I'm writing a Crusader Kings 2 AAR, and trying to keep it as authentic as possible. I'd like to know how would one "create" a ducal title, being a count. Currently playing as a duke in the HRE, if the region changes anything.
On another note: what were Margraviates and Count Palatines? How do they compare to common count/duke titles?
Thanks! :D
A margrave is frontier lord with particular rights or exemptions attached to the lordship, similar to a marquis in France or a marcher in England.
If your AAR stretches over the span of CKII (Carolingian to late medieval) then it is never going to be authentic because these titles derived ultimately from administrative and military roles and changed significantly over this period to become a more ossified social stratification. You might also be interested with the points I made about authenticity and simulation in this post.
A Pfalzgraf originally existed for every Pfalz (royal residence), but all but one of these offices got taken over by other nobles and ended up being a minor title to somebody with a higher title. The one exception was the Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, who achieved duke-like status. Dukes in the HRE originally existed as a leftover from carolingian times and were bound to being the leader of a tribe - Herzog von Schwaben, von Sachsen, von Baiern etc. Duirng the middle ages Dukedoms were very rarely created, the only example I can think of right now is the creation of Kärnten during Ottonian times with the specific purpose of weakening the Dukes of Bavaria. the idea of a duke being a title that was free for the king to give away to people as he pleased belongs to the Neuzeit, not the Middle Ages. Edit: There is also the case of the Herzogtum Braunschweig-Lüneburg, that was created when the old Herzogtum Sachsen was divided into Sachsen and Braunschweig-Lüneburg.