duke
[dook, dyook]
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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(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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(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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(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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Duke Ellington.
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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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Duke Ellington.
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(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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Dux (plural: duces) is Latin for leader (from the verb ducere, 'to lead') and could refer to anyone who commanded troops, such as tribal leaders.
Roman empire
In the Roman military, a Dux would be a general in charge of two or more legions. While the title of dux could refer to a Consul or Imperator, it usually refers to the Roman Governor of the provinces. As the governor, the dux was both the highest civil official as well as the commander-in-chief of the legions garrisoned within the province.However, during the time of the Dominate, the powers as a dux were split from the role of the governor and were given to a new office called "Dux". The dux was still the highest military office within the province and commanded the legions, but the governor had to authorise the use of the dux's powers. But once authorised, the dux could act independently from the governor and handled all military matters. An example would be the Dux per Gallia Belgica which was the Dux of the province of Gallia Belgica.
Since Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform, the provinces were organized into dioceses each administered by a Vicarius. As with the Governors, the Vicarius was assisted by a Dux. This Dux was superior to all of other Duces within the dioceses and when the Vicarius called the legions of the dioceses into action, all of the legions were at the Dux's command. An example would be the Dux per Gallia which was the Dux of the Dioceses of Gaul. The office of Dux was, in turn, made subject to the Magister Militum of his respective Praetorian prefecture, and above him to the Emperor.
In the Byzantine Empire, the position of Megas Doux survived until the final Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Post-Roman uses
King Arthur, in one of his earliest literary appearances, is described as dux bellorum ("dux of battles") among the kings of the Romano-Britons in their wars against the Anglo-Saxons.Dux is also the root of various high feudal noble titles of peerage rank, such as (via the French duc) the English duke, the Venetian doge and Italian duca and duce and the modern Greek ducas (δούκας).
In schools in Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Iceland, Dux is a modern title given to the top student in academic and sporting achievement (Dux Litterarum and Dux Ludorum respectively) in each graduating year. In this usage, Dux is similar to the American concept of a valedictorian. The runner up may be given the title Proxime Accessit (meaning "he came next") or Semidux.
Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini used the title of Dux (and Duce in Italian) to represent his leadership.
In music theory, specifically in counterpoint, the subject of a fugue is sometimes referred to as the dux (and the countersubject by the Latin word for companion, comes).
Sources and references
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Last updated on Saturday September 13, 2008 at 03:12:59 PDT (GMT -0700)
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