Doge

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For a more detailed history of their doges, see Doges of Venice, and Doges of Genoa

The word doge (pronounced Template:IPA in English, Template:IPA in Italian; plural dogi as in Italian or doges) is a dialectical Italian word (in standard Italian it became duca (see duce) derived from Latin dux, meaning leader, especially military, and giving rise to the noble or princely titles for duke in various languages including English.

The title was used for the elected Chief Magistrate in a few Italian "crowned republics", where once elected they had the pomp of a Monarch.

In Venice it was used for 1,000 years (from the 8th to the 18th century), and later in Senarica and in the Liguarian capital Genoa (Genova). At the time, the rich merchant republics of Venice and Genoa rivaled each other and the other regional great powers by building their historical city-states into maritime, commercial, and, to a lesser extent, territorial mini-empires.

In Venice the office of doge originated when the city was nominally subject to the Byzantine Empire and became permanent in the mid-8th century. According to tradition, the first doge was Paolo Lucio Anafesto, elected in 697. The doges of Venice were elected for life from among the richest and most powerful families. They enjoyed almost absolute power in governmental, military, and church affairs until 1032. After that time, the people limited the doges' power by surrounding them with officials who could overrule them. In 1797, French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Venice. Napoleon abolished the office of doge.

The name doge was also given to the principal civil official of Genoa, the office being modeled on that of Venice and instituted in 1339 to help end disorders among factions in the city. From 1384 to 1515 the popular elements of Genoa controlled the office of doge except for brief periods of foreign domination. In 1528 the office was reinstituted but restricted to aristocrats who held it for a term of two years. This office, like that of Venice, ended with French control of the peninsula.

Another, virtually insignificant, but still styled "most serene republic", was the minute Senarica, named after its capital west of Teramo (in Abruzzo) on Central Italy's Adriatic coast, which also elected dogi, possibly annually, from 1343 till its annexation to the Neapolitan kingdom of Sicily in 1797.bg:Дож de:Doge et:Doodž fr:Doge it:Doge ja:ドージェ nl:Doge pl:Doża pt:Doge fi:Doge sv:Doge