Duke of Edinburgh#1726 creation
{{Short description|Dukedom in the Peerage of the United Kingdom}}
{{About|the title|the current holder|Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh|the holder from 1947 to 2021|Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox nobility title
| name = Dukedom of Edinburgh
| image = Coat of Arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (Scotland).svg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Scottish arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
| monarch = Charles III
| creation_date = 10 March 2023 (announced)
3 April 2023 (Letters Patent){{London Gazette |issue=64022|date=6 April 2023 |page=7074 }}
| creation = Fourth
| peerage = Peerage of the United Kingdom
| baronetage =
| first_holder = Prince Frederick
(first creation; 1726)
| present_holder = Prince Edward
| subsidiary_titles = Earl of Wessex
Earl of Forfar
Viscount Severn
| status = Extant
| extinction_date =
| motto =
| footnotes =
}}
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.
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
File:Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales by Philip Mercier.jpg (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;{{cite book |first = G. E. |last = Cokayne |author-link = George Edward Cokayne |editor1-link = Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) |editor1-first = Vicary |editor1-last = Gibbs |editor2-first = H. A. |editor2-last = Doubleday |title = The Complete Peerage |edition = 2nd |volume = 5: Eardley of Spalding to Goojerat |location = London |publisher = St. Catherine Press |year = 1926 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/CokayneG.E.TheCompletePeerageSecondEditionVolume5EAGO/page/n7/mode/2up 6–8] }} Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent;{{London Gazette |issue=6494 |date=12 July 1726 |page=1}} 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, apparently erroneously. In later editions of the London Gazette the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely.{{London Gazette |issue=6741 |date=4 January 1728 |page=2 }}{{London Gazette |issue=9050 |date=16 April 1751 |page=1 }} 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.
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.{{London Gazette |issue=23119 |date=25 May 1866 |page=3127}} 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.
1947 creation
The title was created for a third time on 19 November 1947 by King George VI,{{London Gazette |issue=38128 |date=21 November 1947 |page=5495}} who bestowed it on his future son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, shortly before he married Princess Elizabeth. Subsequently, Elizabeth was styled "HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh" until her accession in 1952.{{cite web |title=Kate to become Duchess of Cambridge |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/kate-to-become-duchess-of-cambridge-20110429-1e0di.html |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=29 April 2011 |access-date=11 May 2023}} 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.{{London Gazette |issue=38128 |date=21 November 1947 |page=5496 }} 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.{{London Gazette |issue=41009 |date=22 February 1957 |page=1209 }}
Upon Philip's death on 9 April 2021, his eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles.{{cite web|url=https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/news-grants/news/item/187-hrh-the-duke-of-edinburgh|title=HRH The Duke of Edinburgh|work=College of Arms|date=9 April 2021|accessdate=9 April 2021|archive-date=11 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411005304/https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/news-grants/news/item/187-hrh-the-duke-of-edinburgh|url-status=live}} Upon Charles's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022, the peerages merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.{{cite news |title=Who is the Duke of Edinburgh now? |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/who-is-duke-of-edinburgh-king-charles-philip-b1025854.html |access-date=12 March 2023 |work=Evening Standard |date=15 September 2022}}
2023 creation
It was announced in 1999, at the time of his wedding, that Prince Edward would eventually be granted the Dukedom of Edinburgh.{{cite web|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheEarlofWessex/The%20Earl%20of%20Wessex.aspx |title=The Earl of Wessex |publisher=Royal.gov.uk |access-date=2010-10-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203012826/http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheEarlofWessex/The%20Earl%20of%20Wessex.aspx |archive-date=3 December 2010 }} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/|title=Prince Edward may have the Duke of Edinburgh title – but getting it wasn't easy|work=The Telegraph|first=Camilla|last=Tominey|date=10 March 2023|accessdate=10 March 2023}}
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 his being granted such a prestigious title was "a pipe dream of my father's". In July, The Times reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother.{{cite news |title=Edward wants to be Duke of Edinburgh but his brother is not on his side |first=Roya |last=Nikkhah |date=11 July 2021 |newspaper=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/edward-wants-to-be-duke-of-edinburgh-but-his-brother-is-not-on-his-side-77v25z3b0 |access-date=13 July 2021 |url-access=limited |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712220756/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/edward-wants-to-be-duke-of-edinburgh-but-his-brother-is-not-on-his-side-77v25z3b0 |url-status=live }} 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.
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.
The dukedom was bestowed on Prince Edward on the occasion of his 59th birthday on 10 March 2023.{{London Gazette |issue=63995 |date=15 March 2023 |page=4994}}{{cite web|url=https://www.royal.uk/dukedom-edinburgh|title=The King confers The Dukedom of Edinburgh upon The Prince Edward|work=The Royal Family|date=10 March 2023|accessdate=10 March 2023|archive-date=10 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310120219/https://www.royal.uk/dukedom-edinburgh|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |title=King Charles grants Prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh title |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64913224 |access-date=10 March 2023 |work=BBC News |first=Sean |last=Coughlan |date=10 March 2023}} This fourth creation of the title is a life peerage, meaning that Edward's son, James, will not inherit the dukedom (unlike 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 about 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.
Dukes of Edinburgh
=First creation, 1726=
Also: Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, Viscount Launceston and Baron Snowdon.
=Second creation, 1866=
Also: Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster.
| class="wikitable"
!Duke !Portrait !Birth !Marriage(s) !Death !Arms |
| Prince Alfred House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 1866–1900 also Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1893) | File:Alfred-sachsen-coburg-gotha.jpg | 6 August 1844 | Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia | 30 July 1900 |
| colspan="6" |Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Maria had two sons, one stillborn, one who predeceased him; and his British ducal title became extinct on his death. |
=Third creation, 1947=
Also: Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.
= Fourth creation, 2023 =
| class="wikitable"
!Duke !Portrait !Birth !Marriage(s) !Death !Arms |
| Prince Edward House of Windsor 2023–present also: Earl of Wessex (1999), Earl of Forfar (2019), Viscount Severn (1999) | 10 March 1964 | Sophie Rhys-Jones | Living |File:Coat of Arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (Scotland).svg |
| colspan="6" |The dukedom will be held for Prince Edward's lifetime as a non-hereditary peerage title. |
Family trees
{{Dukes of Gloucester and Edinburgh family tree}}
{{Royal dukes family tree}}
Heraldry
Here are the achievements of the various Dukes of Edinburgh:
File:Coat of Arms of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.svg|Coat of arms of Prince Frederick as Duke of Edinburgh
File:Coat of arms of George William Frederick, Duke of Edinburgh.svg|Coat of arms of George III as Duke of Edinburgh
File:Coat of Arms of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.svg|Coat of arms of Prince Alfred as Duke of Edinburgh
File:Coat of Arms of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.svg|Coat of arms of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
File:Coat of Arms of the Duke of Rothesay.svg|Coat of arms of Charles III as Duke of Edinburgh
File:Coat of Arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (Scotland).svg|Coat of arms of Prince Edward, Duke 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.{{cite web |title=Blackadder Characters |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/blackadder/characters/ |website=British Comedy Guide |access-date=6 March 2023}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Dukes of Edinburgh}}
{{British royal titles}}
{{Extant British dukedoms}}
{{Philip, Duke of Edinburgh}}
{{Charles III}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edinburgh}}
Category:Monarchy of the United Kingdom
Category:Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Category:Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Category:1726 establishments in Great Britain
Category:1866 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:2022 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Category:2023 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:British and Irish peerages which merged in the Crown
Category:Noble titles created in 1726
Category:Noble titles created in 1866
Category:Noble titles created in 1947