Duke of Edinburgh

Last updated

Dukedom of Edinburgh
Coat of Arms of Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.svg
Arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Creation date10 March 2023 (announced) [1]
3 April 2023 (Letters Patent) [2]
CreationFourth
Created by Charles III
Peerage Peerage of the United Kingdom
First holder Prince Frederick
(first creation; 1726)
Present holder Prince Edward
Subsidiary titles Earl of Wessex
Earl of Forfar
Viscount Severn
StatusExtant

Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produce any revenue for the title-holder.

Contents

The current holder, Prince Edward, was created duke in 2023 on his 59th birthday by his eldest brother, King Charles III. The dukedom had previously been granted to their father, then Philip Mountbatten, on the day of his marriage to then-Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II. Upon Philip's death, the title was inherited by Charles and held by him until Elizabeth died and Charles became king, at which time the title reverted to the Crown.

1726 creation

Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) was the first Duke of Edinburgh, from 1726 until his death. Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales by Philip Mercier.jpg
Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707–1751) was the first Duke of Edinburgh, from 1726 until his death.

The title was first created in the Peerage of Great Britain on 26 July 1726 by King George I, who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick, who subsequently became Prince of Wales in 1728. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Marquess of the Isle of Ely, [3] Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent, [4] Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon, all of which were also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The marquessate was gazetted as Marquess of the Isle of Wight, [4] apparently erroneously. In later editions of the London Gazette the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely. [5] [6] Upon Frederick's death, the titles were inherited by his son Prince George. When Prince George became King George III in 1760, the titles merged in the Crown and ceased to exist. [3]

1866 creation

Queen Victoria re-created the title, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 May 1866 for her second son Prince Alfred, instead of Duke of York, the traditional title of the second son of the monarch. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. [7] When Alfred became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893, he retained his British titles. His only son that survived birth, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, committed suicide in 1899, so the Dukedom of Edinburgh and subsidiary titles became extinct upon the elder Alfred's death in 1900. [3]

1947 creation

The title was created for a third time on 19 November 1947 by King George VI, [8] who bestowed it on his future son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, when he married Princess Elizabeth. Subsequently, Elizabeth was styled "HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh" until her accession in 1952. [9] The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London; all these titles were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. [10] Earlier that year, Philip had renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles (he was born a prince of Greece and Denmark, being a male-line grandson of King George I of Greece and male-line great-grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark) along with his rights to the Greek throne. In 1957, Philip became a prince of the United Kingdom. [11]

Upon Philip's death on 9 April 2021, his eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles. [12] Upon Charles's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022, the peerages merged in the Crown and ceased to exist. [13]

2023 creation

It was announced in 1999, at the time of his wedding, that Prince Edward would eventually be granted the Dukedom of Edinburgh. [14] The idea came from Prince Philip, who unexpectedly conveyed his wish to Edward and his fiancée, Sophie Rhys-Jones, only days before their wedding. Edward, then seventh in the line of succession to the British throne, had expected the dukedom to be granted to Prince Andrew, his older brother. [15]

Prince Philip died in April 2021. His dukedom was inherited by his eldest son, Prince Charles, before it 'merged in the Crown' when Charles became King. The dukedom was then recreated for Prince Edward, in accordance with Prince Philip's wishes. Edward, who had by then dropped to the 14th place in the line of succession because of births of those higher in line, said in June that him getting such a prestigious title was "a pipe dream of my father's". [15] In July, The Times reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother. [16] Clarence House did not deny the reports, which were met with disapproval by commentators in light of Edward and Sophie's increased role in the monarchy after Andrew withdrew from public life and Charles's son Prince Harry and daughter-in-law Meghan quit royal duties. [15]

It was suggested in November 2022, shortly after Charles III ascended the throne, that Buckingham Palace was considering saving the dukedom for the new king's granddaughter Princess Charlotte of Wales in recognition of her high place in the line of succession and her being the first female member of the royal family whose place in the line of succession cannot be superseded by a younger brother. [15]

The dukedom was bestowed on Prince Edward on the occasion of his 59th birthday on 10 March 2023. [17] [18] [1] This fourth creation of the title is, however, a life peerage, meaning that Edward's son, James, will not inherit the dukedom (unlike with Edward's other peerages). This allows Charles to honour his father's wish and reward his brother and sister-in-law while making it possible for Charles's heir-apparent, Prince William, to confer it on one of his children. According to Camilla Tominey of The Daily Telegraph , there had been concerns regarding the effect that "giv(ing) the Edinburgh dukedom to someone descending fast down the royal ranking" would have on the Scottish independence debate. She proposes that "the prospect of Scottish independence now looking less likely" in the light of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation made the conferral less of a risk. [15]

Dukes of Edinburgh

First creation, 1726

Also: Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, Viscount Launceston and Baron Snowdon.

DukePortraitBirthMarriage(s)Death
Prince Frederick
House of Hanover
1726–1751
also: Prince of Wales (1728), Duke of Cornwall (1727, created 1337), Duke of Rothesay (1727, created 1469)		 Frederick Prince of Wales.jpg 1 February 1707
Leineschloss, Hanover
son of King George II and Queen Caroline 		Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
17 April 1736
9 children		31 March 1751
Leicester House, Leicester Square, London
aged 44
Prince George
House of Hanover
1751–1760
also: Prince of Wales (1751)		 George, Prince of Wales, later George III, 1754 by Liotard.jpg 4 June 1738
Norfolk House, London
son of Prince Frederick and Princess Augusta 		Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
8 September 1761
15 children		29 January 1820
Windsor Castle, Windsor
aged 81
Prince George succeeded as George III in 1760 upon his grandfather's death, and his titles merged in the Crown.

Second creation, 1866

Also: Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster.

DukePortraitBirthMarriage(s)Death
Prince Alfred
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
1866–1900
also Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1893)		 Alfred-sachsen-coburg-gotha.jpg 6 August 1844
Windsor Castle, Windsor
son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 		Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
23 January 1874
6 children		30 July 1900
Schloss Rosenau, Coburg
aged 55
Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Maria had two sons, one stillborn, one who predeceased him; and all his titles became extinct on his death.

Third creation, 1947

Also: Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.

DukePortraitBirthMarriage(s)Death
Prince Philip
Mountbatten family/House of Glücksburg (by birth)
1947–2021
 Duke of Edinburgh 33 Allan Warren.jpg 10 June 1921
Mon Repos, Corfu
son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg 		Princess Elizabeth
20 November 1947
4 children		 9 April 2021
Windsor Castle, Windsor
aged 99
Prince Charles
House of Windsor
2021–2022
also: Prince of Wales (1958), Duke of Cornwall (1952, created 1337), Duke of Rothesay (1952, created 1469)		 Charles, Prince of Wales in 2021 (cropped) (3).jpg 14 November 1948
Buckingham Palace, London
son of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II 		Lady Diana Spencer
29 July 1981
2 children
Divorced 28 August 1996		Living
Camilla Parker Bowles
9 April 2005
No issue
Prince Charles succeeded as Charles III in 2022 upon his mother's death, and his titles merged in the Crown.

Fourth creation, 2023

DukePortraitBirthMarriage(s)Death
Prince Edward
House of Windsor
2023–present
also: Earl of Wessex (1999), Earl of Forfar (2019), Viscount Severn (1999)		 Prince Edward 2022.jpg 10 March 1964
Buckingham Palace, London
son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip		 Sophie Rhys-Jones
19 June 1999
2 children		Living
The dukedom will be held for Prince Edward's lifetime as a non-hereditary peerage title.

Family trees

Heraldry

Here are the achievements of the various Dukes of Edinburgh:

In media

A fictional Duke of Edinburgh appears in the 1983 sitcom The Black Adder . Rowan Atkinson plays the title character, Prince Edmund, who is granted the title Duke of Edinburgh by his father, a fictitious King Richard IV. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Marlborough (title)</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Duke of Marlborough is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Queen Anne in 1702 for John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough (1650–1722), the noted military leader. In historical texts, unqualified use of the title typically refers to the 1st Duke. The name of the dukedom refers to Marlborough in Wiltshire.

Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established in a royal charter in 1337 by King Edward III. Prince William became Duke of Cornwall following the accession of his father, King Charles III, to the throne in 2022, and his wife, Catherine, became Duchess of Cornwall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of York</span> Title of nobility

Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Duke of Albany. However, King George II and King George III granted the titles Duke of York and Albany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Gloucester</span> Aristocratic title

Duke of Gloucester is a British royal title, often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the current creation carries with it the subsidiary titles of Earl of Ulster and Baron Culloden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Kent</span> Title in the peerages the United Kingdom

Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edward, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Cambridge</span> Title in the peerage of the United Kingdom

Duke of Cambridge is a hereditary title of nobility in the British royal family, one of several royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom. The title is named after the city of Cambridge in England. It is heritable by male descendants by primogeniture, and has been conferred upon various members of the British royal family several times throughout history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Hamilton</span> Scottish nobility

Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage, and as such its holder is the premier peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas. The title, the town of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, and many places around the world are named after members of the Hamilton family. The ducal family's surname, originally "Hamilton", is now "Douglas-Hamilton". Since 1711, the dukedom has been held together with the Dukedom of Brandon in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the dukes since that time have been styled Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, along with several other subsidiary titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Beaufort</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Duke of Beaufort is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, a Lancastrian leader in the Wars of the Roses. The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne, France. It is the only current dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke of Fife</span> Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Duke of Fife is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that has been created twice, in both cases for Alexander Duff, 1st Earl of Fife. In 1889, Lord Fife married Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Wessex</span> British noble title

Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex, in the south and southwest of present-day England, became one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ; in the tenth century the increasing power of the Kingdom of the West Saxons led to a united Kingdom of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquess of Cambridge</span>

Marquess of Cambridge was a title that was created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountbatten family</span> European dynasty

The House of Mountbatten is a British dynasty that originated as a British branch of the German princely Battenberg family. The name was adopted on 14 July 1917, three days before the British royal family changed its name from "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "Windsor", by members of the Battenberg family residing in the United Kingdom, due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British public during World War I. The name is a direct Anglicisation of the German Battenberg, the name of a small town in Hesse. The titles of count and later prince of Battenberg had been granted in the mid-19th century to a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, itself a cadet branch of the House of Hesse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchess of Kent</span> Royal title

Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom on 25 August 1942 upon the death of his father, Prince George, the fourth son of George V.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Greenwich</span> Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Greenwich was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that has been created twice in British history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Forfar</span> Title of Scottish nobility

Earl of Forfar is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The name of the earldom refers to Forfar, the county town of Angus, Scotland. The current holder is Prince Edward, son of Elizabeth II and brother of Charles III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James, Earl of Wessex</span> Member of the British royal family (born 2007)

James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor, Earl of Wessex, styled Viscount Severn from 2007 until 2023, is the younger child and son of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. He is the youngest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the youngest nephew of King Charles III. At the time of his birth, he was 8th in line to the British throne. He is now 15th in line.

In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of His Royal Highness, who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage, and the holders of these particular dukedoms are princes of the blood royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal, not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.

Duke, in the United Kingdom, is the highest-ranking hereditary title in all five peerages of the British Isles. A duke thus outranks all other holders of titles of nobility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchess of Edinburgh</span> Royal title

Duchess of Edinburgh is the principal courtesy title held by the wife of the Duke of Edinburgh. There have been five Duchesses of Edinburgh since the title's creation. Following the accession of Charles III in 2022, the 3rd creation of the Dukedom of Edinburgh merged in the Crown. Following his parents’ wishes, on 10 March 2023, Charles III conferred the title Duke of Edinburgh on his youngest brother, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie, became the Duchess of Edinburgh.

References

  1. 1 2 Coughlan, Sean (10 March 2023). "King Charles grants Prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh title". BBC News. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  2. ↑ "No. 64022". The London Gazette . 6 April 2023. p. 7074.
  3. 1 2 3 Cokayne, G. E. (1926). Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H. A. (eds.). The Complete Peerage . Vol. 5: Eardley of Spalding to Goojerat (2nd ed.). London: St. Catherine Press. pp.  6–8.
  4. 1 2 "No. 6494". The London Gazette . 12 July 1726. p. 1.
  5. ↑ "No. 6741". The London Gazette . 4 January 1728. p. 2.
  6. ↑ "No. 9050". The London Gazette . 16 April 1751. p. 1.
  7. ↑ "No. 23119". The London Gazette . 25 May 1866. p. 3127.
  8. ↑ "No. 38128". The London Gazette . 21 November 1947. p. 5495.
  9. ↑ "Kate to become Duchess of Cambridge". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 April 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  10. ↑ "No. 38128". The London Gazette . 21 November 1947. p. 5496.
  11. ↑ "No. 41009". The London Gazette . 22 February 1957. p. 1209.
  12. ↑ "HRH The Duke of Edinburgh". College of Arms. 9 April 2021. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Who is the Duke of Edinburgh now?". Evening Standard. 15 September 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  14. ↑ "The Earl of Wessex". Royal.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Tominey, Camilla (10 March 2023). "Prince Edward may have the Duke of Edinburgh title – but getting it wasn't easy". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  16. ↑ Nikkhah, Roya (11 July 2021). "Edward wants to be Duke of Edinburgh but his brother is not on his side" . The Times . Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  17. ↑ "No. 63995". The London Gazette . 15 March 2023. p. 4994.
  18. ↑ "The King confers The Dukedom of Edinburgh upon The Prince Edward". The Royal Family. 10 March 2023. Archived from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  19. ↑ "Blackadder Characters". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.