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Royal, noble and chivalric ranks

Emperor & Empress consort Empress & Emperor consort

Empress dowager or Empress mother

King & Queen consort or Princess consort Queen & King consort or Prince consort

Queen dowager or Queen mother Princess dowager or Princess mother

Grand Duke & Grand Duchess Grand Prince & Grand Princess

Viceroy & Vicereine

Archduke & Archduchess Infante & Infanta

Duke & Duchess Prince & Princess

Marquess & Marchioness Marquis & Marquise Margrave & Margravine

Count & Countess Earl & Countess

Viscount & Viscountess

Baron & Baroness Freiherr & Freifrau

Baronet & Baronetess Hereditary Knight, Ritter

Knight & Dame

Nobile, Edler von

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A duke (male) or duchess (female) can be either a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch. 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 (particularly one of Germanic or Celtic origin), and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province.

In the Middle Ages the title signified first among the Germanic monarchies. Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king.

During the 19th century many of the smaller German and Italian states were ruled by Dukes or Grand Dukes. But presently, with the exception of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, there are no ruling dukes. Duke remains the highest titular peerage in France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The Pope, as a temporal sovereign, has also but rarely granted the title of Duke and Duchess to persons for services to the Holy See.

A woman who holds in her own right the title to such duchy or dukedom, or is the wife of a duke, is normally styled duchess. Queen Elizabeth II, however, is known as Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands and Duke of Lancaster in Lancashire.

Duchy versus dukedom[link]

A duchy is the territory or geopolitical entity ruled by a duke. The term implies a territorial domain, within which the duke has actual subjects or significant land holdings, which are ruled by the duke, either directly or as a vassal to a higher (i.e. royal or imperial) authority. A dukedom is the title of duke, a rank of nobility, and is not necessarily attached to a duchy. A few examples exist today: The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a fully independent state and its head, the Grand Duke, is a sovereign monarch ruling over his Luxembourgeois subjects. The Duke of Cornwall holds both the dukedom (title) and Duchy (estate holdings), the latter being the source of his personal income; both the Duke and those living in his estates are subjects of the British Sovereign. In Scotland the same person is always the Duke of Rothesay as well, but this is a dukedom (title) without a duchy (territorial ownership). Similarly, the British Sovereign rules and owns the Duchy of Lancaster as both Sovereign and Duke of Lancaster, with the income of the duchy estates providing the Sovereign's Privy Purse. He or she also rules the Channel Islands as Sovereign and Duke of Normandy, but without especial income from them.

Middle Ages[link]

During the Middle Ages, after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed, the title was still employed in the Germanic kingdoms, usually to refer to the rulers of old Roman provinces.

Visigoths[link]

The Visigoths retained the Roman divisions of their kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and it seems that dukes ruled over these areas.^{[citation needed]} They were the most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected the king, usually from their own midst. They were the military commanders and in this capacity often acted independently from the king, most notably in the latter period before the Muslim invasions.

The army was structured decimally with the highest unit, the thiufa, probably corresponding to about 1,000 people from each civitas (city district). The cities were commanded by counts, who were in turn answerable to the dukes, who called up the thiufae when necessary.

Lombards[link]

When the Lombards entered Italy, the Latin chroniclers called their war leaders duces in the old fashion. These leaders eventually became the provincial rulers, each with a recognized seat of government. Though nominally loyal to the king, the concept of kingship was new to the Lombards and the dukes were highly independent, especially in central and southern Italy, where the Duke of Spoleto and the Duke of Benevento were de facto sovereigns. In 575, when Cleph died, a period known as the Rule of the Dukes, in which the dukes governed without a king, commenced. It lasted only a decade before the disunited magnates, in order to defend the kingdom from external attacks, elected a new king and even diminished their own duchies to provide him with a handsome royal demesne.

The Lombard kings were usually drawn from the duke pool when the title was not hereditary. The dukes tried to make their own offices hereditary. Beneath them in the internal structure were the counts and gastalds, a uniquely Lombard title initially referring to judicial functions, similar to a count's, in provincial regions

Franks[link]

The Franks employed dukes as the governors of Roman provinces, though they also led military expeditions far from their duchies. The dukes were the highest ranking officials in the realm, typically Frankish (whereas the counts were often Gallo-Roman), and formed the class from which the kings' generals were chosen in times of war. The dukes met with the king every May to discuss policy for the upcoming year, the so-called Mayfield.

In Burgundy and Provence, the titles of patrician and prefect were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to the greater Romanization of those provinces. But the titles were basically equivalent.

In late Merovingian Gaul, the mayors of the palace of the Arnulfing clan began to use the title dux et princeps Francorum: "duke and prince of the Franks". In this title, "duke" implied supreme military control of the entire nation (Francorum, the Franks) and it was thus used until the end of the Carolingian dynasty in France in 987.

Stem duchies[link]

See Stem duchy.

England[link]

Anglo-Saxon times[link]

The highest political division beneath that of kingdom among the Anglo-Saxons was the ealdormanry and, while the title ealdorman was replaced by the Danish eorl (later earl) over time, the first ealdormen were referred to as duces (the plural of the original Latin dux) in the chronicles. So in Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the grade of duke was retained as supreme landlord after the king. But after the Norman conquest, their power and regional jurisdiction was limited to that of the Norman counts.^[1]

Late medieval times[link]

Edward III of England created the first three English dukedoms (Cornwall, Lancaster, and Clarence) by naming his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, as Duke of Cornwall in 1337. Upon the death of the Black Prince the duchy of Cornwall passed to his nine-year-old son, who would eventually succeed his grandfather as Richard II.

The duchy of Lancaster was created by Edward III in 1351 for Henry of Grosmont, but became extinct upon the duke's death in 1361. The following year, Edward III bestowed the title (2nd creation) on his fourth son, John of Gaunt, who was also married to the first duke's daughter.^[2] On the same day Edward III also created his second son, Lionel of Antwerp, as Duke of Clarence.

All five of Edward III's surviving sons eventually became dukes. In 1385, ten years after their father's death, his heir Richard II created dukedoms for his last two uncles on the same day. Thomas of Woodstock was named Duke of Gloucester and Edmund of Langley became Duke of York, thereby founding the House of York, which later fought for the throne with John of Gaunt's Lancastrian descendants during the Wars of the Roses.

By 1483, a total of 16 ducal titles had been created: Cornwall, Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester, York, Ireland, Hereford, Aumale, Exeter, Surrey, Norfolk, Bedford, Somerset, Buckingham, Warwick and Suffolk. Some became extinct, others had multiple creations, and some had merged with the crown upon the holder's accession to the throne. When the Plantagenet dynasty came to an end at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, only four ducal titles remained extant, of which two were now permanently associated with the crown. John de la Pole was Duke of Suffolk and John Howard was Duke of Norfolk (2nd creation), while the duchy of Cornwall was reserved as a title and source of income for the eldest son of the sovereign, and the duchy of Lancaster was now held by the monarch.

Norfolk perished alongside Richard III at Bosworth field, and the title was forfeit. It was restored to his son Thomas thirty years later by Henry VIII, as one of a number of dukes created or recreated by the Tudor dynasty over the ensuing century. England's premier ducal title, Norfolk, remains in the Howard family to this day.

The modern age[link]

A Duke's coronet (United Kingdom), as used in Heraldry

In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of Parma and Modena in Italy, and of Anhalt, Brunswick-Lüneburg, Nassau, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg in Germany survived Napoleon's reorganization.

Since the unification of Italy in 1870 and the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918, there have no longer been any reigning dukes in Europe; Luxembourg is ruled by a grand duke, a higher title, just below king.

In the United Kingdom, the inherited position of a duke along with its dignities, privileges, and rights is a dukedom. However, the title of duke has never been associated with independent rule in the British Isles: they hold dukedoms, not duchies (excepting the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster). Dukes in the United Kingdom are addressed as "Your Grace" and referred to as "His Grace". Currently, there are twenty-seven dukedoms in the Peerage of England, Peerage of Scotland, Peerage of Great Britain, Peerage of Ireland and Peerage of the United Kingdom, held by twenty-four different people (see List of Dukes in order of precedence).

Equivalents in other European languages[link]

Royal dukes[link]

Various royal houses traditionally awarded (mainly) dukedoms to the sons and in some cases, the daughters, of their respective sovereigns; others include at least one dukedom in a wider list of similarly granted titles, nominal dukedoms without any actual authority, often even without an estate. Such titles are still conferred on royal princes or princesses in the current European monarchies of Belgium, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Other historical cases occurred for example in Denmark, Finland (as a part of Sweden) and France, Portugal and some former colonial possessions such as Brazil and Haiti.

United Kingdom[link]

In the United Kingdom, ducal titles which have been given within the royal family include Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, Duke of York, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Rothesay, Duke of Albany, Duke of Ross, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Kent, Duke of Sussex, and Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

• List of dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
• List of dukes in the peerages of the British Isles

Belgium[link]

In Belgium, the title of Duke of Brabant (historically the most prestigious in the Low Countries, and containing the federal capital Brussels), if still vacant, has been awarded preferentially to the eldest son and heir presumptive of the king, other male dynasts receiving various lower historical titles (much older than Belgium, and in principle never fallen to the Belgian crown), such as Count of Flanders (King Leopold III's so-titled brother held the title when he became the realm's temporary head of state as prince-regent) and Prince of Liège (a secularised version of the historical prince-bishopric; e.g., the present King Albert II until he succeeded his older brother Baudouin I).

Denmark[link]

Denmark's kings gave appanages in their twin-duchies of Schleswig-Holstein (now three-fourths of them is part of Germany, but then the Holstein half of it was part of the Holy Roman Empire in personal union with Denmark proper) to younger sons and/or their male-line descendants, with a specific though not sovereign title of Duke, e.g., Duke of Gottorp, Duke of Sonderburg, Duke of Augustenborg, Duke of Franzhagen, Duke of Beck, Duke of Glucksburg and Duke of Norburg.

Iberian peninsula[link]

When the Christian Reconquista, sweeping the Moors from the former Caliphate of Córdoba and its taifa-remnants, transformed the territory of former Suevic and Visigothic realms into Catholic feudal principalities, none of these warlords was exactly styled Duke. A few (as Portugal itself) started as Count (even if the title of Dux was sometimes added), but soon all politically relevant princes were to use the royal style of King.

Portugal[link]

In Portugal, the title of Duke was granted for the first time in 1415 to infante Peter and infante Henry, the second and third sons of king John I, following their participation in the successful Conquest of Ceuta. Pedro became the first Duke of Coimbra and Henry the first Duke of Viseu.

From the reign of king Manuel I, the title of Duke of Beja was given to the second son of the monarch. This was changed during the Liberal regime in the 19th century (with queen Maria II), when the first infante (second son of the monarch) got the title of Duke of Porto and the second infante (third son) was known as Duke of Beja.

There are examples of Duke as a subsidiary title, granted to the most powerful noble Houses:

• Duke of Barcelos, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Braganza;
• Duke of Torres Novas, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Aveiro;
• Duke of Miranda do Corvo, to be used by the heir of the Duke of Lafões.

Usually, the title of Duke was granted to relatives of the Royal Family, such as the infantes or natural sons of the monarch. There are exceptions, such as António José de Ávila, who, although not having any relation to the royal family, was given the title of duke of Ávila and Bolama in the 19th Century.

Spain[link]

Spanish infantes and infantas were usually given a dukedom upon marriage, excepting the heir apparent who is the Prince of Asturias. This title is nowadays not hereditary but carries a Grandeza de España. The current royal duchesses are: HRH the Duchess of Badajoz (Infanta Maria del Pilar), HRH the Duchess of Soria (Infanta Margarita) (although she inherited the title of Duchess of Hernani from her cousin and is second holder of that title), HRH the Duchess of Lugo (Infanta Elena) and HRH the Duchess of Palma de Mallorca (Infanta Cristina).

In Spain all the dukes hold the court rank of Grande, i.e., Grandee of the realm, which had precedence over all other feudatories.

Finland and Sweden[link]

Sweden had a history of making the sons of its kings real ruling princes of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622. Title-wise, however, all Swedish princes since 1772, and princesses since 1980, are given a dukedom for life. Currently, there are one duke and three duchesses. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to five of the Provinces of Sweden.

Key parts of Finland were sometimes under a Duke of Finland during the Swedish reign.

France and other former monarchies[link]

See appanage (mainly for the French kingdom) and the list in the geographical section below, which also treats special ducal titles in orders or national significance.

France[link]

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 crowns and anoints the king, traditionally in his cathedral)
• Two suffragan bishops, styled evêque-duc pair de France :
  • the bishop-duke of Laon (in Picardy; bears the 'Sainte Ampoule' containing the sacred ointment)
  • the bishop-duc de Langres (in Burgundy; bears the scepter)

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 should be noted that the theory of the participation of the peers in the coronation was laid down in the late 13th 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 elevated some counties into duchies, a practice that increased up until the Revolution. Many of this duchies were also peerages (the so-called 'new peerages').

Italy, Germany and Austria[link]

In Italy, Germany and Austria the title of "duke" (duca in Italian, and Herzog in German) was quite common. As the Holy Roman Empire was until its dissolution a feudal structure, most of its Dukes were actually reigning in their lands. As the titles from the HRE were taken over after its dissolution, or in Italy after their territories became independent of the Empire, both countries also had a share of fully sovereign dukes. Also, in Germany in many ducal families every agnate would bear the ducal title of the family as a courtesy title.

In Italy some important sovereign ducal families were the Visconti and the Sforza, who ruled Milan; the Capece Minutolo in Naples; the Savoia in Piemonte; the Medici of Florence; the Farnese of Parma and Piacenza; the Cybo-Malaspina of Massa; the Gonzaga of Mantua; the Este of Modena and Ferrara.

In Germany, important ducal families were the Wittelsbachs in Bavaria, the Welfs in Hannover, the ducal family of Cleves, the Wettins in Saxony (with its Ernestine branch divided into several duchies), the Württembergs, the Mecklenburgs and finally of course also the Habsburgs in Austria as "Archdukes". In the German Confederation the Nassaus, the Ascanians of Anhalt, the Welf branch of Brunswick and the Ernestine lines of the Saxon duchies were the sovereign ducal families.

Elsewhere in Europe[link]

Nordic countries[link]

• In Denmark, the longest-surviving duchy was Schleswig, i.e., Sonderjylland (part of which later was transferred to Germany). Its southern neighbour Holstein in personal union with the Danish crown was always a German principality. Ultimately both ended up joined as the German federation's Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein.
  • duchies of Laland, Halland, Jutland, Reval, and Osilia.
• In Sweden, medieval duchies of Finland, Södermanland, Skåne, and Halland, and in modern times almost every province.

Hungary[link]

In the Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as appanages. During the rule of the Árpád dinasty dukes held territorial powers, some of them even minted coins, but later this title became more often nominal. These duchies usually were

• the Duchy of Nitra
• the Duchy of Bihar
• the Duchy of Slavonia, or whole Slavonia (consisting of Slavonia and Croatia)
• the Duchy of Transylvania (consisting of the voivodship of Transylvania and some other counties)

In the Jagellonian era (1490–1526) only two dukes did not belong to the royal dynasty: John Corvin (the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus) and Lőrinc Újlaki (whose father was the king of Bosnia), and both bore the title as royal dukes.

After the Battle of Mohács the Habsburg kings rewarded Hungarian aristocrats (like the Esterházys) with princely titles, but they created these titles as Holy Roman Emperors, not as kings of Hungary.

Greece[link]

As the Catholic crusaders overran Orthodox Christian parts of the Byzantine empire, they installed several crusader states (see Frangokratia), some of which were of ducal rank:

• the Duchy of Athens, to which the duchy of Neopatras was later linked
• the Aegean insular Duchy of Naxos, officially the "Duchy of the Archipelago"

The Byzantines retained the title dux, transcribed as doux in Greek. As in the later Roman Empire, it remained a military office. In the 10th century, it was given to the military commanders over several themata (also known as katepano), and in the late 11th century it became used for the governor of a thema.

In Italy and other western countries, the later Byzantine appanages of the Palaiologan period were sometimes translated as duchies: the Morea, Mesembria, Selymbria and Thessaloniki. However, as these had Greek holders, they were titled Archon ("magistrate") or Despotes.

In the independent Kingdom of Greece, the style of Duke of Sparta was instituted in 1868 upon the birth of Constantine I as a distinct title for the crown prince of Greece.

Slavic countries[link]

Generally, confusion reigns whether to translate the usual petty ruler titles, knyaz/ knez/ ksiaze etc. as Prince (analogous to the German Fürst) or as Duke;

• in splintered Poland petty principalities generally ruled by branches of the earlier Polish Piast dynasty are regarded as duchies in translated titulary. Examples of such: Kujavia, Masovia, Sandomir, Greater Poland and Kalisz as well as various minor duchies, often short-lived and/or in personal union or merger, named after their capitals, mainly in the regions known as Little Poland and Greater Poland, including (there are often also important Latin and/or German forms) Kraków, Łęczyca and Sieradz.
• In Pomerelia and Pomerania (inhabited by the Kashubians, different Slavic people from the Poles proper), branches of native ruling dynasties were usually recognized as dukes, quite similarly to the pattern in Poland.
• in Russia, before the imperial unification from Muscovy; sometimes even as vassal, tributary to a Tartar Khan; later, in Peter the Great's autocratic empire, the russification gertsog was used as the Russian rendering of the German ducal title Herzog, especially as (the last) part of the full official style of the Russian Emperor: Gertsog Shlesvig-Golstinskiy, Stormarnskiy, Ditmarsenskiy i Oldenburgskiy i prochaya, i prochaya, i prochaya "Duke of Schleswig-Holstein [see above], Stormarn, Dithmarschen and Oldenburg, and of other lands", in chief of German and Danish territories to which the Tsar was dynastically linked.
• In Bohemia was Duchy of Krumlov, and short-lived Duchy of Reichstadt and Duchy of Friedland.
• In Silesia were many petty duchies as Duchy of Brzeg, Duchy of Legnica, Duchy of Zator and Duchy of Racibórz. They were vassals of King of Bohemia.

Netherlands[link]

After Belgium and the Netherlands separated in 1830, the title of duke no longer existed in the Netherlands. There is, however, one exception; the title Hertog van Limburg (Duke of Limburg) still exists. This title, however, is an exclusive title for the head of state (the monarch, i.e., the king or queen of the Netherlands).

Post-colonial non-European states[link]

Empire of Brazil[link]

In the Empire of Brazil duke was the highest rank for people born outside the imperial house and only three dukedoms were created. Two of these titles were for relatives of Emperor Dom Pedro I: an illegitimate daughter and a brother-in-law who received the title when married with Pedro I's daughter Dona Maria II. The third, given to Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, was the only dukedom created during the reign of Pedro II. None of these titles were hereditary, just like every other title in the Brazilian nobility system.

Haiti[link]

The royal Christophe dynasty created eight hereditary dukedoms, in rank directly below the nominal princes. They were short-lived and only recognised in the country.

Equivalents[link]

Like other major Western noble titles, Duke is sometimes used to render (translate) certain titles in non-western languages. "Duke" is used even though those titles are generally etymologically and often historically unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered roughly equivalent, especially in hierarchic aristocracies such as feudal Japan, useful as an indication of relative rank. The Indian cognate is Senapati (leader of an army).

China[link]

During the era of feudalism in Ancient China (Spring and Autumn and the Warring States), the equivalent titles to Grand Marquis or Grand Duke were often granted to the nobility and governors of the individual kingdoms and principalities. Noble titles also existed in subsequent periods.

The Duke of Yansheng noble title was granted to the descendants of Confucius. In 1935, the Nationalist Government changed the title to Sacrificial Official to Confucius (大成至聖先師奉祀官), which still exists as an office of the Republic of China, de facto hereditary.^[3]

Nonhereditary dukedoms and other lesser titles were also awarded, sometimes posthumously (see posthumous names), during the imperial period of Chinese history to recognize distinguished civil and military officials without the burdens of supporting a feudal peerage. For example, Emperor Lizong of Song granted the posthumous title Duke of Hui (徽国公) to the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi.^[4]

Indonesia[link]

The Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, which dominated eastern Java in the 14th and 15th centuries, was divided into nagara (provinces). The administration of these nagara was entrusted to members of the royal family, who bore the title of Bhre i. e. Bhra i, "lord of" (the word bhra being akin to the Thai Phra), followed by the name of the land they were entrusted with: for example a sister of king Hayam Wuruk (r. 1350-1389) was "Bhre Lasem", "lady of Lasem". This system was similar to the apanage system in Western Europe.

Sultan Agung, king of Mataram in Central Java (r. 1613-1645), would entrust the administration of territories he gradually conquered all over the island of Java, to officials bearing the title of adipati. Such territories were called kadipaten.

The VOC (Dutch East Indies Company), while gradually taking control of Javanese territory, would maintain the existing Mataram administrative structure. Adipati were called "regenten" in Dutch, and the territories they administered, "regentschappen".

In the 19th century, the Javanese term for regent was bupati. French traveller Gérard Louis Domeny de Rienzi mentions bapati.^[5]

The bupati have been maintained in the modern Indonesian administrative subdivision structure, heading a kabupaten, the subdivision of a provinsi or province.

The word adipati is still found in the official title of the hereditary princes Mangkunegara of Surakarta and Paku Alam of Yogyakarta i. e. Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya (shortened into KGPAA).

See also[link]

• List of Dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
• List of dukes in the peerages of the British Isles
• Duchy of Amalfi
• Duchy of Gaeta
• Duchy of Naples
• Archduke

Notes[link]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2007)

References[link]

• Chan, Wing-tsit, Chu Hsi New Studies. University of Hawaii Press: 1989. ISBN 978-0-8248-1201-0
• Crouch, David, The Normans (2002) ISBN 1-85285-387-5
• Hodgkin, Thomas. Italy and her Invaders. Clarendon Press: 1895.
• Lewis, Archibald R. "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550-751." Speculum, Vol. 51, No 3 (July 1976), pp 381–410.
• Stenton, Sir Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition. Oxford University Press: 1971.
• Thompson, E. A. The Goths in Spain. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1969.

Rick Pitino
Pitino in the 2007 Big East Tournament
Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Louisville
Biographical details
Born	(1952-09-18) September 18, 1952 (age 59) New York, New York
Playing career
1970–1974	UMass
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1974–1976 1976 1976–1978 1978–1983 1983–1985 1985–1987 1987–1989 1989–1997 1997–2001 2001–present	Hawaii (assistant) Hawaii (interim HC) Syracuse (assistant) Boston University New York Knicks (assistant) Providence New York Knicks Kentucky Boston Celtics Louisville
Accomplishments and honors
Championships NCAA Division I Tournament Championship (1996) Regional Championships - Final Four (1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2012) America East Tournament Championship (1983) America East Regular Season Championship (1980, 1983) SEC Tournament Championship (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997) SEC Regular Season Championship (1995, 1996) C-USA Tournament Championship (2003, 2005) C-USA Regular Season Championship (2005) Big East Tournament Championship (2009, 2012) Big East Regular Season Championship (2009)
Awards NABC National Coach of the Year 6th time (1987) John Wooden National Coach of the Year (1987) SEC Coach of the Year (1990, 1991, 1996) C-USA Coach of the Year (2005)

Rick Pitino (born September 18, 1952)^[1] is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. He has coached on the professional level for the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics with mixed results.

Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four. (John Calipari did the same, but two of his Final Four appearances were later vacated by the NCAA.) Pitino is also only one of three coaches ever to take his school to the Final Four in four separate decades. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Pitino, a Sicilian American^[2] and native of New York City, grew up in the Village of Bayville and was captain of the St. Dominic High School basketball team in nearby Oyster Bay, Long Island.^[3] He enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970. He was a standout guard for the Minutemen basketball team. His 329 career assists rank tenth all-time at UMass, as of the 2009–10 season.^[4] He led the team in assists as a junior and senior.^[5][6] The 168 assists as a senior is the eighth-best single season total ever there.^[4][7] Pitino was a freshman at the same time future NBA legend Julius Erving spent his junior (and final) year at UMass, although the two never played on the same team because freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time. Other teammates of Pitino's include Al Skinner, who also went on to become a successful college coach, and baseballer Mike Flanagan, who went on to pitch in the major leagues and win the AL Cy Young Award in 1979. Pitino earned his degree from UMass in 1974.

Collegiate coaching[link]

Pitino is currently head coach of the University of Louisville. Previous college coaching assignments include Boston University, Providence College, and the University of Kentucky. As a collegiate head coach, Pitino has compiled a 521–191 record, for a .732 winning percentage that is ranked 10th among active coaches and 29th all-time among all collegiate basketball coaches entering the 2009 season.

Pitino is considered by many to be one of the first coaches to promote fully taking advantage of the 3-point shot, first adopted by the NCAA in 1987. By exploiting the 3-point shot, his teams at Kentucky in the early 1990s were known as Pitino's Bombinos, as a significant portion of the offensive points came from the 3-point shot. Even now, Pitino's teams are known for the 3-point threat and all of his teams rank towards the top in 3-point attempts per season.

Many of Pitino's players and assistant coaches have gone on to become successful collegiate coaches. In total, 21 former Pitino players and coaches have become Division I head coaches, including Florida's Billy Donovan, Minnesota's Tubby Smith, Arizona State's Herb Sendek, and Cincinnati's Mick Cronin.^[7]

Assistant coaching career[link]

Pitino started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974, and became a full-time assistant (and interim head coach) in 1975. He was then the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University.

Pitino served as Hawaii's interim head coach late in the 1975-76 season. Coach Bruce O'Neil was fired after the Rainbow Warriors' started the season 9-12. Pitino led Hawaii for their final six games, going 2-4 in the span.^[8]

Pitino's time at Hawaii was marred by a 1977 NCAA report on sanctions against the program. According to the report, Pitino was implicated in 8 of the 64 infractions that led the University to be placed on probation. The violations involving Pitino included providing round-trip air fare for a player between New York and Honolulu, arranging for student-athletes to receive used cars for season tickets, and handing out coupons to players for free food at McDonald's. He was also cited, along with the head coach, Bruce O'Neil, for providing misinformation to the NCAA and University of Hawaii officials. Also in 1977, the NCAA infractions committee recommended that Pitino and O'Neil be disassociated from Hawaii athletics. In 1989, Pitino would dismiss the report, saying "I didn't make any mistakes, I don't care what anybody says."^[9]

Boston University[link]

Pitino's first head coaching job came in 1978 at Boston University. In the two seasons before his arrival, the team had won a mere 17 games. Pitino led the team to its first NCAA appearance in 24 years.^[10]

Providence[link]

Pitino left Boston University to become an assistant coach with the New York Knicks under Hubie Brown. Pitino returned to college coaching to become head coach at Providence in 1985. Providence had gone a dismal 11–20 in the year before he took over. Two years later, Pitino led the team to the Final Four. That Final Four team featured point guard Billy Donovan, who would go on to be an assistant coach under Pitino at Kentucky and then win back-to-back national championships as head coach at the University of Florida.

Kentucky[link]

After spending two years coaching in the NBA, Pitino returned to the college level again in 1989, becoming the coach at Kentucky. The legendary Kentucky program was dusting off its shoulders from a major recruiting scandal brought on by former coach Eddie Sutton that left it on NCAA probation. Pitino quickly restored Kentucky's reputation and performance, leading his second school to the Final Four in the 1993 NCAA Tournament, and winning a national title in the 1996 NCAA Tournament, Kentucky's 6th NCAA Championship. The following year, Pitino's Kentucky team made it back to the national title game, losing to Arizona in overtime in the finals of the 1997 NCAA Tournament. Pitino's fast-paced teams at Kentucky were favorites of the school's fans. It was primarily at Kentucky where he implemented his signature style of full-court pressure defense. The following year he left Kentucky for the NBA and Kentucky went on to win the 1998 national title. He would later refer to Kentucky as "the Roman Empire of college basketball".

Louisville[link]

Pitino went back to the NBA in 1997, but returned to college—and his adopted home state—on March 21, 2001 to coach the University of Louisville following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum. In the 2005 season, Pitino led Louisville to their first Final Four in 19 years, and became the first men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to the Final Four. Immediately following their Final Four run, several players graduated or entered the 2005 NBA Draft. The inexperience caused the Cardinals to limp into the Big East Tournament seeded 12th, and miss the NCAA tournament. They made the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), where they were defeated by eventual champions University of South Carolina. The 2007 Cardinal team was primarily the same team, with added freshmen. Picked to finish towards the bottom of the Big East Conference again, Pitino led them to a second-place finish, 12–4 (tied with the University of Pittsburgh, but Louisville beat them earlier in the season) in the conference standings and a first round bye in the conference tournament. Pitino implemented a 2-2-1 and 2-3 zone defense midway through the season. The 2007 team's season ended when the Cardinals lost to Texas A&M in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The 2008 Cardinals finished second in the Big East and ranked 13th in both the AP and Coaches' polls. Louisville was the third seed in the 2008 NCAA tournament's East region. They defeated Boise State, Oklahoma and Tennessee to advance to the Elite Eight, where they were defeated by North Carolina. Louisville was the top seed overall in the 2009 NCAA tournament and was planted as the first seed in the Midwest region. They defeated Morehead State, Siena and Arizona to advance to the Elite Eight, where they were defeated by Michigan State. In 2010 the Cardinals suffered a disappointing 15 point loss to their first round opponent, the California Golden Bears. In 2011, Louisville was upset by 13th seeded Morehead State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In 2012, Pitino coached the Cardinals to the Big East tournament championship and a berth as a 4 seed in the West region of the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals defeated Davidson College, University of New Mexico, and Number 1 seeded Michigan State to advance to the regional final against the Florida Gators and his former player and friend Billy Donovan. The Cardinals would go on to win that game, but lost to The University of Kentucky in the 2012 Final Four.

Professional coaching[link]

Pitino became head coach of the New York Knicks in 1987. The year before he arrived, the team had won only 24 games. In just two years, Pitino led the Knicks to their first division title in nearly twenty years.^[10]

His NBA coaching experience often demonstrated a deep frustration with the dynamics of the league, especially in Boston, where he amassed a 102–146 record from 1997 to 2001. After being beaten by the Toronto Raptors on March 1, 2000 on a buzzer-beater by Vince Carter, Pitino's frustration reached critical mass as he addressed the press. Referring to the expectations of Boston Celtics fans and media, Pitino challenged each of them to let go of the past and focus on the future:

Pitino struggled in his roles with the Celtics, and statistics like 1999's 19–31 record made him little better in the eyes of many Boston fans than his inexperienced predecessor, M.L. Carr. Pitino's remarks became a cornerstone of Boston Celtics lore, and has served as a metaphor for other sports franchises and their inability to relive past successes.^{[verification needed]} Pitino himself reprised the speech in a tongue-in-cheek manner at Louisville in November 2005, challenging his freshmen players to play as tough as past seniors and drawing laughter from sportswriters in a post-game press conference. During his time in Boston he had complete power serving not just as head coach but as general manager, CEO, and president of the team.

Puerto Rico National Team[link]

On December 20, 2010, the Puerto Rico Basketball Federation announced Rick Pitino as the next head coach for Puerto Rico's Olympic team. The President of the Basketball Federation described the hiring as the highest impact coaching hire in the history of Puerto Rico Basketball. On April 29 2011, it was announced that Pitino would not coach the Puerto Rico national team due to scheduling conflicts and NCAA regulations disallowing it.

Author and accomplishments[link]

Pitino is the author of a motivational self-help book (and audio recording) named Success is a Choice. He published an autobiography in 1988 entitled Born to Coach describing his life up until his time with the Knicks. His most recent book "Rebound Rules," was the top seller at the 2008 Kentucky Book Fair.

In 2005, Pitino's Louisville team posted a tie for the most single season wins in school history (33) while he is one of two men's coaches in NCAA history to lead three separate schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four. The other coach is his in state rival, John Calipari (UMASS, Memphis, Kentucky).

Pitino's .744 winning percentage in 43 NCAA Tournament games ranks third among active coaches.

Thoroughbred horse racing[link]

Beyond basketball, Pitino has been involved in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing as the lead partner in Celtic Pride Stable and the Ol Memorial Stable. Among his notable horses have been A P Valentine and Halory Hunter.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Pitino married his wife, the former Joanne Minardi, in 1976. They have five living children: Michael, Christopher, Richard (now the head coach at FIU),^[13] Ryan and Jacqueline. Another son, Daniel, died in 1987 from congenital heart failure at the age of six months. Rick and Joanne established the Daniel Pitino Foundation (along with a Daniel Pitino shelter in Owensboro, Kentucky) in his memory, which has raised millions of dollars for children in need.^[14]

Their son's death was not the last tragedy for Rick and Joanne. Both were especially hard-hit by 9/11, as Joanne's brother and Rick's closest friend, Billy Minardi, was working as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center when it was struck by American Airlines Flight 11. Since 2002, the University of Louisville has designated a December home game as the Billy Minardi Classic, and the university named a dorm on campus as "Billy Minardi Hall." Only a few months earlier, another brother-in-law of Rick, Don Vogt, was killed after being hit by a New York City cab.^[3]

Extortion attempt against Pitino[link]

On April 18, 2009, Pitino announced that he was a target of an extortion attempt.^[15] On April 24, Karen Cunagin Sypher, the wife of Louisville equipment manager Tim Sypher, was arraigned and charged in US District Court with extortion and lying to federal agents.^[16][17] On August 11, Pitino admitted to having engaged in sexual relations with Cunagin on August 1, 2003 in a Louisville restaurant, Porcini's. Several weeks later, Cunagin told Pitino that she was pregnant and wanted to have an abortion, but she did not have health insurance. Pitino paid her $3,000 for an abortion.^[18]In addition, Cunagin stated that her estranged husband, Tim Sypher, was paid to marry her.^[19]

At a press conference on August 12, Pitino made a statement, in which he apologized for his indiscretion and stated that he would remain as coach.^[20] While Pitino's contract allows for his firing for "acts of moral depravity or misconduct that damages the university's reputation," University of Louisville president James Ramsey announced on August 13 that Pitino would be retained in his position.^[18]On August 26, Pitino demanded in a press conference that the media stop "reporting these lies." The conference was called even though University of Louisville officials advised that he was not obligated to respond.^[19]On August 6, 2010, a federal district court found Sypher guilty of extortion and lying to federal agents, carrying a maximum penalty of 26 years in prison. After her conviction, Sypher hired new attorneys and accused the judge, prosecutors, her former attorneys, and Pitino of taking part in a conspiracy to ensure she was found guilty.

Head coaching record[link]

College[link]

^Kentucky was ineligible for both the NCAA and SEC Tournaments in 1990 and 1991 due to sanctions from the Eddie Sutton-era.

^^Kentucky finished first in the SEC standings. However, due to their probation, they were ineligible for the regular-season title; it was awarded to second-place LSU instead.

NBA[link]

See also[link]

• List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
• List of NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coach
• List of NCAA Men's Division I Elite Eight appearances by coach

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Louisville profile