Duke of the Franks
important title in medieval Western Europe
The title Duke (and Prince) of the Franks (Latin: dux (et princeps) Francorum) has been used for three different offices, always with "duke" implying military command and "prince" implying something approaching sovereign or regalian rights. The term "Franks" may refer to an ethnic group or to the inhabitants of a territory called Francia.
The first office was that of the mayors of the palace of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, whose powers increased as those of the kings declined. The second was that of the second-in-command to the early kings of France, the last incumbent of which succeeded to the throne in 987. This title was sometimes rendered as Duke of France (dux Franciae). The third instance was that of the rulers in East Francia (now Germany) of the so-called "tribal" duchy of Franconia.
Dux et princeps Francorum
Up until the time after Dagobert I, the title princeps (prince) had royal connotations. The first time it was used to describe the mayors of the palace of Neustria was in mid-7th-century saints' lives. The Vita Eligii refers to unspecified principes of the palatium of Neustria, and the Vita Baldechildis and Passio Leudegarii describe the mayors Erchinoald and Ebroin as princes. Pippin II first used the title princeps after his victory at the Battle of Tertry in 687.
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This entry incorporates text from “Duke of the Franks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.