(equivalent) dignities of patricius, or “patrician,” and rector and above that of comes, or
“count.”
Like the patriciate and rectorate, the ducal dignity was suppressed under the first
Carolingians, but the title dux was informally revived in the usage of the classicizing
historians of the 9th century as one of several designations for the counts placed in
command of the military forces of one of the border districts, or “marches,” which like
the former ducal commands were composed of several adjacent pagi, or counties—the
successors of the former civitates. In the 10th century, “duke” was adopted in west
Francia as a formal title of dignity by the rulers not only of these marches but of several
similar groupings of counties formed within the kingdom with or without the consent of
the king. Most of these new ducatus, or “duchies,” had some sort of relationship to one of
the principal ethnic groups within the kingdom, and all of them rapidly evolved into
hereditary and effectively independent principalities: Francia, Burgundy, Normandy,
Brittany, Gascony, Aquitaine, and Gothia. In most of these districts, however, “duke”
continued to be used in random combination and alternation with “prince,” “marquis,”
and “count” until the end of the 11th century, when the great princes finally began to
settle on either “duke” or “count” as the exclusive expression of their authority (again in
the process of redefinition) within each of their dominions. By 1120, only the lords of
Burgundy, Normandy, Aquitaine, Gothia (renamed Narbonne), and Brittany retained the
title “duke” (Occitan duc, OFr. dus or duc). In the same period, the jurisdictional title
“duchy” (Occitan ducat, OFr. duchié, duché) came to be definitively attached to all but
the last of these principalities, Brittany, whose lords continued to employ the alternative
title “count” until 1280 and were not recognized as dukes by the royal chancery until
- The feminine title “duchess” (Lat. ducissa, Occitan duquesa, OFr. duchesse or
duchoise) was first employed in France by Eleanor of Aquitaine ca. 1150 and after 1200
was normally used by the wives, widows, and heiresses of dukes, who had previously
(since ca. 900) borne the title “countess.”
After 987, duke was always regarded as the highest-ranking dominical dignity in
France after that of king, and when the peerage of France was created in the early 13th
century the rulers of all four of the recognized duchies were included among the twelve
peers. Indeed, from 1202 to 1498 all strictly French dukes were also peers and all wholly
French duchies were peerages of France. The barony of Bourbon was made a duchy and
peerage by Charles IV in December 1327. Nine further duchies were erected in a similar
way before 1500: Orléans in 1344; Anjou, Berry, Auvergne, and Touraine in 1360;
Nemours in 1404; Valois in 1406; Alençon in 1415; and Valentinois in 1498.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: COUNT/COUNTY; KNIGHTHOOD; NOBILITY; PEER/PEERAGE]
Boulton, D’A. Jonathan D. Grants of Honour: The Origins of the System of Nobiliary Dignities of
Traditional France, ca. 1100–1515. Forthcoming.
Kienast, Walther. Der Herzogstitel in Frankreich und Deutschland (9. bis 12. Jahrhundert).
Munich: Oldenbourg, 1968.
Lewis, Archibald R. “The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, AD 550–751.” Speculum
51(1976):381–410.
The Encyclopedia 587