The story of the nobility: Dukes Are the main titles of the British nobility divided into five types: dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, so what do each noble title mean? their

The Story of the Nobility: What is the Duke

The main titles of the British nobility are divided into five types: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, so what does each noble title mean? What are their origins and meanings?

Let's start with the Duke. The duke was the title of nobility second only to the prince, which literally meant "leader", and it had become a formal military official position as early as the third century under the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, when the title of duke was usually awarded to high-ranking officers who had distinguished themselves in battle.

In 970 AD, in Germany, Otto I began to establish the dukehood, and the Frankish kings followed suit, and Europe began to appear a "grand duke" of the lord of a "kingdom", which was called the "Grand Duchy".

To this day, there are still such countries, such as Luxembourg, which is a grand duchy with a constitutional monarchy, and the head of state is not the king, but the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, of course, of similar nature.

In England, the earliest dukes appeared later than the European continent, he was Edward the Black Prince, duke of Cornwall, in 1337, but the act of canonizing dukes in England was not to imitate Germany, because since the Norman conquest, the English king originally had the title of "Duke of Normandy", and the king certainly did not want to give the title of duke to others, which meant that it was equal and inappropriate.

In 1351 Henry of Lancaster became the first duke in English history not to be a royal patriarch, and in 1362 Edward III crowned his sons Lionel and John as Duke of Clarence and Lancaster, and both held a grand ceremony.

After the 14th century, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Hereford, the Duke of Beitford, the Duke of Samosett, the Duke of Norfolk, etc. were all canonized, and the corresponding ducal territories were established.

Compared with the European continent, the Duke of England is very different, he is not the lord of a "country", just as a most honorable title after the prince, they are all relatives of the king, and they have fiefs, as the dukes become more and more feudal, they begin to be dissatisfied with each other, fighting for power and profit, laying the foundation for civil unrest, the Red and White Rose War is an example.

Due to the lack of independence of the British Duchy, it was difficult to serve as the basis for a self-reliant Confederation, prompting Britain to become a unified nation-state in the history of the world at an early stage.