Now that Prince William has decided to become a responsible family man, the Queen has bestowed upon him the English title of Duke of Cambridge, Scottish title of Earl of Strathearn, and Northern Irish title of Baron Carrickfergus.
My question is, where do they come up with the titles. Do the powers that bee who contol peerages have a big book o’ titles, so the Queen can just pick one that’s currently unused; does she pull out an atlas, close her eyes and poke her finger on a random town; or do they just make up something that sounds like it could be a title?
And while she’s at it, could she give out titles for other Commonwealth countires? Could William eventually be the Duke of Toronto or the Earl of Canberra?
Is there anything stopping her from making a Duke of New York or something? There was that reality show that seemed to be based on this concept (with the contestants wanting to be an American princess), but I never knew if it was a real title.
I don’t think there is anything stopping her. The Peerage of Ireland still exists (and even still has a few titleholders extant), but no new Irish peers have been created since Ireland became independent. Nonetheless, I think she could hand out one of those titles if she wished (although there may be diplomatic pressure from the Irish government not to do so).
Right, the monarch is the source from which all honours flow and she can create whatever titles take her fancy. In reality of course she would allow herself to be guided by the College of Heralds but there’s nothing actually preventing her from creating a Princess of Mars, Duke of the Jovian Moons, Earl of Cincinnatti or even Duke of Earl (ah if only!)
Long time back, the case of John French, 1st Earl of Ypres inspired me to start a thread about British-bestowed titles containing non-Commonwealth placenames.
How do titles from non-British sources work? The British monarch also holds titles like “Defender of the Faith”, given by a pope, and “Duke of Normandy”, given by a French king. Is it possible for British subjects to hold foreign titles, or is only the monarch allowed to?
Given that the faith the Queen is defending is the Anglican church and not the Catholic church, I don’t think the title refers to any the Pope might have granted.
Likewise, the title “Duke of Normandy” doesn’t come from a French king but from William the Conqueror, who brought Britian under Norman rule. (Also, keep in mind that until a few hundred years ago, the Kings of England also styled themselves as King of France).
They just choose them, without reference to any other government. e.g. Earl Alexander of Tunis, Viscount Slim of Imphal and Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
The Australian and Canadian governments have requested the Crown not to grant British honours to their nationals, as they feel it would ‘debase the currency’ of their own attempts at a domestic honours system. Conrad Black abandoned his Canadian nationality to become Lord Black of Crossharbour.
Actually, it does. Pope Leo X granted the title “Fidei defensor” to King Henry VIII in recognition of Henry’s book Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, or Defence of the Seven Sacraments. Yes, this is the very same Henry that broke from the Catholic Church to create the Anglican Church with himself as temporal head. Pope Paul III declared that this title was rescinded, but Parliament declared that the title was still valid and its use continued to the present day.
The situation was quite complicated, becausethe Duke of Normandy was technically a vassal of the French King which led to all sorts of shenenigans regarding paying homage and who took precedence over whom in medieval times.
Does a title grant anything other than having the title? Does it have any impact on the area for which the title is named? Now that William is the Duke of Cambridge, does it have anything really to do with the place called Cambridge? I thought that in the middle ages, when one was named Baron of X or Earl of Y, one was being put in charge of such a place and received financial benefits and whatever feudal duties came with it. Has this changed? If so, when and in what way?
There’s a distinction between a Dukedom (which is a title) and a Duchy (which is an area of land).
A dukedom does not confer any special status WRT to the area. A duchy, on the other hand, does.
The only duchies still extant today are Cornwall/Rothesay (Prince Charles is the Duke of Cornwall and the Duke of Rothesay) and the Duchy of Lancaster (the Queen is the Duke [not Duchess] of Lancaster). All the other Dukes are dukes of Dukedoms, not duchies.
Cornwall, Rothesay and Lancaster do produce incomes for those Dukes. Prince Andrew, OTOH (IIRC), gets nothing from York.
It carries with it no particular privileges in or around Cambridge. It’s been a long time since titles carried with them castles, land, knights sworn to your service, etc.
William is now the first Duke of Cambridge since the last holder of the title, a grandson of George III’s seventh son, died in 1904.
Can a new duchy be created? What if one were independently wealthy enough to acquire an area of land in Britain? Could one then petition the crown to create a new duchy attached to that area? (If it’s easier, let’s assume that one already holds a dukedom.)
