List of dukes in Europe


The following is a list of historic dukedoms in Europe:

Austria

The Austrian lands:
The Habsburg dukes came to style themselves Archdukes.
ArmsTitleDate of creationCreating sovereignCurrent holderNotes
Duchess of Hohenberg4 October 1909Franz Josef I of Austriacreated for Sophie, Princess of Hohenberg
Duke of Hohenberg31 August 1917Karl I of AustriaGeorg, Duke of Hohenbergcreated for Prince Max of Hohenberg

Bohemia

The Czech lands:
The Duchy of Bohemia became Kingdom of Bohemia in 1212.

Germany

Although the titled aristocracy of Germany no longer holds a legal rank, nearly all ducal families in Germany continued to be treated as dynastic 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 :

On the Baltic south coast

The Low countries (Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg)

ArmsTitleDate of creationDucal HouseCurrent holderNotes
Duke of Brabant1183Belgian Royal Family
Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant
Duke of Arenberg
Duke of Aarschot		6 June 1644
1 April 1533		House of ArenbergLéopold, 13th Duke of Arenberg
Duke of Beaufort-Spontin2 December 1782Beaufort-SpontinFriedrich Christian, 7th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin
Duke of Croÿ18 July 1598House of CroÿRudolf, 15th Duke of Croÿ
Duke of Looz-Corswarem24 December 1734Looz-CorswaremThierry, 11th Duke of Looz-Corswarem
Duke of Ursel19 August 1716House of UrselStéphane, 10th Duke d'Ursel

Italy

Kingdom of the Lombards

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.

Exarchate of Ravenna

In the same period also many Italian territories under Byzantine suzerainty 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.

Kingdom of Italy (medieval)

Since 1395 the major Signorias of the Kingdom of Italy 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.

Papal States

Also the Pope created some sovereign duchy during the Renaissance, notably:

Kingdom of Naples

In the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Sora 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.

Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)

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', a college nearly comparable in status to the original anciennes pairies in the French kingdom. Since Napoleon 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 ; 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.