Ellington, Duke (Edward Kennedy Ellington), 1899-1974, American jazz musician and composer, b. Washington, D.C. Ellington made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916. By 1918 he had formed a band, and after appearances in nightclubs in Harlem he became one of the most famous figures in American jazz. Ellington's orchestra, playing his own and Billy Strayhorn's compositions and arrangements, achieved a fine unity of style and made many innovations in the jazz idiom. Many instrumental virtuosos worked closely with Ellington for long periods of time. Among his best-known short works are Mood Indigo, Solitude, and Sophisticated Lady. He also wrote jazz works of complex orchestration and ambitious scope for concert presentation, notably Creole Rhapsody (1932), Black, Brown and Beige (1943), Liberian Suite (1947), Harlem (1951), and Night Creatures (1955), and composed religious music, including three sacred concerts (1965, 1968, and 1973). Ellington made many tours of Europe, appeared in numerous jazz festivals and several films, and made hundreds of recordings. In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Duke, James Buchanan, 1856-1925, American industrialist, processor of tobacco products, b. near Durham, N.C. The Civil War left the Duke family poor, but James and his brother, Benjamin, helped their father in building up a local tobacco-processing business, which soon prospered. Development of cigarette-making machines and extensive advertising gave the Duke company a lead in tobacco manufacturing. Through a long series of mergers with competitors, James Duke organized (1890) and led a trust that, when dissolved by order of the Supreme Court in 1911, controlled 150 factories with a capitalization of $502 million. He left a trust fund to Trinity College that provided for the erection of buildings and facilities; the name of the college was changed to Duke Univ. He also gave large amounts for hospitals, orphanages, and churches.

European h1 of nobility, the highest rank below a prince or king except in countries having such h1s as archduke or grand duke. The wife of a duke is a duchess. The Romans gave the h1 dux to high military commanders with territorial responsibilities. It was adopted by the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire and was used in their kingdoms and also in France and Germany for rulers of very large areas. In some European countries a duke is a sovereign prince who rules an independent duchy. In Britain, where there were no ducal h1s until 1337, it is a hereditary h1.

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(born May 1, 1769, Dublin, Ire.—died Sept. 14, 1852, Walmer Castle, Kent, Eng.) British general. Son of the Irish earl of Mornington, he entered the army in 1787 and served in the Irish Parliament (1790–97). Sent to India in 1796, he commanded troops to victories in the Maratha War (1803). Back in England, he served in the British House of Commons and as chief secretary in Ireland (1807–09). Commanding British troops in the Peninsular War, he won battles against the French in Portugal and Spain and invaded France to win the war in 1814, for which he was promoted to field marshal and created a duke. After Napoleon renewed the war against the European powers, the “Iron Duke” commanded the Allied armies to victory at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Richly rewarded by English and foreign sovereigns, he became one of the most honoured men in Europe. After commanding the army of occupation in France (1815–18) and serving in the Tory cabinet as master general of ordnance (1818–27), he served as prime minister (1828–30), but he was forced to resign after opposing any parliamentary reform. He was honoured on his death by a monumental funeral and burial in St. Paul's Cathedral alongside Horatio Nelson.

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later Duke von Mecklenburg

(born Sept. 24, 1583, Herhacekmanice, Bohemia—died Feb. 25, 1634, Eger) Austrian general. A noble of Bohemia, he served with the future Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II in the campaign against Venice in 1617. He remained loyal to Ferdinand when other Bohemian nobles revolted (1618–23) and was made governor of Bohemia and allowed to acquire vast holdings in confiscated estates. Created duke of Friedland (1625), he commanded the imperial armies in the Thirty Years' War. After successes in the war against Denmark (1625–29), he was awarded the principality of Sagan (1627) and the duchy of Mecklenburg (1629). Under pressure from the German princes, Ferdinand was forced to dismiss Wallenstein. Recalled to imperial command in 1631, he drove the Swedish army from Bavaria and Franconia but was defeated at the Battle of Lützen (1632). Believing he had the support of his generals, he mounted a revolt against the emperor (1634) and was assassinated.

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(born 1579, Château of Blain, Brittany, France—died April 13, 1638, Königsfeld, Switz.) French Huguenot leader. At age 16 he entered the army of Henry IV, who made him a peer of France in 1603. After Henry's death (1610), Rohan led the Huguenots in revolt against the government of Marie de Médicis (1615–16) and became the Huguenots' foremost general in the civil wars of the 1620s. He recounted the events of the War of La Rochelle (1627–29) in his celebrated Mémoires. He then went to Venice. After his return to France (1635), he successfully commanded a French expedition against the Habsburgs in Lombardy. In 1637 he went to Switzerland, where he died in the Thirty Years' War battle at Rheinfelden.

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known as Prince Philip

(born June 10, 1921, Corfu, Greece) Husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. Son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1882–1944) and Princess Alice (1885–1969), a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, he was reared in Britain. In World War II he served in combat with the Royal Navy. In 1947 he became a British subject, taking his mother's surname, Mountbatten, and renouncing his right to the Greek and Danish thrones. He married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and continued on active service in the navy until her accession to the throne in 1952. Charles, prince of Wales, is their son.

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(born Oct. 19, 1610, London, Eng.—died July 21, 1688, Kingston Lacy, Dorset) Anglo-Irish statesman. Born into the prominent Butler family of Ireland, he succeeded to the earldom of Ormonde in 1632. In service to the English crown in Ireland from 1633, he fought against the Catholic rebellion from 1641. He concluded a peace with the Catholic confederacy in 1649, then rallied support for Charles II, but he was forced to flee when Oliver Cromwell landed at Dublin. He was Charles's adviser in exile (1650–60). After the Restoration he was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland (1662–69, 1677–84), where he encouraged Irish commerce and industry. He was created a duke in 1682.

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orig. Napoléon-Franchooklois-Charles-Joseph Bonaparte

(born March 20, 1811, Paris, France—died July 22, 1832, Schönbrunn, Austria) The only son of Napoleon and Marie-Louise, he was born during Napoleon's reign as emperor and styled “King of Rome.” On Napoleon's abdication (1814), Marie-Louise took her son to live at the court of her father, Emperor Francis II, rather than allow him to remain in France as the focus of resistance as Napoleon II. Given the Austrian h1 of duke of Reichstadt, he was controlled by Klemens, prince von Metternich. In 1830 Bonapartist insurgents attempted to restore Reichstadt as Napoleon II, but he was already ill with tuberculosis, which would kill him.

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(born March 15, 1493, Chantilly, France—died Nov. 12, 1567, Paris) French soldier and constable of France. Named for his godmother, Queen Anne of Brittany, he served three kings—Francis I, Henry II, and Charles IX—in war and peace. He fought in numerous wars in northern Italy and southern France against Emperor Charles V and in campaigns against the Huguenots. In 1529 he helped negotiate the Peace of Cambrai between France and Charles V. He was created constable of France in 1538, and he became a duke and peer in 1551. Wounded at the Battle of Saint-Denis, he died two days later.

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(born March 1340, Ghent—died Feb. 3, 1399, London, Eng.) English prince, the fourth son of Edward III. John's additional name, “Gaunt” (a corruption of the name of his birthplace, Ghent), was not used after he was three years old; it became the popularly accepted form of his name, however, through its use in William Shakespeare's play Richard II. John served as a commander in the Hundred Years' War against France, then returned to become an important influence in his father's last years as king and in the reign of his nephew Richard II. Through his first wife, John acquired the duchy of Lancaster in 1362, and he was the immediate ancestor of the three 15th-century monarchs of the house of Lancaster: Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.

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(born Dec. 23, 1856, Durham, N.C., U.S.—died Oct. 10, 1925, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tobacco magnate and philanthropist. He and his brother Benjamin (1855–1929) entered the family tobacco business. In 1890 James became president of the American Tobacco Co., which controlled the entire U.S. tobacco industry until antitrust laws caused it, in 1911, to be broken into several companies that would become the principal U.S. cigarette makers. He oversaw the family's contributions to Trinity College in Durham, which was renamed Duke University.

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orig. Edward Kennedy Ellington

(born April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died May 24, 1974, New York, N.Y.) U.S. pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. He formed his band in 1924 in Washington, D.C.; by 1927 it was performing regularly at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Until the end of his life his band would enjoy the highest professional and artistic reputation in jazz. First known for his distinctive “jungle” sound—a description derived from the use of growling muted brass and sinister harmonies—Ellington increasingly integrated blues elements into his music. He composed with the idiosyncratic sounds of his instrumentalists in mind. Many of his players spent most of their careers with the band; they included saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, bassist Jimmy Blanton, trombonists Tricky Sam Nanton and Lawrence Brown, and trumpeters Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams. Pianist Billy Strayhorn was Ellington's frequent collaborator. Ellington composed a massive body of work, including music for dancing, popular songs, large-scale concert works, musical theatre, and film scores. His best-known compositions include “Mood Indigo,” “Satin Doll,” “Don't Get Around Much Anymore,” and “Sophisticated Lady.”

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(born Dec. 23, 1856, Durham, N.C., U.S.—died Oct. 10, 1925, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tobacco magnate and philanthropist. He and his brother Benjamin (1855–1929) entered the family tobacco business. In 1890 James became president of the American Tobacco Co., which controlled the entire U.S. tobacco industry until antitrust laws caused it, in 1911, to be broken into several companies that would become the principal U.S. cigarette makers. He oversaw the family's contributions to Trinity College in Durham, which was renamed Duke University.

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Private university in Durham, N.C. It was created in 1924 through an endowment from James B. Duke, although the original college (Trinity) traces its roots to the mid 19th century. Duke maintained separate campuses for undergraduate men and women until the 1970s. Besides an undergraduate liberal arts college, the university includes schools of business, divinity, engineering, environmental studies, graduate studies, law, medicine (including a medical centre), and nursing.

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orig. Edward Kennedy Ellington

(born April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died May 24, 1974, New York, N.Y.) U.S. pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. He formed his band in 1924 in Washington, D.C.; by 1927 it was performing regularly at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Until the end of his life his band would enjoy the highest professional and artistic reputation in jazz. First known for his distinctive “jungle” sound—a description derived from the use of growling muted brass and sinister harmonies—Ellington increasingly integrated blues elements into his music. He composed with the idiosyncratic sounds of his instrumentalists in mind. Many of his players spent most of their careers with the band; they included saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, bassist Jimmy Blanton, trombonists Tricky Sam Nanton and Lawrence Brown, and trumpeters Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams. Pianist Billy Strayhorn was Ellington's frequent collaborator. Ellington composed a massive body of work, including music for dancing, popular songs, large-scale concert works, musical theatre, and film scores. His best-known compositions include “Mood Indigo,” “Satin Doll,” “Don't Get Around Much Anymore,” and “Sophisticated Lady.”

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orig. George Villiers

(born Jan. 30, 1628, London, Eng.—died April 16, 1687, Kirkby Moorside, Yorkshire) English politician. Born eight months before the assassination of his father, the 1st duke of Buckingham, he was brought up with the family of Charles I. He fought for Charles II in the English Civil Wars, and after the Restoration in 1660 Buckingham became a leading member of the king's inner circle of ministers, known as the Cabal. Parliament had him dismissed from his posts for alleged Catholic sympathies in 1674.

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A duke is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a duchy or a Dukedom. 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. There were, however, variants of these meanings and there were even sovereign princes employing ducal titles.

In the Modern Age it mostly became a nominal rank without an actual principality. The notable exception would be the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is still the highest titular peerage in France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

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 of Grand Marquis or Grand Duke were often given 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 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 highest magnates in the land and, along with the bishops, elected the king, usually from their own file. They were the military commanders and in this capacity often acted independently of the king, most notably in the last days of the kingdom.

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 the counts, who were in turn responsible 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 dukes 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 away from their duchies. The dukes were the highest ranking officials in the realm, were more typically Franks than the counts (who were often Gallo-Romans), and formed the class from which the kings' generals were drawn in times of war. The dukes gathered every May with the king to converse on policy for the upcoming year, the so-called Mayfield.

In Burgundy and Provence, the titles of patrician and prefect were commonly employed in preference to 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 in the chronicles. Thus, in Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the grade of duke was retained as supreme territorial magnate after the king.

Late medieval times

The Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337. He was the first proper Duke to be created by a King of England. To celebrate this event six new Earls were created. In the Patent creating the new Earl of Salisbury, on 16 March 1337, the King refers also to this higher Honour as: "willing more securely to establish the Royal sceptre as well as by the addition of new honours as by the restoration of old ones, and to augment the number of nobles by whose counsels our realm may be directed in doubtful, and by whose suffrages be supported in adverse circumstances, have advanced our most dear first begotten Edward (whom in the prerogative of honour as is meet, we have caused to have precedence of others) to be Duke of Cornwall, over which awhile ago Dukes for a long time successively sided as chief rulers..."

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.

• List of dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
• List of dukes in the peerages of the British Isles

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 Cordoba 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. 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 is one duke and three duchesses. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to four 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 crown and anoint 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 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 Normandy or duc de Normandie (holds the first square banner)
• Duke of Aquitaine or duc d'Aquitaine or - de Guyenne (holds the second square banner)

It should be noted what 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 souvereign dukes. Also, in Germany in many ducial family ever agnate would bear the ducial title of the family as a courtesy title.

In Italy some important souvereign 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 ducial families were the Wittelsbachs in Bavaria, the Welfs in Hannover, the ducial 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 souvereign ducial families.

Elsewhere in Europe

Nordic countries

• In Denmark, the longest-surviving duchy being 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 joint as the German federation's Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein.
• duchies of Laland, Halland, Jutland, Reval, and Osilia.
• In Sweden, medieval duchies of Finland, Södermanland, Skåne, and Halland, and in modern times almost every province.

Hungary

In the Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as appanage. 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

• the Duchy of Nitra
• the Duchy of Bihar
• the Duchy of Slavonia, or whole Slavonia (consisted to be Slavonia and Croatia).
• the Duchy of Transylvania (consisted of the voivodship of Transylvania and some other counties)

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), while 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, some of which were of ducal rank:

• duchy of Athens, to which duchy of Neopatras (in Thessaly) was later linked
• the Aegean insular duchy of Naxos, more officially "Duchy of the Archipelago"
• duchy of Negroponte, i.e. the Aegean island of Euboia.

Byzantines had used the title Dux, still a military office for them, also territory-specifically: Dux of Dyrrhachium, Dux of Thrakesion.

Palaiologos emperors, living under much more feudalized necessities, granted fiefs to some westerners: Duke of Leucadia, Duke of Lemnos.

Sometimes in Italy and other Western countries, the later Byzantine appanages were translated as duchies: Peloponnese, Mistra, Mesembria, Selymbria and Thessalonike. However, as these had Greek holders, they were titled Archon ('magistrate') or Despotes (rather Prince of the blood).

After Greece's post-Ottoman independence as kingdom of the Hellenes, the style of Duke of Sparta was instituted as primogeniture for the royal heir, diadochos, 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 splintered Poland, also in (later ethnically German parts of) Silesia (later within the HRE), petty principalities generally ruled by branches of the earlier Polish Piast dynasty are regarded as duchies in translated titulary. Examples of such: Kujavia, Masovia, Sandomir, Greater Poland, Kalisz and Silesia (Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia), as well as various minor duchies, often short-lived and/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 and/or German forms) Cracow, Opole, Ratibor, Legnica, Zator, 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.

Netherlands

After Belgium and the Netherlands separated in 1830, the title of duke didn't occur in the Netherlands anymore. 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, after separation ruled by a branch of the Portuguese royal dynasty (House of Bragança), only three dukedoms were created, being its highest ranks for non-members of the imperial dynasty. Two of these titles were for relatives of D. Peter I: an illegitimate daughter and a brother-in-law who received the title when married with D. Peter's daughter D. Mary II. The third, to the most important Brazilian military man, de Lima e Silva, was the only duke created during the reign of D. Peter II. A fourth title was created for another illegitimate daughter of D. Peter I, but she died before receiving the title (and so it is often disconsidered). 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.

Equivalents

Like other major Western noble titles, Duke is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-western languages with their own traditions, even though they are as a rule etymologically and often historically unrelated and thus hard to compare, which are considered roughly equivalent, especially in hierarchic aristocracies such as feudal Japan, useful as an indication of relative rank.

See also

• List of Dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
• List of dukes in the peerages of the British Isles
• Duchy of Amalfi
• Duchy of Gaeta
• Duchy of Naples
• Archduke

Notes

References

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