Editing Duke (section)

=== Lombards ===
{{main|Duke (Lombard)}}
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, 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 [[gastald]]s, a uniquely Lombard title initially referring to judicial functions, similar to a count's, in provincial regions.