Ive been reading about the breakdown of different medieval countries, and it's a bit confusing when it comes to duchies, counties, earldoms or marches or baronies (which I know least about)
It seems that duchies were a lot lik e small kingdoms, so would a duchy sometimes be composed of counties? Could a count or earl be subject to the duke? I haven't found many historical examples, only superficial articles. So I'm hoping someone can provide me some examples.
I've seen examples of the reverse, where a duke might win over an independent county and therefore be titled duke of this and count of that...but doesn't the duke have some sort of administrating vassal under him?
It seems a baron is lower on the rung, but they too seemed have a lot of power. Who were they immediately subject to? I'm sure in some cases and in some points of history, they were subject to the king, but were there some who would be subject to a duke, following some sort of flow like this: baron <duke <king....could there be cases like: baron <count <duke <King...any examples?
Ok last question, what is the breakdown of duties in these titles? I've read that earls and sheriffs had administrative roles. I've also read of actual exampkes where they had military roles...did it just depend on the situation and location of land?
Thank you.
The problem you're having here is that you're trying to think about medieval aristocratic titles as if they all fit into a neat and logical hierarchy or system - which they don't. Medieval nobles swapped, invented or stole titles and, as long as nobody challenged them, they just kept them and passed them on. The tenth century in France is a great example, as the count of Rouen and the count of Auvergne both decide to start calling themselves Dukes (of Normandy and of Aquitaine, respectively). This gets less common in the later middle ages, as lines of succession and inheritance become more fixed and central control becomes tighter, but right up until the end of the middle ages (and beyond) counts, earls and dukes were created/appointed out of thin air.
Having said that, there are a few things I can clarify about duchies and counties:
Being a duke implied a certain amount of power and prestige above that of being a count, so it's pretty normal to find a number of counts (and by extension their counties) within a duke's sphere of influence. Sometimes dukes had such a tight reign on their counts that we can effectively talk about a centralised Duchy of X encompassing all the counties (Normandy is the classic example), while in other cases is was a much more fluid and flexible arrangement (e.g. Burgundy).
Some terms are only found in England (or English-dominated areas in the Celtic Fringe or on the continent). Baron, earl and sheriff are some of these. Barons were any nobleman who held land directly from the king; it was a status rather than an office (i.e. you couldn't be 'baron of X' in any official sense). Earls were counts; in Latin, the same word comes was used for both an earl and a count. Sheriffs were royal officials, appointed to represent the king in the localities (shires) and to administer the royal court.
Duties for all of these 'offices' would have been, for the most part, both administrative and military - there wasn't much of a distinction in the middle ages where the prestige of a layman depended on his being part of the ordo bellatorum. The amount of administration involved would develop hugely in the course of the 12th and 13th centuries, but in all cases would have involved collecting rents/taxes/tolls and running a court to administer justice/settle disputes. (I'll admit I'm not 100% sure on sheriffs here - I don't recall them every having formal military duties, although I'm sure they would participate - but the specifics of English royal administration aren't my strong suit).
Hope this helps!