KENDAL, DUKEDOM OF. The English title of duke of Kendal was first bestowed in May 1667 upon Charles (d. 1667), the infant son of the duke of York, afterwards James II. Several persons have been created earl of Kendal, among them being John, duke of Bedford, son of Henry IV.; John Beaufort, duke of Somerset (d. ; and Queen Anne's husband, George, prince of Denmark.
In 1719 Ehrengarde Melusina (1667-1743), mistress of the English king George I., was created duchess of Kendal. This lady was the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, count of Schulen burg (d. 1691), and was born at Emden on Dec. 25, 1667. Her father held important positions under the elector of Branden burg; her brother Matthias John (1661-1747) won great fame as a soldier in Germany and was afterwards commander-in-chief of the army of the republic of Venice. Melusina was attached to the household of the Electress Sophia, and became George's mistress about 1690. She followed him to England in 1714, and ousted her principal rival, Charlotte Sophia, Baroness von Kilmann segge (c. 1673-1725), afterwards countess of Darlington, as his first favourite. In 1716 she was created duchess of Munster;
then duchess of Kendal; and in 1723 the emperor Charles VI. made her a princess of the Empire. The duchess was avaricious and obtained large sums of money by selling public offices and titles; she also sold patent rights, one of these being the privilege of supplying Ireland with a new copper coinage. This she sold to a Wolverhampton iron merchant named William Wood (1671 173o), who flooded the country with the coins known as "Wood's halfpence," which occasioned Swift's Drapier's Letters. After George's death she lived at Kendal House, Isleworth, Middle sex, until her death on May 1o, 1743. The duchess was by no means a beautiful woman, and her thin figure caused the populace to refer to her as the "maypole." By the king she had two daughters : Petronilla Melusina (c. 1693-1778), who was created countess of Walsingham in 1722, and who married the great earl of Chesterfield ; and Margaret Gertrude, countess of Lippe (1703-1773).