More Dukes

(BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS)

More Dukes

Court circles in London reported that King George is about to confer royal dukedoms upon his youngest sons, Prince Henry and Prince George.

At present there are only four royal dukes: King George, who is also Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Normandy; Prince of Wales, who holds the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay; Prince Albert, who is Duke of York; Prince Arthur, uncle of King George, who is Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

Royal dukedoms in abeyance: Dukedoms of Edinburgh (which may be Prince Henry's title), Sussex,

Gloucester, Cumberland, Clarence, Kent, Albany.

Since the days of George III, when there were seven royal dukes, there have not been so few until the present time. It is allegedly because of the lack of them that King George is about to make his youngest sons, aged 23 and 20 respectively, dukes; more probably, however, it is because it has been customary since 1337, when the first dukedom was created (Cornwall), to confer dukedoms upon the sons of the reigning monarch.