Are dukes and duchesses like politicians, governers, taxers close to the royalty?

Question

Are dukes and duchesses like politicians, governers, taxers close to the royalty?

Answer 1

A duke is a noble person, historically of highest rank below the king or queen, and usually controls a duchy or a Dukedom. In the Middle Ages, 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. In the Modern Age it has become a nominal rank without an actual principality. It is still the highest titular peerage in France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy. 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.

Various royal houses traditionally awarded (mainly) dukedoms to the sons and in some cases, the daughters, of their respective Sovereigns. Such titles are still conferred on royal princes or princesses in the current European monarchies of Belgium, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, a duke is – with the exception of the monarch and immediate Royal Family – the highest-ranking hereditary title in the British peerage, sometimes referred to as "the nobility" or simply as "Lords and Ladies." A Royal Duke is a duke who is a member of the British Royal Family, entitled to the style of "His Royal Highness".