A duchy , also called a dukedom , is a country , territory, fief , or domain ruled by a duke or duchess , a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition.
61-455: Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy , or of a member of royalty , or nobility . As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes , grand dukes , and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked below princes and grand dukes. The title comes from French duc , itself from the Latin dux , 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to
122-400: 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
183-521: A fief of Denmark and Holstein being a fief of the Holy Roman Empire . 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. 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
244-647: 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 thirty-five dukedoms in
305-526: A military commander without an official rank (particularly one of Germanic or Celtic 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 Diocletian (which separated the civilian and military administrations of the Roman provinces), a dux became the military commander in each province. The title dux , Hellenised to doux , survived in
366-543: 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
427-604: Is derived from the Privy Purse (an embroidered bag borne by the Keeper at a coronation) which contrasts with his Department's present-day use of computers and up-to-date accounting procedures. He manages the revenues which come from the Duchy of Lancaster. The Privy Purse meets both official expenditure incurred by The King as sovereign and private expenditure. In recent years, the office of Keeper has been held jointly with that of Treasurer to
488-560: Is meant as the duke's private property, with no other feudal privileges attached. At present, all independent (i.e., sovereign ) duchies have disappeared. The following duchies were part of the medieval Kingdom of Italy, which itself was part of the Holy Roman Empire: All provinces of Sweden have the right to have a ducal coronet in their arms. The king gives princes and princesses ducal titles of them. The current such royal duchies are: Privy Purse The Privy Purse
549-738: Is organised into the Lancashire Survey, the Yorkshire Survey, the Crewe Survey, the Needwood Estate and the South Survey. The sovereign is not entitled to the Duchy's capital, but the net revenues of the Duchy are the property of the sovereign in right of the Duchy of Lancaster . While the income is private, the King uses the larger part of it to meet official expenses incurred by other members of
610-462: Is the British sovereign 's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster . This amounted to £20.1 million in net income for the year to 31 March 2018. The Duchy is a landed estate of approximately 46,000 acres (200 square kilometres) held in trust for the sovereign since 1399. It also has 190 miles (310 kilometres) of foreshore . The Duchy was valued at approximately £533 million in 2018. The land
671-473: The British royal family . Only the King receives payments from Parliament that are not reimbursed by the King. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster , who is the equivalent of the chairman of the trustees, has for the past several centuries always been a Government minister, although this is not a requirement. The Keeper of the Privy Purse looks after the sovereign's personal financial affairs. His title
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#1732837794805732-545: 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, 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
793-573: The Eastern Roman Empire where it continued in several contexts, signifying a rank equivalent to a captain or general. Later on, in the 11th century, the title Megas Doux was introduced for the post of commander-in-chief of the entire navy. During the Middle Ages the title (as Herzog ) signified first among the Germanic monarchies . Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of
854-582: The House of York , which later fought for the throne with John of Gaunt's Lancastrian descendants during the Wars of the Roses . By 1483, a total of 16 ducal titles had been created: Cornwall, Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester, York, Ireland , Hereford , Aumale , Exeter , Surrey , Norfolk , Bedford , Somerset , Buckingham , Warwick and Suffolk . Some became extinct, others had multiple creations, and some had merged with
915-562: The Peerage of England , Peerage of Scotland , Peerage of Great Britain , Peerage of Ireland and Peerage of the United Kingdom , held by thirty different people, as three people hold two dukedoms and two hold three (see List of dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland ). All dukedoms in the UK apart from the Duchy of Lancaster are inherited through the male line only, although dukedoms such as Marlborough and Fife (second creation) have passed through
976-545: The counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies , the highest-ranking peers of the king. A duke may or may not be, ipso facto , a member of the nation's peerage : in the United Kingdom and Spain all dukes are/were also peers of the realm, in France some were and some were not, while the term is not applicable to dukedoms of other nations, even where an institution similar to the peerage (e.g. Grandeeship , Imperial Diet , Hungarian House of Magnates ) existed. During
1037-516: 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 Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , there are no dukes ruling as monarchs. Duke remains the highest hereditary title (aside from titles borne by a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty) in Portugal (though now a republic), Spain, and the United Kingdom. In Sweden, members of
1098-557: 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 ,
1159-562: The Belgian crown), such as Count of Flanders ( King Leopold III 's so-titled brother Charles 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. King Albert II until he succeeded his older brother Baudouin I ). When the Christian Reconquista , sweeping the Moors from
1220-457: 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 . In Scotland, the male heir apparent to the British crown
1281-622: The King , who is responsible for the use of the Civil List , funds used to meet official expenditure relating to the King's duties as Head of State . He also oversees the grant-in-aid from the Royal Household for the maintenance of the occupied Royal Palaces and for royal travel. He is also responsible for the property maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces (such as Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace ) and their gardens, for
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#17328377948051342-643: The Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York made a successful entry into the City of York, by merely claiming no harm and that it was his right to possess "his duchy of York." Any feudal duchies that made up the patchwork of England have since been absorbed into the Royal Family. Other than Cornwall and Lancaster, British royal dukedoms are titular and do not include landholdings. Non-royal dukedoms are associated with ducal property, but this
1403-566: 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. In Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the highest political rank beneath that of king was ealdorman , and
1464-522: The crown upon the holder's accession to the throne. When the Plantagenet dynasty came to an end at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, only four ducal titles remained extant, of which two were now permanently associated with the crown. John de la Pole was Duke of Suffolk and John Howard was Duke of Norfolk (2nd creation), while the duchy of Cornwall was reserved as a title and source of income for
1525-493: 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. In the United Kingdom, a royal duke is a duke who is a member of the British royal family , entitled to the style of " His Royal Highness ". Ducal titles which have been given within
1586-471: The death of the Black Prince, the duchy of Cornwall passed to his nine-year-old son, who would eventually succeed his grandfather as Richard II . The title of Duke of Lancaster was created by Edward III in 1351 for Henry of Grosmont , but became extinct upon the duke's death in 1361. The following year, Edward III bestowed the title (2nd creation) on his fourth son, John of Gaunt , who was also married to
1647-522: The duchy of Holstein , in personal union with the Danish crown, was nonetheless always a German principality. The two duchies jointly became a member of the German Bundesland as " Schleswig-Holstein " in the 19th century. 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
1708-432: 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. The Franks employed dukes as the governors of Roman provinces, though they also led military expeditions far from their duchies. The dukes were
1769-584: The dukes, who called up the thiufae when necessary. 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
1830-530: The eldest son of the sovereign, and the duchy of Lancaster was now held by the monarch. Norfolk perished alongside Richard III at Bosworth field, and the title was forfeit. It was restored to his son Thomas thirty years later by Henry VIII , as one of a number of dukes created or recreated by the Tudor dynasty over the ensuing century. England's premier ducal title, Norfolk, remains in the Howard family to this day. In
1891-419: The female line for one generation under terms of a special remainder for lack of male heirs of the initial grantee. Henrietta, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough and Her Highness Princess Alexandra (HRH Princess Arthur of Connaught), 2nd Duchess of Fife were duchesses in their own right. Both were succeeded in their titles by nephews born by younger sisters of the duchesses. The word duchess is normally only used for
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1952-530: The financial aspects of royal travel, for personnel matters in the Royal Household, for the King's private estates (which include Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House ) and for the commercial activities of the Royal Collection Trust (for which annual accounts are published). In the past, Great Britain 's civil government day-to-day costs were paid for by the sovereign under normal circumstances,
2013-435: The first duke's daughter. On the same day Edward III also created his second son, Lionel of Antwerp , as Duke of Clarence . 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. Thomas of Woodstock was named Duke of Gloucester and Edmund of Langley became Duke of York , thereby founding
2074-594: The first ealdormen were referred to as duces (the plural of the original Latin dux ) in the chronicles. The title ealdorman was replaced by the Danish eorl (later earl ) over time. After the Norman conquest , their power and regional jurisdiction was limited to that of the Norman counts . Edward III of England created the first English dukedom by naming his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince , as Duke of Cornwall in 1337. Upon
2135-407: The former Caliphate of Córdoba 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. In Portugal,
2196-664: The greater Romanization of those provinces. But the titles 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. The stem duchies were
2257-636: The hereditary revenues (principally the net surplus of the Crown Estate) by the king for the duration of the reign. In this system, Parliament was responsible for the finances of the state, including paying the Crown the Civil List allowance to meet the sovereign's official expenses. In the fiscal year 2007/2008, the Crown Estate paid the Treasury £211.0 million in return for £7.9 million in Civil List payments to
2318-449: 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 Burgundy and Provence , the titles of patrician and prefect were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to
2379-470: 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. 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
2440-470: 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
2501-502: 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
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2562-585: The modern era, such as happened in Germany (once a federal empire) and Italy (previously a unified kingdom). In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that had unified either partially or completely during the medieval era, such as France, Spain, Sicily, Naples, and the Papal States. In France, several duchies existed in the medieval period, including Normandy , Burgundy , Brittany , and Aquitaine . The medieval German stem duchies ( German : Stammesherzogtum , literally "tribal duchy,"
2623-507: The monies in this Public Purse being raised from the income of the Crown Estate lands and holdings. Under extraordinary circumstances, namely in time of war or during budget shortfalls, Parliament raised additional monies through taxation . The system was to a large degree self-funding through the Crown's large holdings, taxes being applied only when necessary, and almost always at the risk of public outcry. Taxes were normally very low, and
2684-479: The necessity to go to Parliament to fund wars was an effective check on the monarch's power. As the role of the government increased in the 18th century, the Public Purse was increasingly unable to raise enough to fund the development of the country. In 1760 when George III came to the throne, it was decided that the whole cost of civil government should be provided by Parliament, with the Crown surrendering most of
2745-614: The official title of its ruler being Herzog or "duke") were associated with the Frankish Kingdom and corresponded with the areas of settlement of the major Germanic tribes . They formed the nuclei of the major feudal states that comprised the early era of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (961–1806; in German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation ). These were Schwaben (Swabia, mainly
2806-460: The present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg), Bayern (Bavaria), and Sachsen (Saxony) in pre-Carolingian times, to which Franken (Franconia, at present the northern part of the German state of Bavaria) and Lothringen (Lorraine, nowadays mostly part of France) were added in post-Carolingian times. As mentioned above, such a duke was styled Herzog (literally "the one who is leading [the troops]"). In medieval England, duchies associated with
2867-463: The rights to the diminished Kingdom of Albania . John took the style of Duke of Durazzo . In 1368, Durazzo fell to Karl Thopia , who was recognized by Venice as Prince of Albania . 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 most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected
2928-456: The royal family are given a personal dukedom at birth. The Pope, as a temporal sovereign, has also, though rarely, granted the title of duke or duchess to persons for services to the Holy See . In some realms the relative status of "duke" and "prince", as titles borne by the nobility rather than by members of reigning dynasties, varied—e.g., in Italy and Germany. A woman who holds in her own right
2989-398: 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 . Following his abdication in 1936 the former King Edward VIII
3050-519: The same purpose in Lolland and Halland . After the accession to the throne of Christian I , a complex system of appanages were created for male-line descendants of the king, being granted non-sovereign ducal titles in both Schleswig and Holstein , e.g. Duke of Gottorp , Duke of Sønderborg, Duke of Augustenborg , Duke of Franzhagen, Duke of Beck, Duke of Glücksburg and Duke of Nordborg. This arrangement occurred in both territories despite Schleswig being
3111-483: The territories of Lancashire and Cornwall were created, with certain powers and estates of land accruing to their dukes. The Duchy of Lancaster was created in 1351 but became merged with the Crown when, in 1399, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, ascended the throne of England as Henry IV . Nowadays, the Duchy of Lancaster always belongs to the sovereign and its revenue is the Privy Purse . The Duchy of Cornwall
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#17328377948053172-592: 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." During the Middle Ages , after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed,
3233-504: 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. The Northern European duchies of Halland , Jutland , Lolland , Osilia and Reval existed in the Middle Ages. The longest-surviving duchy was Schleswig , i.e., Sonderjylland (a portion of which later became part of Germany). Its southern neighbor,
3294-401: The title of duke was granted for the first time in 1415 to infante Peter and infante Henry , the second and third sons of king John I , following their participation in the successful Conquest of Ceuta . Pedro became the first Duke of Coimbra and Henry the first Duke of Viseu . From the reign of king Manuel I , the title of Duke of Beja was given to the second son of the monarch. This
3355-533: The title to such duchy or dukedom, or is married to a duke, is normally styled duchess. Queen Elizabeth II , however, was known by tradition as Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands and Duke of Lancaster in Lancashire. A duchy is the territory or geopolitical entity ruled by a duke, whereas his title or area is often called a dukedom. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a fully independent state and its head,
3416-582: The title was still employed in the Germanic kingdoms, usually to refer to the rulers of old Roman provinces. The Venetians installed a "Duke of Durazzo" (today Durrës ) during their brief rule over the city and its environs in 1205–1213. In 1332, Robert of Taranto succeeded his father, Philip . Robert's uncle, John , did not wish to do him homage for the Principality of Achaea , so Robert received Achaea from John in exchange for 5,000 ounces of gold and
3477-571: 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. 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
3538-456: 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: Usually, the title of duke was granted to relatives of the royal family, such as
3599-443: Was created in 1337 and held successively by the Dukes of Cornwall, who were also heirs to the throne. Nowadays, the Duchy of Cornwall belongs to the sovereign's heir apparent , if there is one: it reverts to the Crown in the absence of an heir apparent and is automatically conferred to the heir apparent upon birth. These duchies today have mostly lost any non-ceremonial political role, but generate their holders' private income. During
3660-641: 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 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. Duchy There once existed an important difference between "sovereign dukes" and dukes who were ordinary noblemen throughout Europe. Some historic duchies were sovereign in areas that would become part of nation-states only during
3721-469: Was given the title Duke of Windsor . There are also non-royal dukes in the United Kingdom. In Belgium , the title of Duke of Brabant (historically the most prestigious in the Low Countries , and containing the federal capital Brussels ) is awarded to the heir apparent of the monarch, other dynasts receiving various lower historical titles (much older than Belgium, and in principle never fallen to
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