by The Laird o’Thistle
September 21, 2008 (revised by Susan in November 2017)
“Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince, who was also known as the Duke of….”
It has long been the custom of British Sovereigns to bestow a Dukedom on their sons and on the sons of their heirs. Over the past century, this has come to be associated with the marriage of those various princes. In the wake of last month’s column, in which many royal dukes from generations past got mentioned, I was asked what dukedom might eventually be bestowed on Prince Harry when he weds. In pondering the question I realized that there is presently something of a shortage in the traditional list of royal dukedoms, and when the time comes Harry will probably end up with something rather more obscure than the old somewhat familiar list.
Several royal dukedoms automatically appertain to the Sovereign and to the heir to the throne. Stretching back to Tudor times the Queen holds the title of Duke of Lancaster and in some of the Channel Islands she is also still hailed as “Duke of Normandy.” (Yes, as I understand it, in both cases she is a female “Duke”, not a Duchess.) The Heir Apparent automatically holds the title Duke of Cornwall and the Scottish title Duke of Rothesay, even though he has to be “created” Prince of Wales. Other royal dukedoms also have to be “created” (i.e. “bestowed”) by the Sovereign’s gift, though they then continue in the male succession of that family. The royal dukedoms currently held by members of the House of Windsor are Edinburgh, York, Gloucester, Kent, and Cambridge. If and when any of the dukedoms become “extinct” they return to the Crown and may be bestowed anew as the Sovereign wishes.
The current creation of the Duke of Edinburgh bestowed on Prince Philip at the time of his marriage to Princess Elizabeth will officially fall to Prince Charles upon the death of his father. But upon Charles’ eventual accession to the throne, it will “merge” back into the Crown. It is widely understood that King Charles will then create his brother, the Earl of Wessex, as the new Duke of Edinburgh. And now that Prince Edward has a son, that royal dukedom will be occupied for at least a couple of generations.
Prince Andrew was created Duke of York at the time of his marriage in 1986. But unless he remarries and has a son from that marriage, the title will eventually revert to the Crown upon his death. (Another option, last used in the early 20th century in the instance of the daughters of the Duke of Fife, who was married to Edward VII’s daughter Louise, would be a re-grant of the title allowing the title to descend to and through the female line.)
Prince William, Harry’s elder brother, was created Duke of Cambridge upon his marriage to Catherine Middleton in 2013.
The Duke of Gloucester inherited the title from his father, Prince Henry, the third son of George V and Queen Mary. Since the current Duke has a son, Alexander, Earl of Ulster, and now a grandson as well, that title will also be off the books for the foreseeable future.
The Duke of Kent, another grandson of George V and Queen Mary, has two sons and now has two grandsons as well. The Duke’s brother, Prince Michael, also has a son Lord Frederick Windsor. The Kent lineage thus seems fairly secure for several generations to come.
So, when the time comes to start looking for a title for Harry, other options will have to be explored. From my research for last month’s column, it would seem that several other historic royal dukedoms also remain unavailable. For instance, two of Queen Victoria’s sons held the titles Duke of Connaught, and Duke of Albany. But since Connaught is in Ireland, that title must surely be regarded as defunct. Albany, meanwhile, is currently in abeyance.
The title Duke of Albany is a traditional Scottish title going back to the early Stewart era, circa 1400. (Ancient Scotland was known as “Alba.”) The title was held by Charles I before he succeeded his brother as heir to their father, James VI / I. The future James VII / II was created Duke of York and Albany by his brother Charles II in 1660. The York and Albany titles were also conjoined by the Hanoverians in a couple of instances. The “Young Pretender” Prince Charles Edward Stuart created his illegitimate daughter, Charlotte, Duchess of Albany. Queen Victoria eventually bestowed it as an independent title on her youngest son, Prince Leopold, from whom it passed to his only son, Prince Charles Edward.
The unfortunate Charles Edward of Albany was chosen as a schoolboy to succeed to the German Duchy of Coburg, and ultimately sided with Germany in both World Wars. In 1919 the Duke of Coburg was legally deprived of his British peerage for having fought for his cousin the Kaiser against Britain. But, according to the 1917 Titles Deprivation Act his lineal male heirs do have the right to petition for the title to be restored. The current heir male to the Dukedom is Charles Edward’s great-grandson, Prince Hubert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1961), who has a son born in 1994. There are several other heirs male in the abeyant line of the Dukedom, and it is thus unlikely to ever reappear as a British title so long as the 1917 law remains. Given the historic provenance of the dukedom this seems a great pity.
There is another traditional British royal dukedom that has also long since spun off to Germany. When Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837 she was not eligible to also succeed to the throne of Hanover, which was governed by the old Salic Law barring women rulers. Victoria’s uncle Ernest Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, thus went over to rule Hanover. As with the Albanys, the Cumberlands were deprived of their British peerage in 1919 but retain the right to petition for it to be restored. The current potential Duke of Cumberland in that succession is Prince Ernst, the husband of Caroline of Monaco, who has two sons from his first marriage and a number of male-line kinsmen (including two nephews of Prince Philip).
There are, currently, three historic royal dukedoms that are extinct and thus eligible to be bestowed on Prince Harry when the occasion arises. They are Windsor, Clarence, and Sussex.
The title Duke of Windsor was newly created by King George VI for his brother, the former King Edward VIII, in 1936. The title had never existed previously. There was some speculation before the marriage of the Earl and Countess of Wessex that he might be given the title. I personally think that there was no chance of it reappearing during the lifetime of the late Queen Mother and that it is still quite unlikely that the Queen would consider bestowing it on her grandson. It could reappear in a later generation, once it is a bit further removed from living memory. It really is quite a grand and appropriate title.
The most recent holder of the title Duke of Clarence was “Prince Eddy,” the unfortunate elder brother of King George V who died in 1892. Prince Albert Victor – to use his baptismal name – was a rather underwhelming character, perhaps the least intellectually gifted member of the royal family for all time, and he is rumored to have been either homosexual or bisexual. (Other speculations that he was also “Jack the Ripper” do seem to have been laid to rest.) Prior to Albert Victor the Clarence title was held by King William IV up to the time he succeeded his brother, George IV. There were also several prominent holders of the title back in the days of the Plantagenets. The lingering lore and speculation surrounding Prince Albert Victor makes this, too, a somewhat unlikely title to re-emerge in the near future, though I must admit that I rather like the sound of “Henry, Duke of Clarence” better than several of the other options.
The title Duke of Sussex was held by Prince Augustus Frederick (1773-1843), the sixth son of King George III and favorite uncle of Queen Victoria. Both of his marriages were invalid under the infamous Royal Marriages Act. His son by his first marriage was thus regarded as illegitimate and ineligible to succeed to his father’s title. That son, known as Augustus Frederick D’Este, was the first known person to be identified with the disease now known as multiple sclerosis. He had no issue. The Sussex title has been so long unused that there are no lingering strong associations with it, one way or the other.
There are a few extinct peerages more loosely associated with royal history that might be worth consideration for Prince Harry or some other future royal. These include the Dukedoms of Portsmouth, Cleveland, Inverness, and Strathearn. The first two of those titles were created for mistresses of Charles II, both of whom were ancestresses of Princess Diana. The Inverness title was created by Queen Victoria for the second non-approved wife of the Duke of Sussex so that she would at least be of sufficient rank to sit with him at dinner parties. The complication with creating a Duke of Inverness at this time is that it is the Earldom held by the current Duke of York, and having both a Duke and an Earl of Inverness might be a bit too confusing. Likewise, the Earl of Strathearn is currently held by The Duke of Cambridge so a Duke of Strathearn is also probably out of consideration.
Yours Aye,
– Ken Cuthbertson