The Dukes of Britain

The British hereditary peerage (barons and above) today numbers some 900, not counting the four royal duchies -- but of the four dozen or so dukedoms created, only twenty-six survive today: eighteen of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom; six of Scotland; and two more of Ireland only. Of these, only three -- Norfolk, Somerset, and Hamilton -- predate Charles II, who created four dukedoms for his illegitimate sons. Nevertheless, the present hereditary dukes bear the names (and subordinate titles) of the great medieval and Tudor families: Fitzalan, Howard, Seymour, Vere, Douglas, Montagu, Mowbray, Percy, Beaufort, and Fitzgerald, among others. Moreover, only two of the surviving dukedoms -- Marlborough and Wellington -- were conferred originally on men who held no hereditary title of any kind at the start of their careers. And with present sentiment regarding hereditary peerages at its lowest ebb in centuries, there are unlikely to be any new creations. Some dukes lived like potentates with miniature courts, others made shrewd marriages, many were active Whigs, some heeded the warnings of the Industrial Revolution and established philanthropies and learned societies. But all have shared in what Trollope called "the ancient mystery of wealth and rank." An engrossing, well illustrated, sometimes titilating book which does not spare its subjects the foibles of their ancestries.