Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European

hereditary title Hereditary titles, in a general sense, are nobility titles, positions or styles that are hereditary and thus tend or are bound to remain in particular families. Though both monarchs and nobles usually inherit their titles, the mechanisms often d ...

, used either by certain

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

s or by members of certain monarchs' families. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly: * in present-day

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, the last surviving Grand Duchy * historically by the sovereigns of former independent countries, such as

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

(from 1569 to 1860, now part of Italy) * in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, Oldenburg,

Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin () was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick II divided ...

Mecklenburg-Strelitz The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy in Northern Germany consisting of the eastern fifth of the historic Mecklenburg region, roughly corresponding with the present-day Mecklenburg-Strelitz district (the former Lordship of Stargard) ...

and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (officially simply the Grand Duchy of Saxony) – grand duchies from 1815 to 1918, and all now part of Germany * formerly also in some countries in

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

, such as the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

or the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

* currently by claimants to the Russian Imperial Throne (eg. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia)

Western and Central European

The term ''grand duke'' as a monarch reigning over an independent state was a later invention (in Western Europe at first in 1569 for the ruler of

) to denote either a particularly mighty duke or a monarchy playing an important political, military and/or economic role. It arose because the title of

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

had gradually lost status and precedence during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

by having been granted to rulers of relatively small

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

s (feudal territories), instead of the large tribal regions or even national territories to which the title was once attached. One of the first examples occurred when Count Gonçalo I Mendes of Portucale (in northwest Portugal and considered as that country's original nucleus) took, in 987, the personal title of ("Grand Duke of the Portuguese") and rebelled against his feudal lord, King

Bermudo II of León Bermudo (or Vermudo) II (c. 953 – September 999), called the Gouty (), was first a rival king in Galicia (982–984) and then king of the entire Kingdom of León (984–999). His reign is summed up by Justo Pérez de Urbel's description of h ...

. He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a (Grand Duke), leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes (legally dukes) of

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

in the 15th century, when they ruled most of present-day northeastern France as well as almost the entire Low Countries. They tried—ultimately without success—to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire (mainly present-day Germany) in the east.

Philip III, Duke of Burgundy Philip III the Good (; ; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) ruled as Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death in 1467. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonged. During his reig ...

(reigned 1419–67) assumed the subsidiary, legally void style and title of "Grand Duke of the West" in 1435, having previously brought the duchies of Brabant and Limburg as well as the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Hainaut and Namur into his possession. His son and successor

Charles the Bold Charles Martin (10 November 1433 – 5 January 1477), called the Bold, was the last duke of Burgundy from the House of Valois-Burgundy, ruling from 1467 to 1477. He was the only surviving legitimate son of Philip the Good and his third wife, ...

(reigned 1467–77) continued to use the same style and title. The title or grand duke (, in Lithuanian) has been used by the rulers of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, who after Jogaila also became kings of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. From 1573, both the Latin version and its Polish equivalent (literally "grand prince"), the monarchic title of the rulers of Lithuania as well as of (western) Russia, Prussia, Mazovia, Samogithia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Podlachia, Livonia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernigov (including hollow claims nurtured by ambition), were used as part of their full official monarchic titles by the Kings () of Poland during the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. The first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

sovereigns of

, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V, OP (; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572. He was an ...

in 1569 to

Cosimo I de' Medici Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

awarded the title extensively: during his era, several of his allies (and '' de facto'' vassals) were allowed to assume the title of grand duke, usually at the same time as their inherited fiefs (or fiefs granted by Napoleon) were enlarged by annexed territories previously belonging to enemies defeated on the battlefield. After Napoleon's downfall, the victorious powers who met at the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

, which dealt with the political aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, agreed to abolish the Grand Duchies created by Bonaparte and to create a group of monarchies of intermediate importance with that title. Thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled grand duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. The title was also used for the part of Poland granted to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

– the

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (; ) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from Prussian Partition, territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On 9 February 1 ...

– which was formally held in a

personal union A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...

with Prussia (and so nominally separate) until its incorporation in 1848. StampFinland1860Scott5

In the same century, the purely ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia (in fact the western translation of the Russian title "grand prince" granted to the siblings of the

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

) expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. In the German and Dutch languages, which have separate words for a prince as the issue (child) of a monarch (respectively , ) and for a sovereign prince (, ), there is also a clear linguistic difference between a sovereign grand duke reigning over a state of central and western Europe (, ) and a non-sovereign, purely ceremonial grand duke of either the Russian imperial family or other non-sovereign territories that are ''de facto'' dependencies of a major power (, ). In 1582, King

John III of Sweden John III (; 20 December 1537 – 17 November 1592) was King of Sweden from 1569 until his death. He attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his half-brother Erik XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap bet ...

added "

Grand Duke of Finland The Grand Duke of Finland, alternatively the Grand Prince of Finland after 1802, was, from around 1580 to 1809, a title in use by most Swedish monarchs. Between 1809 and 1917, it was included in the title of the emperor of Russia, who was also t ...

" to the subsidiary titles of the Swedish kings, but without any political consequences, as

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

was already a part of the Swedish realm. After the Russian conquests, the title continued to be used by the Russian emperors in their role as rulers of both (''de facto'' non-sovereign)

(1793–1917) and the (equally non-sovereign) autonomous Finland (1809–1917). The

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

also instituted the similarly non-sovereign ( Grand Principality of Transylvania) in 1765, and the (purely nominal) ( Grand Duchy of Kraków) in 1846.

Balkans

Byzantine grand dukes

The Latin title '' dux'' (the etymological root of

), which was phonetically rendered ''doux'' (δούξ) in Greek, was a common title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires (west and east), but note it was ''lower'' in rank than ''

comes ''Comes'' (plural ''comites''), translated as count, was a Roman title, generally linked to a comitatus or comital office. The word ''comes'' originally meant "companion" or "follower", deriving from "''com-''" ("with") and "''ire''" ("go"). Th ...

'' (the etymological root of

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

). Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine

theme system The themes or (, , singular: , ) were the main military and administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire. They were established in the mid-7th century in the aftermath of the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe and Muslim conqu ...

, the commander of a theme was often styled a ''doux'' instead of the earlier ''

strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

'' from the 10th century on. The title of "Grand Duke" (''megas doux'') was created by

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

and was conferred upon the commanding admiral of the

Byzantine navy The Byzantine navy was the Navy, naval force of the Byzantine Empire. Like the state it served, it was a direct continuation from its Roman navy, Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defence and survival of the state than its ...

. As such, it was an actual office rather than a court rank (although it also became a grade in the court order of precedence under the Palaiologan emperors), and was always held by one individual.

Bosnian grand dukes

Grand Duke of Bosnia (; ) was a court title in the

Kingdom of Bosnia The Kingdom of Bosnia ( / Краљевина Босна), or Bosnian Kingdom (''Bosansko kraljevstvo'' / Босанско краљевство), was a medieval kingdom that lasted for nearly a century, from 1377 to 1463, and evolved out of the ...

, bestowed by the king to highest military commanders, usually reserved for most influential and most capable among highest Bosnian nobility. To interpret it as an office post rather than a court rank could be even more accurate. Unlike usage in Western Europe, Central Europe, or in various Slavic lands from Central to North-East Europe, where analogy between ''grand duke'' and ''grand prince'' was significant, with both titles corresponding to sovereign lower than king but higher than duke. In Bosnia, the title ''grand duke'' corresponded more to the Byzantine military title '' megas doux''. It is possible to register some similarities with equivalent titles in neighboring Slavic lands, such as Serbia; however, in neighboring countries, the title ''duke'', in Slavic ''vojvoda'', also had military significance, but in that sense "grand duke" was specifically, even exclusively, Bosnian title.

Eastern European

Ruthenian/Ukrainian grand dukes

"Grand duke" is the traditional translation of the title '' Velyky Knyaz'' (Великий Князь), which from the 11th century was at first the title of the leading

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

('' Kniaz'') of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

, then of several other East Slavic princes. The title of Grand Duke of Kiev was usually given by a father to his eldest son, and with his death passed to the next oldest sibling. This system didn’t last very long, and in 12th century multiple northern princes of the Rurikid Dynasty could compete for their dominance in Kiev. Some of them would prefer to establish themselves as grand dukes independently from Kiev. Another translation of this title would be ''grand prince.'' While this term is a more precise translation, it is neither standard nor widely used in English. In German, however, grand duke was known as a ''Großfürst,'' and in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as ''magnus princeps''. With the decline of Kiev under the Mongols in the 13th century, Danylo of Galicia would be crowned as

king of Ruthenia King of Ruthenia, King of Rus', King of Galicia and Lodomeria, Lord and Heir of Ruthenian Lands (Latin: ''Rex Rusiae'', ''Rex Ruthenorum'', ''Rex Galiciae et Lodomeriae'', ''Terrae Russiae Dominus et Heres''; ) was a title of Kingdom of Galicia� ...

to show succession between Kiev and Galicia, while keeping the title of Grand Duke of Kiev. With the expansion of the

into Ukrainian lands, Lithuanian princes would take the title of Grand Dukes of Ruthenia, until their unification with Poland.

Lithuanian grand dukes

Throughout the

history of Lithuania History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

from 1230s to 1795, most of its leaders were referred to as

Grand Duke of Lithuania This is a list of Lithuanian monarchs who ruled Lithuania from its inception until the fall of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1795. The Lithuanian monarch bore the title of Grand duke, Grand Duke, with the exception of Mindaugas, who was crown ...

, even when they jointly held the title

King of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of Royal elections in Poland, free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electab ...

and other titles.

Russian grand dukes

From 1328 the ''Velikii Kniaz'' of

Muscovy Muscovy or Moscovia () is an alternative name for the Principality of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to: *Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555 *Muscovy duck (''Cairina mosch ...

appeared as the grand duke for "all of Russia" until

Ivan IV of Russia Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...

in 1547 was crowned as

. Thereafter the title was given to sons and grandsons (through male lines) of the Tsars and Emperors of Russia. The daughters and paternal granddaughters of Russian emperors, as well as the consorts of Russian grand dukes, were generally called "grand duchesses" in English. From 1809 to 1917 the Emperor of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

was also the

, which he held as an autonomous state. Before the Russian conquest Finland had been held by the Kings of Sweden, first as a royal duchy, since 1581 with the King assuming the secondary title Grand Duke of Finland (Finnish: ''Suomen suuriruhtinas'', Swedish: ''Storfurste av Finland'').

Grand prince

Grand princes (or sometimes ''great princes'') were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal

overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or ...

s of other princes. At the time, the title was usually translated as "

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

", sometimes also as "minor king" or "little king" (). Grand princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs and Lithuanians. The title "grand prince" translates to () in Ukrainian and Russian. The Slavic word ''knjaz'' and the Lithuanian (today translated as "priest") are

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

s of the word ''king'' in its original meaning of "ruler". Thus, the literal meaning of and ''Didysis kunigaikštis'' was more like "great ruler" than "grand duke". With the growing importance and size of their countries, those monarchs claimed a higher title, such as king or

(also spelled "czar" in English) which was derived from the Latin ''caesar'' ("emperor") and based on the claim to be the legitimate successors of the Byzantine-East Roman Emperors. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, until he finally assumed the style

Tsar of Russia The Tsar of all Russia, formally the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, was the title of the Russian monarch from 1547 to 1721. During this period, the state was a tsardom. The first Russian monarch to be crowned as tsar was Ivan ...

in 1547. The rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania () used the title of grand prince; this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish kings of the Swedish

House of Vasa The House of Vasa or Wasa was a Dynasty, royal house that was founded in 1523 in Sweden. Its members ruled the Kingdom of Sweden from 1523 to 1654 and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1668. Its agnatic line became extinct with t ...

also used the grand-princely title for their non-Polish territories. In the late Middle Ages, the title "grand prince/grand duke" became increasingly a purely ceremonial courtesy title for close relatives of ruling monarchs, such as the Tsar of Russia, who granted his brothers the title Grand Duke of Russia ().

Styles and forms of address

Most often, a sovereign grand duke was styled as "

Royal Highness Royal Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes or princesses. Kings and their female consorts, as well as queens regnant, are usually styled ''Majesty''. When used as a direct form of a ...

" (abbreviated "HRH"), possibly because of the connection of many grand-ducal houses to royal ones or as the highest style beneath that of a king (sometimes styled "Royal Highness"). The heir to the throne (a hereditary grand duke) was sometimes styled as "Royal Highness", otherwise as "

Grand Ducal Highness His or Her Grand Ducal Highness (abbreviation: HGDH) is a style of address used by the non-reigning members of some German ruling families headed by a Grand Duke. No currently reigning family employs the style, although it was used most recently by ...

" (HGDH). Junior members of the family also generally bore the lower title of prince or princess with the style of "Grand Ducal Highness". However, in other grand duchies (e.g., Oldenburg), junior members of the family bore the title of duke or duchess, with the style of "Highness" (HH). The Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg styles all its members as "Royal Highness" since 1919, due to their being also cadet members of the Royal and Ducal House of Bourbon-Parma as male-line descendants of Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma. The

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

grand dukes of Tuscany, being members of the imperial family of Austria, were styled as "

Imperial and Royal Highness Imperial and Royal Highness (abbreviation HI&RH) is a style possessed by someone who either through birth or marriage holds two individual styles, '' Imperial Highness'' and ''Royal Highness''. ''His/Her Imperial Highness'' is a style used by membe ...

" (HI&RH). Grand dukes and grand duchesses from Russia were styled as "

Imperial Highness Imperial Highness is a form of address used for members of an imperial family. It denotes ''imperial'' – as opposed to ''royal'' – status to show that the holder in question is descended from an emperor rather than a king (compare His ...

" (HIH), being members of the

Russian Imperial Family The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Ni ...

References

WorldStatesmen - FinlandDuke or Dux in Byzantium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Duke Heads of state Royal titles * Titles of national or ethnic leadership Men's social titles