Dukes in France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There used to be many Dukes in France before France became a republic.
The highest precedence in the realm, attached to a feudal territory, was given to the twelve original pairies, which also had a traditional function in the royal coronation, comparable to the German imperial archoffices. Half of them were ducal: three ecclesiastical (the six prelates all ranked above the six secular peers of the realm) and three temporal, each time above three counts of the same social estate: The Prince-Bishops with ducal territories among them were:
- The Archbishop of Reims, styled archevêque-duc pair de France (in Champagne; who crown and anoint the king, traditionally in his cathedral)
- Two suffragan bishops, styled evêque-duc pair de France :
Later, the Archbishop of Paris was given the title of duc de Saint-Cloud with the dignity of peerage, but it was debated if he was an ecclesiastical peer or merely a bishop holding a lay peerage.
The secular dukes in the peerage of the realm were, again in order of precedence:
- The duc de Bourgogne, i.e. Duke of Burgundy (known as Grand duc; not a separate title at that time; just a description of the wealth and real clout of the 15th century Dukes, cousins of the Kings of France) (bears the crown, fastens the belt)
- Duke of Normandy or duc de Normandie (holds the first square banner)
- Duke of Aquitaine or duc d'Aquitaine or - de Guyenne (holds the second square banner)
It sould be noted what the theory of the participation of the peers in the coronation was laid down in the late XIIIth century, when some of the peerage (the duchy of Normandy and the county of Toulouse) had already been merged in the crown.
At the end of this same century, the King erected some counties into duchies, a practice what went increasing till the Revolution. Many of this duchies were also peerages (the so-called 'new peerages').
Other duchies of note include:
- Duke of Angoulême
- Duke of Anjou
- Duke of Auvergne
- Duke of Bourbon
- Duke of Brittany (considered a particular state until personal union with France, by the marriage of Anne of Brittany with the French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII and of her daughter Claude with Renaissance King Francis I, who conclude the 1553 treaty rendering the union permanent while granting some autonomy)
- Duke of Broglie
- Duke of Guise
- Duke of Lorraine
- Duke of Montpensier
- Duke of Savoy (although Haute Savoie is now part of France, the Dukes of Savoy were Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, not peers of France.)
See also List of French dukedoms
