The duchies which were subsequently granted to members of the royal family— that of Bourbon, erected in 1327; of Orleans, in 1344; of Auvergne, Berri, Touraine, Valois, and Alencon, at subsequent periods—enjoyed none of the privileges of inde pendent sovereignty which had belonged to the ancient duchies. The subordination of these fiefs was absolute, and the princes who governed them, though placed on the steps of the throne, were only the first subjects of the realm. The tendency to diminish the actual power which anciently had attached to the ducal title, was still more apparent in the case of those dukedoms which were conferred on the representa tives of illustrious noble families. The Montmorencics were created dukes in 1551, but they enjoyed no other privileges than those of titled nobles, and their position had no analogy whatever to that of the old provincial dukes. The duke-peers, as they were called, were simply the first class of nobles in France, just as dukes arc with us in England; but they differed from English dukes, in that, after the extinction of the Comte pairie d'Eu, in 1775, the duke-peers alone sat in parliament. Several prelates enjoyed this rank—as, for example, the archbishop-duke of Rheims, the bishop-duke of Laon, and the bishop-duke of Langres. The archbishop of Paris took the same rank after the erection of St. Cloud into a ducal peerage in 1674. There were still two other sorts of dukes in France—the dukes who were not hered itary peers, and the dukes for life, or patent dukes, who date only from the reign of Louis XIV. Swept away by the revolution, the title was restored by Napoleon, who conferred it, with rich endowments, on his marshals. Several ducal peers were created by Louis XVIII. and Charles X.
In Germany, the dukedom passed through phases very similar to those which it exhibited in the earlier history of France. What is special to the position of the nobility of that country, will be stated under GRAF (q.v.).
Dukes, in the older European sense, do not appear ever to have existed in England. The title seems not to have been known earlier than the reign of Edward III., and from the first it was a mere honorary distinction. The Black Prince, who was created D. of Cornwall (see below) in 1335, was the first English duke. In 1350, Henry, the king's cousin, was created D. of Lancaster; and when he died, and his daughter was married to John of Gaunt, the king's son, the title was transferred to him—his elder brother, Lionel, being make D. of Clarence. In the succeeding reign—that of Richard II.—the two younger sons of Edward III. were created, the one D. of York, and the other D. of Gloucester. The dignity was thus, in the first instance, confined to the royal house. But the families of Holland and Mowbray very soon received the same title; and one of the Beauforts, an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, was raised to the peerage by the title of D. of Exeter. In the reign of Henry VI., the title was granted more widely, and there were at one time ten duchesses in his court. The Staffords, Beauchamps, and De la Poles, belong to this period. King Henry VIII. created only two dukes— the one was his illegitimate son, whom he made D. of Richmond; and the other Charles
Brandon, who married his sister, the French queen, and was made D. of Suffolk. Queen Elizabeth found only one D. when she came to the throne—Thomas Howard, D. of Norfolk—attainder or failure of male issue having extinguished the rest of them. After the attainder and execution of the D. of Norfolk, there was no D. in England, except the king's sons, till Ludovic Stuart, a relative of the king's, was made D. of Richmond in 1623. In 1623, Villiers was made D. of Buckingham. On the restoration, Charles II. restored the Seyinours to•the:rank of dukes. of Somerset, .and created Monk D. of Albemarle. But the habit of emiferthig this dignity on the illegitimate sous of the monarch was still adhered to, as in the case of the D. of 3lonmouth, who was the illegitimate son of Charles IL ; and the D. of Berwick, of James II. Of the existing dukes besides the descendants of Charles II., there are only three families which date their dukedoms before the revolution—viz., the Ho‘s-ards, the Seymours, and the Somersets. It was William and Anne who, by advancing a very considerable number of the first families of peers to the rank of D., altogether changed its character. There are now 11 English dukes, 7 Scotch, 5 of Great Britain, 6 of the United Kingdom, and 2 Irish. These numbers do not include dukes of the blood-royal.
The Ducat, CORONET is composed of a circle of gold, with eight strawberry or parsley leaves, of equal height above the rim.
Duns OF CORNW.ALL. The duchy of Cornwall was by royal charter of Edward III. conferred on his son Edward the black prince. King Henry IV. subsequently included the D. of C. in a patent in favor of his son Henry prince of Wales. But since that time, the duchy has belonged of right, without any special grant, to the king's heir-apparent from the time of his birth. On the death of the king's eldest son without issue, during the life of his father, the duchy descends to the next brother. In the event of the i death of the heir-apparent without issue, and without leaving a younger brother, or in case the heir-apparent succeeding to the crown, the duchy of Cornwall merges in the crown until the birth of a son calls it again into existence. The uncertainty thus arising in regard to the duchy has produced much confusion in regard to leases held of the D., and various acts of parliament have been passed, from the 21 James I. to the of the present queen, to regulate this matter. The D. of C. formerly possessed "royal jurisdiction and crown rights, giving liberty to send burgesses to parliament, and appointing the sheriffs, admirals, and other officers."—Carew's Cornwall. At the present day, there is a separate chancellor, and attorney and solicitor general for the D_ of Cornwall. The revenues of the duchy are considerable, arising partly from the rents, etc., of the different manors, and partly from the dues on tin, which is pro duced in large quantities from the Cornish mines. There is a special court for the settlement of questions arising among the miners, called the stannaries court (q.v.).