List of French dukedoms

This is a list of French dukedoms from the beginning of feudalism in the 9th century to the end of the French monarchy in the 19th century.

The Duchies of France were founded in the 9th century by the Carolingian Kings and the princely members of their family who shared the Empire of Charlemagne which they had inherited by reorganizing all the Carolingian kingdoms of France into feudal duchies and counties vassals of the King of France.

In the continuity of the administration of the Roman Empire, the various Germanic kingdoms set up districts of command entrusted to representatives of the aristocracy, appointed and dismissed by the sovereign. These dukes often had authority over several counties. The commands of the border regions took the name of "march" (French: marche) or "marquisate" (French: marquisat). The precise geography of these districts is difficult to establish, especially since their contours were very fluctuating. Many of these commands, having become hereditary, evolved into territorial principalities of the feudal type.

In the late Middle Ages and the modern era, the duchy and peerage were attributed to smaller feudal groups, mainly former counties. The holders were most often princes of the royal family, under the rule of appanage which required that the extinction of the male descendants of the first holder led to the attachment to the royal domain of the duchy.

The duchies of the Ancien régime were more complex than those of the medieval period. Essentially, the new duchies were not independent principalities and the ducal status was not definitively attached to the fiefs erected into duchies. The letters patent of creation contain clauses of succession which regulate the future of the duchies. In most cases, the rule chosen is that of succession by males: upon the extinction of the male descendants of the beneficiary of the erection into a duchy, the duchy reverts to its "previous state" lordship, county or other. Further distinction was made between dukes and peers, who sat in parliament; hereditary dukes, and patent dukes, whose title was not transmissible. In 1566, Charles IX issued an order that set forth that hereditary duchies would be reversible to the Crown in the absence of males heirs.

Some duchies have changed their name during their history: the Duchy of Thouars, for example, is often called the Duchy of Trémoïlle. Furthermore, it was not uncommon for certain fiefs to be erected into duchies under another name. Thus, the Duchy of Montmorency was re-created in 1633 under the name of Enghien, which remained attached to a lake in the Montmorency region, a lake which gave its name to the town of Enghien-les-Bains.

The title of duke, abolished during the French Revolution, was reestablished in 1806. Several dukes were created under the Empire and under the governments that followed. Under the Ancien régime, from the 16th century onwards, the title of Monsieur le Duc was used to designate the eldest son of the Prince of Condé. Duke Henri de Bourbon, who was a minister in 1723, is particularly well known in history under this name.

Of the 218 titles created (141 under the Ancien régime, 33 under the First Empire, 33 under the Restoration, 7 under the July Monarchy, 4 under the Second Empire), only about forty remain today, the others becoming extinct.

• French nobility
• Dukes in France
• Peerage of France
• List of French peers
• List of French peerages
• List of French marquesses

• French Heraldica