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The House of Doukas (Plural Doukai; , pl. Δούκαι, feminine form Doukaina; Δούκαινα), Latinized as Ducas, was a Byzantine Greeks Nobility family, whose branches provided several notable generals and rulers to the Byzantine Empire in the 9th–11th centuries. A maternally-descended line, the Komnenodoukai, founded the Despotate of Epirus in the 13th century, with another branch ruling over Thessaly.
The continuity of descent amongst the various branches of the original, middle Byzantine family is not clear, and historians generally recognize several distinct groups of Doukai based on their occurrence in the contemporary sources. Polemis, who compiled the only overview work on the bearers of the Doukas name, in view of this lack of genealogical continuity "it would be a mistake to view the groups of people designated by the cognomen of Doukas as forming one large family"..
The first branch of the family to achieve prominence was in the early 10th century (they are usually referred to with the archaic form Doux rather than Doukas in the sources), with Andronikos Doukas and his son Constantine Doukas. Both were senior generals during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). In circa 904, Andronikos engaged in an unsuccessful rebellion and was forced to flee to Baghdad where he was killed circa 910. Constantine managed to escape and was restored to high office, becoming Domestic of the Schools. He was killed, however, along with his son Gregory and nephew Michael, in an unsuccessful coup in June 913.. These deaths, along with the castration and exile of Constantine's younger son Stephen and the death of a Nicholas Doukas (of uncertain relation to the others) at the Battle of Katasyrtai in 917, mark the end of the first group of Doukai recorded in Byzantine sources. It is likely, as the 12th-century historian Joannes Zonaras records, that the Doukai line died out, and that the later bearers of the name were descendants through the female line only..
The most famous members of this group were the dynasty's founder, Emperor Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059–1067), his brother John Doukas, katepano and later Caesar, Constantine's son Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078), Michael's younger brothers, Konstantios and Andronikos Doukas, Michael's son and co-emperor Constantine Doukas and John's son, the general Andronikos Doukas.
During this period, the family intermarried with other aristocratic clans: before becoming emperor, Constantine X had married into the powerful Dalassenos family, and took as a second wife Eudokia Makrembolitissa, niece of the Patriarch Michael Keroularios. Further dynastic matches were made with the clans of the Anatolian military aristocracy, including the Palaiologos and the Pegonites.. The most important connection, however, was to the Komnenos: in 1077, Alexios Komnenos, then a general and later emperor (r. 1081–1118), married Irene Doukaina, the great-niece of Constantine X; thereafter, the family name Komnenodoukas was often used. This marriage alliance was crucial for Alexios's own rise to the purple: his marriage to a Doukaina made him senior to his elder brother Isaac, and it was Doukai financial and political support that largely facilitated the successful and bloodless coup that brought him to the throne..
During the 12th century, the prestige of the Doukas name meant that it was often taken as a second surname by members of other families, even if remotely (and usually ) linked to the actual Doukai, who became relatively obscure after the turn of the century. It is hence impossible to clearly distinguish the numerous holders of the name or to discern their exact relationship with the 11th-century Doukid dynasty. The actual bloodline of Constantine X died out probably before 1100, and the last known descendants of his brother, the Caesar John, lived in the first half of the 12th century. The majority of the 12th-century bearers of the name were therefore most likely members of other families, linked through marriage with the Doukai, who chose to emphasize this relationship due to the prestige the name conferred...
The name spread far and wide across the Greek-speaking world as well as in Albania, and remains fairly common to this day. Among the more notable bearers of the Doukas name in the post-Byzantine period were the 16th-century Cretan scholar Demetrius Ducas, the 17th-century rulers of Moldavia George Ducas and Constantine Ducas (their descent is variously given as Greek, Vlach or Albanians) or the 19th-century scholar and educationalist Neophytos Doukas.. Several variations also developed, such as Doukakes (Δουκάκης) (cf. former Massachusetts state governor Michael Dukakis), Doukopoulos (Δουκόπουλος), Doukatos (Δουκάτος), Makrodoukas or Makrydoukas (Μακροδούκας/Μακρυδούκας), etc. Other variants like Doukaites (Δουκαΐτης) or Doukides (Δουκίδης) seem to derive not from the surname, but from a locality and a first name "Doukas" respectively..
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