. Upon the separation of the civil and military functions in the fourth century the dux became commander of all the troops cantoned in a single Province. To avoid the connotations of the modern "dukes", Roman military leaders are usually called duces.

The Germanic Franks converted, under Roman influence, the Germanic concept of Herzog (literally: "war-leader", commonly translated as "duke"), the temporarily elected general for a major expedition of warfare, into military governors for units of up to a dozen counties. In the 7th century these units developed into hereditary Clan-duchies of Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemanni, Franks and other Germanic tribes, which Charlemagne crushed in 788, converting the border provinces into margraviates (which however soon emerged as clan-margraviates: Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia, Lorraine...).

The dissolution tendency was counteracted by the appointment of younger sons of the monarchs (royal dukes) as military governors of the important border provinces, which however also soon developed into hereditary duchies and a source of intrigues against the monarch (see for instance: History of Schleswig-Holstein). The medieval dukes had a strong position in the realms they belonged to. Like the margraves, they were responsible for the military defence of an important region, and had strong arguments for retaining the Crown's Tax incomes of their duchy to fund their military force.

In early Medieval Italy, the Dukes of Benevento and of Spoleto were independent territorial magnates in duchies originally created by the Lombards.

In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of Parma and Modena in Italy, and of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Anhalt, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe-Altenburg in Germany survived Napoleon's reorganization.

Since the unification of Italy in the 1870, there have no longer been any sovereign duchies in Europe, for Luxembourg is a grand duchy.

The Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337. He was the first Duke in England.

There were no Anglo-Saxon dukes; the Middle English duke derives from the Old French duc, which in turn came from the Latin Dux/ducis deriving from the Verb ducere, meaning "to lead". The Genoese and Venetian title "Doge" is derived from the same origin.

In the late Roman Empire, dux was a military title. Latin chroniclers applied it to the leaders of Lombard warbands. When this title appeared in the Carolingian empire, dukes ruled over non-Frankish nations (dukes of the Alamans, of the Bavarians, of the Aquitans), while counts ruled over a region in the Frankish realm.

In the United Kingdom, the inherited office 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. Dukes in the United Kingdom are addressed as 'Your Grace' and referred to as 'His Grace'. Currently, there are twenty-seven dukedoms in the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, held by twenty-four different people (see List of Dukes in order of precedence).

Royal dukes

Four reigning European royal houses traditionally awarded dukedoms to the sons and in some cases, the daughters, of their respective Sovereigns.

The Heir Apparent to the Belgian throne is styled Duke of Brabant.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a royal duke is a duke who is a member of the British Royal Family, entitled to the style of Royal Highness. In the United Kingdom, the current royal dukes are The Prince of Wales, who is Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (The Prince Philip), HRH The Duke of York (The Prince Andrew), HRH The Duke of Gloucester (Prince Richard), and HRH The Duke of Kent (Prince Edward). The former king Edward VIII was created Duke of Windsor after his abdication. With the exceptions of the dukedoms of Cornwall and Rothesay (which can only be held by the eldest son of the Sovereign), these dukedoms are hereditary according to the Letters patent that created them, which contain the standard remainder "heirs male of his body." The British Sovereign also holds and as such is entitled to the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, but does not hold the dukedom - there is no dukedom of Lancaster as the Sovereign cannot hold a peerage dignity, since s/he is the fount of honour and cannot hold an honour from his/herself. Other dukedoms that have been awarded to members of the British royal family in the past include those of Albany, Avondale, Cambridge, Clarence, Connaught, Cumberland, Kendal, Strathearn, and Sussex. In the past, British sovereigns have combined several territorial designations into a single dukedom. For example, King George III created his second son, Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, and Queen Victoria bestowed the dukedom of Clarence and Avondale on her grandson, Prince Albert Victor of Wales. To date, Avondale, Stathearn, and St. Andrews have not been granted as separate dukedoms. Once a particular peerage is granted to a member of the British royal family, it is not subsequently granted to anyone outside the royal family.

In the United Kingdom, there is nothing about the particular dukedom that makes it royal, even though the formal style of an ordinary duke is 'The Most High, Noble and Potent Prince'. Rather, these special peerages are called "royal dukedoms" because they are held by a member of the royal family who is entitled to the style Royal Highness. Under the November 20, 1917, Letters Patent of King George V, the titular dignity of Prince/Princess and the style Royal Highness are restricted to the sons of a Sovereign, the sons of a Sovereign's sons, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of a Prince of Wales. For example, when the current Duke of Gloucester and Duke of Kent are succeeded by their eldest sons, the Earl of Ulster and the Earl of St. Andrews, respectively, those peerages (or rather, the 1928 and 1934 creations of them) will cease to be royal dukedoms, instead the title holders will become ordinary, 'garden' Dukes. The third dukes of Gloucester and Kent will each be styled "His Grace" because as great grandsons of George V, they are not Princes and are not styled HRH. Similarly, upon the death of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1850-1942), the third son of Queen Victoria, his only male-line grandson, Alastair Arthur Windsor, Earl of MacDuff (1914-1942), briefly succeeded to his peerages. However, as a duke, the second Duke of Connaught, a male-line great grandson of Queen Victoria, was simply styled "His Grace."

France

See Appanage and the list in the geographical section below

Elsewhere

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 given to the oldest son and presumptive heir of the King, other throne candidates usually get lower titles, such as Count of Flanders (king Leopold III's brother became head of state as Prince-regent) and Prince of Liège (e.g. the present king Albert II before he succeeded his older brother Baudouin=Boudewijn I)

For Portugal, see below

Nowadays, Spanish infantes and infantas are usually given a dukedom upon marriage. This title is not hereditary. The current royal duchesses are: HRH the Duchess of Badajoz (Infanta Maria del Pilar), HRH the Duchess of Soria (Infanta Margarita), HRH the Duchess of Lugo (Infanta Elena) and HRH the Duchess of Palma de Mallorca (Infanta Cristina).

Main article: Dukes of Swedish Provinces.
Sweden had a history of making 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 two duchesses. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to four of the Provinces of Sweden.

Addressing Dukes

  • Begin: My Lord Duke
  • Address: His Grace the Duke of _____
  • Speak to as: Your Grace

Royal Dukes:

  • Begin: Sir
  • Address: His Royal Highness the Duke of _____
  • Speak to as: Your Royal Highness

Territory of today's France

  • Special ecclesiastic cases : Prince-Bishops of ducal rank - styled * evêque-duc pair de France

See also List of French dukedoms

Iberian pensinsula

When the Reconquista, sweeping the Moors from the former caliphate of Cordoba and its taifa-remnants, transformed the territory former Suevian and Visigothic realms into catholic feudal principalities, none of these war lords was styled duke, a few (as Portugal itself) started as Count, but soon all politically relevant princes were to use to royal style of king.

Portugal

This list refers only to the royal dukedoms
  • Duke of Aveiro
  • Duke of Barcelos
  • Duke of Beja
  • Duke of Bragança (the home principality of the Portuguese royal dynasty after the post-Habsburg restoration of independence)
  • Duke of Coimbra
  • Duke of Guarda
  • Duke of Porto
  • Duke of Viseu

Spain

No duchies as true politically important principalities, but many domanial or purely titular ones
  • cfr Grande
Some title inherited by or conferred on historically important politicians, such as :
  • Duque de Alba / Duke of Alva
  • Duke of Medinacelli

Colonial titles

On the Canaries(?) and in various American viceroyalties

Holy Roman Empire

Germany & The Netherlands / Belgium / Luxembourg

Austria

  • Austria proper (the former Ostmark, see Margrave), Carinthia, Styria, ... came to serve as royal archduchies for the (imperial) Habsburg dynasty; the same goes for the neighbouring (southern) duchy of Krain, now in Slovenia

None (?) in Switzerland

On the Baltic south coast

The duchies of Kurland (now in Latvia) and Pomerellen (capital Danzig) were part of the Ordensstaat till its takeover by the Polish crown in 1466

Italy

Slavonic countries

  • in splintered Poland, notably Masovia
  • in Russia, before the imperial unification from Moscovia; sometimes even as vassal, tributary to a Tartar Khan

Elsewhere

  • In Denmark, the main duchy being Schleswig, part of which later was transferred to Germany; its southern neighbour Holstein, also under the Danish crown (both in personal union), was always a German principality

See also

Equivalents

The style duke has, like many high nobility titles, also been used to render non-European styles that are seen, by analogy, as roughly equivalent, especially in hierarchic aristocracies as in feudal Japan.

See also

Grand Duke

Earl   Index

This page is based on the Wikipedia article ''Duke''. It is licensed under the GNU free documentation license.

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