Voivode, Voievod, Vojvoda or Wojewoda is a Slavic term for a military commander in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe during the Early Middle Ages, or a governor of a territorial voivodeship. Later it became a hereditary title of nobility, in some Slavic languages, as a translation of the title of Prince or Duke.

The different permutations of the term all share two roots, firstly, voi (woj) related to warring and secondly, vod meaning leading in Old Slavic, together denoting a "war-leader" or "warlord". In early Slavic vojevoda meant the bellidux the military leader in battle.

During the Byzantine Empire it referred to military commanders mainly of Slavic populations, especially in the Balkans, the Bulgarian Empire being the first permanently established Slavic state in the region. The title voevodas (Greek: βοεβόδας) originally occurs in the work of the 10th-century Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in his De Administrando Imperio in reference to Hungarian military leaders.

The title was used in medieval Bohemia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldavia, Poland, Rügen, Russian Empire, Ruthenia, Serbia, Transylvania and Wallachia In the Late Middle Ages the voivode, Latin translation is comes palatinus for the principal commander of a military force, deputising for the monarch gradually became the title of territorial governors in Poland, Hungary and the Czech lands and in the Balkans.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org