Duke ...

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 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.

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 with the prefix 'His Grace'. Currently, there are twenty-seven dukedoms in the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, held by twenty-four persons (see List of Dukes in order of precedence).

Royal dukes

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 HRH The Prince of Wales, who is Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay; (*****) (The Prince Philip), (*****) (The Prince Andrew), (*****) (Prince Richard), and (*****) (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." 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." Rather, these 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 Dukes of Blood Royal. The third dukes of Gloucester and Kent will 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, (*****) (1914-1942), briefly succeeded to his peerages. However, as a male-line great grandson of Queen Victoria, the second Duke of Connaught was styled "His Grace."

Three other 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.

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

Sweden has a history of making sons of Kings real rulers of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622. Titlewise 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; more about them can be read at Dukes of Swedish Provinces.

History

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, Alemanns, 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 found 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. Although since the unification of Italy in the 1870,there have no longer been any sovereign duchies— Luxembourg is a grand duchy— 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.

Addressing Dukes

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

Royal Dukes:
- Begin: Sir (or Madam)
- Address: His Royal Highness the Duke of _____
- Speak to as: Your Royal Highness

==Territory of today's France==
- Duke of Angouleme
- (*****)
- Duke of Aquitaine
- Duke of Auvergne
- Duke of Bourbon
- Duke of Brittany
- Duke of Broglie
- Duke of Burgundy
- Duke of Guise
- Duke of Lorraine
- Duke of Montpensier
- Duke of Normandy
- Duke of Savoy

See also List of French dukedoms

Portugal

This list refers only to the royal dukedoms

- Duke of Aveiro
- Duke of Barcelos
- Duke of Beja
- Duke of Bragança
- Duke of Coimbra
- Duke of Guarda
- Duke of Porto
- Duke of Viseu

Other European countries

- Duke of Lower Lorraine
- Duke of Swabia
- (*****)

See also Historical states of Italy

External links

- Peerage Titles Held by Children or Male-Line Descendants of British Sovereigns Since King George I
- alt.talk.royalty FAQ: British Royal & Noble Families
- The Kings of Sweden

Category:Peerage
Category:Dukedoms
Category:Titles

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Duke".

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