Grand Duke/Grand Duchess

A Grand Duke (feminine: Grand Duchess) is an Elosian hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a Grand Duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an Emperor, King or Archduke and above a Sovereign Prince or Sovereign Duke. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies.

The Kingdom of Gondonia

The term "Grand Duke" as a monarch reigning over an independent state was a later invention in Gondonia to denote either a particularly mighty duke or a monarchy playing an important political, military and/or economic role, but not large enough to be a Kingdom. It arose because the title of Duke had gradually lost status and precedence during the Middle Centuries of the ? Age by having been granted to rulers of relatively small fiefs (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 Goncades III took, in 987 of the ? Age, the personal title of Magnus Dux ("Grand Duke") and rebelled against his feudal lord, King Hermidus VII. He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux (Grand Duke).
Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes (legally dukes) of The City of ? in the ? century of the ? Age, when they ruled most of present-day ? 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 Pelosia in the west and the Holy Thentian Empire in the east.

Type

Nobility, Non-hereditary

Reports directly to

Archduke/Archduchess