A woïwode (Polish form) or voévode (Rumanian form) is a Slavic term of origin , which appoints at the beginning the commander of a military region. Derived from the Slavon, voï (armed) and voda (which leads), it was used at the time medieval in all the zone of the Central and Eastern Europe (which corresponds to the current countries of the Bulgaria, of the Hungary, of the Poland, the Romania, the Russia and the Serbia). It was the military Grade highest in the armies of the Montenegro, the Serbia and the Yugoslavia.

The term of Latin origin correspondent is Duc (Latin , ducere , to lead). Duc is a title of nobility: it is not the case for woïwode which is a Office (and corresponds better to the rank of Général of army corps, equipped with the functions of Gouverneur for its area, in particular to raise its troops and to provide there for their needs, and to make there apply the laws of the government or the sovereign). But it is the case for voévode , title of the princes of Moldavie and Valachie, whose row peerage-book was princely.

The large woïwode is the woïwode indicated by its pars (of others woïwodes) like their chief (similar to the rank of marshal or general if it directs several armies).

The territory on which the authority of a woïwode is recognized calls the woïwodie (Voïvodie), which one can translate into French by Marche or Palatinat (makes a military region of it). A woïwodie is often subdivided in cnézats directed by a kniaz (Cnéz), which is a chief having authority on a smaller territory ( canesats in the Latin texts). In the Rumanian principalities one speaks about voévodat , that one can translate into French by Principauté: these voévodats was divided into tinuturi and judete (subdivisions equivalent to the cnézats ).

In Poland, a woïwodie indicates today an administrative division (a kind of department) directed by a woïwode (the equivalent of the prefect).

One finds another example of this name in Serbia in the autonomous province of north called the Voïvodine.

• Voïvodie