Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked below princes and grand dukes. The title comes from French duc, itself from the Latin dux, 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to a military commander without an official rank, and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province. In most countries, the word duchess is the female equivalent.
The House of Savoy is an Italian royal house that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1713 to 1720, when they were handed the island of Sardinia, over which they would exercise direct rule from then onward.
Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Prince of Naples, was the only son of Umberto II, the last King of Italy, and Marie-José of Belgium. Vittorio Emanuele also used the title Duke of Savoy and claimed the headship of the House of Savoy. These claims were disputed by supporters of his third cousin, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, and later by Amedeo’s son, Aimone.
Amadeo I, also known as Amadeus, was an Italian prince who reigned as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873. The only king of Spain to come from the House of Savoy, he was the second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and was known for most of his life as the Duke of Aosta, the usual title for a second son in the Savoyard dynasty.
Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta was a prince of Italy's reigning House of Savoy and an officer of the Royal Italian Navy. The second son of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta, he was granted the title Duke of Spoleto on 22 September 1904. He inherited the title Duke of Aosta on 3 March 1942 following the death of his brother Prince Amedeo in a British prisoner of war camp in Nairobi.
Duke of Bourbon is a title in the peerage of France. It was created in the first half of the 14th century for the eldest son of Robert of France, Count of Clermont, and Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. In 1416, with the death of John of Valois, the Dukes of Bourbon were simultaneously Dukes of Auvergne.
The Duchy of Savoy was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1860 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
Duke of Aosta was a title in the Italian nobility. It was established in the 13th century when Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, made the County of Aosta a duchy. The region was part of the Savoyard state and the title was granted to various princes of the House of Savoy, second sons of the reigning king of Sardinia or king of Italy.
A substantive title is a title of nobility or royalty acquired either by individual grant or by inheritance. It is to be distinguished from a title shared among cadets, borne as a courtesy title by a peer's relatives, or acquired through marriage.
Prince Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta was the third Duke of Aosta and a first cousin once removed of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III. During World War II, he was the Italian Viceroy of Italian East Africa.
Prince Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta, 5th Duke of Aosta was a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, the family which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. Until 7 July 2006, Amedeo was styled Duke of Aosta; on that date he declared himself Duke of Savoy, a title that was disputed between him and his third cousin, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, only son of King Umberto II of Italy.
Prince Emanuele Filiberto Vittorio Eugenio Alberto Genova Giuseppe Maria di Savoia, 2nd Duke of Aosta was an Italian general and member of the House of Savoy, as the son of Amadeo I, and was also a cousin of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Filiberto was also commander of the Italian Third Army during World War I, which earned him the title of the "Undefeated Duke". After the war he became a Marshal of Italy.
Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria di Savoia is the daughter and heir apparent to Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, who is a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, the former ruling house of the Kingdom of Italy.
The currently deposed Greek royal family was the ruling family of the Kingdom of Greece from 1863 to 1924 and again from 1935 to 1973. The family is a branch of the Danish royal family, itself a branch of the House of Glücksburg. Upon its accession to power, It replaced the House of Wittelsbach that previously ruled Greece from 1832 to 1862. The first monarch was George I of Greece, the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. The current head of the family is Pavlos, who assumed the role upon the death of his father, former King Constantine II on 10 January 2023. With the sole exception of Aspasia Manos, the consort of King Alexander, her descendants and Marina Karella, Consort of Prince Michael and their descendants, none of the members have been ethnically Greek.
Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta, 6th Duke of Aosta is one of two claimants to be head of the House of Savoy. Since November 2019, he has served as the Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to Russia.
Maria Vittoria Carlotta Enrichetta Giovanna dal Pozzo, 6th Princess of Cisterna d'Asti and of Belriguardo, was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen of Spain from 16 November 1870 until 11 February 1873 as the wife of King Amadeo I. Maria Vittoria inherited her princely title after the death of her father. In 1867, she married Amadeo, then Duke of Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. In 1870, her husband became the king of Spain, making her queen consort. King Amadeo abdicated after a reign of less than three years, and he and Maria Vittoria returned to Italy. She died in Sanremo, Italy, in 1876.
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este was Queen of Sardinia as the wife of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. She was born an archduchess of Austria-Este and a princess of Modena as the daughter of Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, and Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa. Her husband’s reign as King of Sardinia ended in abdication in 1821, when he elected his brother Charles Felix king after a liberal revolution, during which Victor Emmanuel proved unwilling to accept a liberal constitution. She was a part of the then newly-founded House of Austria-Este.
Princess Olga, Duchess of Aosta, also known as Princess Olga Isabelle of Greece, is the younger daughter of author Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark and his wife, Marina Karella, an artist and daughter of the Greek business magnate Theodore Karella. Olga is married to her second cousin Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta.
Princess Isabella of Bavaria was the third child and eldest daughter of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife Infanta Amalia of Spain. By her marriage to Prince Tommaso, Duke of Genoa, she became referred to as the Duchess of Genoa.
Princess Claude of Orléans is a French princess of the House of Orléans. She is the former wife of Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, a disputed head of the House of Savoy.
