During the
Middle Ages, after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed, the title was still employed in the Germanic kingdoms, usually to refer to the rulers of old Roman provinces.
Albania 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 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.
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 most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected 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 the dukes, who called up the
thiufae when necessary.
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, 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 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.
Franks In the
Frankish kingdom, duke was a title given to an official in temporary command over a group of counts, rather than over a fixed region. Their functions were primarily military, and they led armed forces in times of war. Although their principal duties were military, dukes occasionally supervised counts, served in a judicial capacity, and acted as ambassadors. Unlike in Roman times, dukes were ultimately considered superior in rank to counts. Dukes were typically Frankish, whereas counts were often Gallo-Roman. Dukes met with the king every May to discuss policy for the upcoming year, in what was known as the Mayfield. In
Burgundy and
Provence, the titles of
patrician and
prefect were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to 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.
Holy Roman Empire Stem duchies The stem duchies were 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.
England Anglo-Saxon times In Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the highest political rank beneath that of king was
ealdorman, and 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.
Late medieval times 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 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 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 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 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 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. == Modern age ==