DUJARDIN, FELIX, 1801-60; b. Tours, France; studied mathematics and geology, but was induced by Dutrochet to turn his attention to zoology. His specialty was Infusoria, concerning which he arrived at conclusions different from those of Ehrenberg. He was professor at Toulouse and at Rennes, and wrote a number of works on his favorite subjects.
DUKE (Fr. due, Lat. dux, from clueere, to lead), a term applied originally to any mili tary leader. Gibbon informs us that the title came first into use when Constantine sep arated the civil and the military commands in the provinces, which had been exercised in common by such men as Agricola. From that time forth, the military governors of provinces were either counts or dukes. But these titles originally stood to each other in an opposite relation to that which they afterwards assumed. " It should be recol lected," says Gibbon (iii. 57, cap. sail.), "that the second of these appellations—that of D.—is only a corruption of the Latin word, which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief. All provincial generals were therefore dukes, but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts, or companions, a title of honor, or rather of favor, which had been recently invented in the court of Constantine." See Comm "A gold belt," continues Gibbon, " was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and dukes; and, besides their pay, they received a liberal allowance, sufficient to maintain 190 servants and 158 horses. They were strictly prohibited from interfering in any matter which related to the administration of justice or the revenue; and the command which they exercised over the troops of their department, was inde pendent of the authority of the magistrates." When the Goths, and Franks, and other barbarians successfully invaded the provinces of the empire, they preserved the titles of count and D., if they had not already borrowed them from the Romans. But amongst races who owed their supremacy to the sword, no dignity could prevail over that of the commander of an army; and the dukes, as military chiefs, acquired a marked pre-emi nence over the counts, whose lofty functions under the empire had been partly of a civil, and partly of a military nature. The only exception under the first Merovingians was in the case of the count of the palace. See COUNT. In the hierarchy observed by the Franks and other Teutonic races, the ordinary count became the lieut. of the D., and the government of the latter extended to several provinces; whereas that of the former was confined to one province, or even to a single locality. The power of the dukes grew so rapidly, in consequence of the dissensions of the Merovmgians, that, towards the end of the 6th c. (582), they arrogated to themselves the right to dispose of
the crown. Amongst the causes which tended to raise the power of the dukes, was the immense wealth which had been acquired by the great provincial families. The chiefs who bad attached themselves to the fortunes of Clovis had been richly endowed with conquered lands. After the close of the 7th c., they overshadowed the crown, and the title of prince and chief (chef) began to be attributed to them. It has been said that the of the palace sometimes assumed the title of •archduke (q.v.). Under the second dynasty, the title of duke retained all its dignity and importance, and it was to the successivejiriasinns of local upon central power, that feudality owed its origin.
The concession, tacit or express, of hereditary power and independent jurisdiction, first to the central province known as the Isle of France, and then to Aquitaine, extended itself, under the Carlovingians, to Burgundy, Normandy, and Gascony; and on the accession of Hugo Capet, to all the other subaltern tenures. Once become unlimited masters of their respective legations, the dukes did not long delay to proclaim their title to be as good as that of the king. They assumed the crown and the scepter, promul gated laws for their subjects, struck money with their own image, and made war in their own name against the crown, with whom they balanced and several times divided the supreme authority. The confederation of the feudal lords had assumed such dimen sions, that about the period of the Norman invasion of England nothing remained directly under the crown except a few towns, of which Rheims and Laon were the chief. The rest of the kingdom was divided amongst the'dukes and the counts, under an obligation, which they almost always evaded, of service and fidelity to the crown. But the Capetiens had been enlightened by the fall of two dynasties, and were careful to delegate to no other hands the duchy of the Isle of France, which had so often been a stepping stone to the throne. When it became extinct in 887, it was not re-established, and that event was the signal for the restoration of a national character to France. The duchy of Gascony was joined to Aquitaine in 1052; and both provinces, along with Normandy, were finally re-united to the crown, in 1204, by confiscation. This latter duchy was sometimes given to princes of the blood, but without any separation of its fiscal arrangements from those of the kingdom. A part of Aquitaine was given up to England in 1259, and again ceded to France in 1453. The ducal sovereignty of Bur gundy was extinguished in 1477, that of Brittany in 1514, of Narbonne in 1229, and of Toulouse in 1301.