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The following is a list of historic dukedoms in Europe:
The Austrian lands:
The Habsburg dukes came to style themselves Archdukes.
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Creating sovereign | Current holder | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duchess of Hohenberg | 4 October 1909 | Franz Josef I of Austria | created for Sophie, Princess of Hohenberg (for life, extinct in 1914) | |
![]() | Duke of Hohenberg | 31 August 1917 | Karl I of Austria | Georg, Duke of Hohenberg | created for Prince Max of Hohenberg (hereditary in the primogeniture) |
The Czech lands:
The Duchy of Bohemia became Kingdom of Bohemia in 1212.
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Creating sovereign | Current holder | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Dukes of Uzès | February 1572 | Charles IX of France | Jacques de Crussol d'Uzès | |
![]() | Duchy of Montbazon | May 1588 | Henry III of France | Albert Marie de Rohan-Rochefort | |
![]() | Duke of Rohan | 7 August 1603 | Henry IV of France | Josselin de Rohan | |
![]() | Duke of Brissac | 13 April 1611 | Louis XIII of France | Charles-André de Cossé-Brissac, 14th Duke of Brissac | |
![]() | Duke of Luynes | 22 August 1619 | Louis XIII of France | Philippe d'Albert, 13th duc de Luynes | |
![]() | Duke of Chevreuse Duke of Chaulnes | 1545 1621 | Francis I of France Louis XIII of France | Jacques François Marie Raymond d'Albert de Luynes, 13th duc de Chaulnes | |
![]() | Duke of La Force | 3 August 1637 | Louis XIII of France | Henri Jacques Nompar de Caumont La Force | |
![]() | Duke of Estrées | 1663 | Louis XIV of France | Armand-Sosthènes de La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville | |
![]() | Duke of Noailles Dukes of Ayen | 1663 1737 | Louis XIV of France Louis XV of France | Hélie Marie Auguste Jacques Bertrand Philippe de Noailles, 10th Duke of Noailles | |
![]() | Duke of Broglie | 11 June 1742 | Louis XV of France | Philippe-Maurice, 9th duc de Broglie | |
![]() | Duke of Montebello | 19 March 1808 | Napoleon I of France | Maurice Georges Antoine Marie Lannes, 7th Duke of Montebello | |
![]() | Dukes of Magenta | 5 June 1859 | Napoleon III of France | Maurice Marie Patrick Bacchus Humphrey de MacMahon, 5th Duc de Magenta |
Although the titled aristocracy of Germany no longer holds a legal rank, nearly all ducal families in Germany continued to be treated as dynastic (i.e., "royalty") for marital and genealogical purposes after 1918. Some maintain dynastic traditions that are reflected in roles they still play in high society networks, philanthropy and Germany's version of local "squirearchy" visibility.
At first, the highest nobles – de facto equal to kings and emperors – were the Dukes of the stem duchies:
Later, the precedence shifted to the prince-electors, the first order amongst the princes of the empire, regardless of the actual title attached to the fief. This college originally included only one Duke, the Duke of Saxony. The ducal title, however, was not limited by primogeniture in the post-medieval era. All descendants in the male line, including females, shared the original title, but each male added as a suffix the name of his inherited domain to distinguish his line from that of other branches. From the 19th century, some cadets of the kingly houses of Bavaria and Württemberg, and all those of the grand-ducal houses of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Oldenburg, took the ducal prefix as their primary style instead of that of Prince (Prinz).
There were many other duchies, some of them insignificant petty states (Kleinstaaterei):
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Ducal House | Current pretender | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duke of Saxe-Meiningen | 30 August 1680 | House of Wettin | Konrad, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen | |
![]() | Duke of Brunswick | 22 December 1813 | House of Hanover | Prince Ernst August of Hanover | |
![]() | Duke of Saxe-Altenburg | 12 November 1826 | House of Wettin | none | extinct in 1991 |
![]() | Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | 12 November 1826 | House of Wettin | Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |
![]() | Duke of Anhalt | 30 August 1863 | House of Ascania | Eduard, Prince of Anhalt |
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Ducal House | Current holder | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duke of Leuchtenberg | 14 November 1817 | House of Beauharnais | none | extinct in 1974 |
![]() | Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg | 6 July 1825 | House of Glücksburg | Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein | |
![]() | Duke of Ratibor | 15 October 1840 | House of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst | Viktor Metternich-Sándor, 5th Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey | |
![]() | Duke of Ujest | 18 October 1861 | House of Hohenlohe-Oehringen | Kraft, 5th Duke of Ujest and Prince of Hohenlohe-Oehringen | |
![]() | Duke of Urach | 28 March 1867 | House of Urach | Wilhelm Albert, 5th Duke of Urach | |
![]() | Duke of Wörth-Donaustauf | 8 May 1899 | House of Thurn and Taxis | Albert, 5th Duke of Wörth-Donaustauf and Prince Thurn and Taxis | |
![]() | Duke of Trachenberg | 1 January 1900 | House of Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg | Sebastian, 5th Duke of Trachenberg and Prince of Hatzfeldt | |
![]() | Duke of Pless | 20 December 1905 | House of Hochberg | none | a life peerage |
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Ducal House | Current holder | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duke of Brabant | 1183 | Belgian Royal Family (Crown Prince(ss) of Belgium) | Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant | |
![]() | Duke of Arenberg Duke of Aarschot | 6 June 1644 1 April 1533 | House of Arenberg | Léopold, 13th Duke of Arenberg | |
![]() | Duke of Beaufort-Spontin | 2 December 1782 | Beaufort-Spontin | Friedrich Christian, 7th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin | |
![]() | Duke of Croÿ | 18 July 1598 | House of Croÿ | Rudolf, 15th Duke of Croÿ | |
![]() | Duke of Looz-Corswarem | 24 December 1734 | Looz-Corswarem | Thierry, 11th Duke of Looz-Corswarem | |
![]() | Duke of Ursel | 19 August 1716 | House of Ursel | Stéphane, 10th Duke d'Ursel |
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Ducal House | Current pretender | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duke of Sparta | 29 September 1868 | Greek Royal Family (Constantine I of Greece) | none |
The Kingdom of the Lombards was divided in several duchies, as follows:
They have been suppressed or transformed in counties as consequence of the Frankish conquest of the Kingdom in 776. Only the two southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento were spared and survived some centuries.
In the same period (the Early Middle Ages) also many Italian territories under Byzantine suzerainty (in the Exarchate of Ravenna) were organized in duchies, and notably the following ones:
The first four were Tyrrhenian port cities and survived as semi-autonomous states until the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Duchy of Rome was transformed in the Papal State as consequence of the Donation of Sutri in 728. The Duchy of Venice became the Republic of Venice and its head of state retained the title of doge, equivalent to that of duke.
In 1059 Robert Guiscard, head of the Norman House of Hauteville, was created by the Pope Duke of Apulia and Calabria. When the State was raised to Kingdom of Sicily in 1180, the title of Duke of Apulia and Calabria was used intermittently for the heir to throne.
Since 1395 the major Signorias of the Kingdom of Italy (which was part of the Holy Roman Empire) began to be raised to Dukedoms by the Emperor. By the centuries more and more Dukedoms were created in this way and they became de facto sovereign states. The Duchies created after 1395 were the following ones:
The Duchy of Savoy, though it was not an Italian state, had suzerainty on Piedmont.[1]
Also the Pope created some sovereign duchy during the Renaissance, notably:
In the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Sora[2] was a semi-autonomous fiefdom.
In the Papal states and in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily the Pope and the king, respectively, granted the title of duke as the second rank of nobility, just inferior to that of prince. These dukes, however, always remained vassals.
They include:
Since 1081 the Duchies of Benevento and Pontecorvo had been two among the Papal states, and, in fact, no duke was appointed.
A unique Napoleonic particularity was the creation by decree of 30 March 1806 of a number of duchés grand-fiefs. As the name suggests, these were duchies, but forming an exclusive order of 'great fiefs' (twenty among some 2200 noble title creations), a college nearly comparable in status to the original anciennes pairies in the French kingdom. Since Napoleon I would not go back on the Revolution's policy of abolishing feudalism in France, but did not want these grandees to fall under the 'majorat' system in France either, he chose to create them outside the French "metropolitan" empire, notably in the following Italian satellite states, and yet all awarded to loyal Frenchmen, mainly high military officers:
In the Kingdom of Italy, in personal union with France, personally held by Napoleon I:
In the Principality of Lucca and Piombino, only Massa et Carrara: for Régnier, judge (extinguished 1962); Massa and Carrara were separated from the kingdom of Italy by article 8 of the decree of March 30, 1806 and united to the principality of Lucca-Piombino by another decree of March 30, 1806.
In the Kingdom of Naples :
In the states of Parma and Piacenza, ceded to France by the treaty of Aranjuez of 21 March 1801, shortly before both territories were united to the French Empire on 24 May 1808:
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna created the last Italian sovereign duchy, the Duchy of Lucca.
Arms | Title | Date of creation | Ducal House | Current holder | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Duke of Otranto | 1808 | Fouché | Charles-Louis Armand Fouché d'Otrante, 8th Duke of Otrante | Napoleonic nobility, Swedish unintroduced nobility |
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