How are duke, dutchess, and count selected?

Question

How are duke, dutchess, and count selected?

Answer 1

They aren't selected, they're hereditary titles. If your dad is a duke, then you become a duke when he dies if you're the eldest boy.  If you're a younger male child then I think you are a lord until you die and your children follow on as lords.  If you're an only girl then you become a duchess when your father dies, or it will go to your oldest male relative and you remain a Lady.

Answer 2

These are all inherited and old titles. At one time, the family that holds them received these titles,power and lands from the monarch as rewards for doing some great service,usually military,for the crown and country.You are not "selected" to randomly receive titles.

A Duchess may be a duchess in her own right(inherited) or she may marry a Duke;this can be said for many females--they can marry a title man,or hold their very own inherited titles.

Answer 3

Nine times out of ten,someone in the family line had to perform some heroic deed of military service  in which that person was knighted by the reigning monarch. Over time, some did another deed of heroism and was elevated in the order of peerage not just by one monarch but by many others throughout the family history.

Answer 4

Jaradel's answer is incomplete and partially incorrect and seems to be a little Anglocentric.

In the United Kingdom, most dukedoms are hereditary through males only meaning that a duke is succeeded on his death by his eldest son, if any, or a son of a son, then a brother, etc, following a system called male primogeniture.

Certain dukedoms have special remainders (that is, provisions for succession) which may allow female succession. Not all do though so it is entirely possible for a duke with ten daughters, each of whom may have ten sons, to die without an heir to his title.

In Germany, particularly, all of the children of a duke traditionally became dukes and duchesses themselves. The head of the family would be The Duke of X or <Name>, Duke of X, while all other members of the name would be Duke/Duchess <Name> of X. The same is true of the title of count. Of course, there are some variations for certain families in titling. The important thing to note though that the title of duke was hereditary and the only way to be one was to be the male-line descendant of one (through legitimate unions) or to be given that title by a king or emperor, etc.

In most other countries it is just about the same, they don't say, "Hey, we're going to randomly select people to be dukes". A family would have to be ennobled or formerly sovereign and then the title of duke or count would pass in that family.

Of course, one way for a person to be selected as a duchess is for a duke to select a woman as his wife.