448
Constitutional History.
[chap.
The loɪds of
Man and
Wight,
The dukes.
Cornwall
and
Lancaster.
accounted as a royalty and conveyed within the island itself
certain sovereign rights ɪ ; but, although from the reign of
Edward III onwards it was held by an English lord, no lord
or king of JIan was ever summoned by that title. Henry
duke of JVarwick was, if we may believe the family chronicle,
crowned king of the Isle of Wight, of Jersey and Guernsey,
by Henry VI2. The only other subjects who bore the sovereign
title were Bichard, earl of Cornwall and king of the Romans,
and John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, king of Leon and
Castille ; both these, as a matter of courtesy doubtless, received
their full titles in council or parliament3.
428. Next in rank among the lords temporal were the dukes.
This title, sufficiently well known to the English as the de-
signation of foreign potentates, was first bestowed on a subject
in 1337, when Edward III founded the dukedom of Cornwall
as the perpetual dignity of the king’s eldest son and heir-
apparent4. The dukedom of Cornwall had been known for
at least two centuries from the legendary history of Geoffrey
of JIonmouth. The duchy of Lancaster was founded in 1351
for the younger branch of the royal house, and refounded in
1362 in the person of John of Gaunt. In 1362 Lionel was
made duke of Clarence. In 1385 the two younger sons of
Edward III, Edmund of Langley and Thomas of Woodstock,
were made dukes of York and Gloucester ; in r386 Robert de
Vere was created duke of Ireland; and in 1397 Richard II
created the dukedoms of Hereford, Norfolk, Surrey, Exeter and
1 Man had been a kingdom, and was, in the hands of its English lords,
a separate regality ; but the title of king was not borne by them : and the
great earl of Derby refused to assume the title of king, though he says
that it had been borne by his ancestor the first of the Stanley lords of
Man ; see Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, pp. 431, 436. Cf. Prynne, 4th Inst,
pp. 200-205.
'i Mon. Angl. ii. 63 ; from the History of Tewkesbury : ‘ coronatur a
rege in regem de Wight manu regia, et nominatur primus comes totius
Angliae.' The truth was that the lordship of the Isle of IVight was a
regality, like that of the counties palatine; but the story rests on this
evidence only. Coke, 4th Inst. p. 287.
3 John of Gaunt is summoned under the royal title as well as that of
duke ; Lords’ Report, iv. 708.
i See the grants in the Lords’ Eifth Report ; Cornwall by charter, p.
35 ; Lancaster for life, by patent, ib. p. 47 ; Clarence by charter, p. 53 ;
Lancaster, p. 53 ; Ireland to Robert de Vere, ib. p. 79.
XX.]
The DuTces.
449
Aumale or Albemarle. Of these, Norfolk and Exeter reappear Creation
in the later Plantagenet history. Under Henry VI Somerset
was made a duchy for the Beauforts, Buckingham for the
Staffords, and Warwick for Henry Beauchamp, the king’s fellow
pupil. In all these cases, except those of Clarence, Ireland,
and Aumale, the title is taken from either a county of England
or a county town ; of the exceptions the island of Ireland and
the honour of Aumale were distinctly territorial lordships ;
and the title of Clarence, obscure as it is, bore some reference
to the ancient honour of Clare1. All of them may be termed Theirtem-
» ∙ . ∙ rrπ 1 torial de-
provιncιal or territorial designations. Ine forms of the in- sɪgnations.
Vestiture were not always alike, but it became the rule for
a duke to be created by the girding on of the sword, the investiture
n .. and creation
bestowal of a golden rod, and the imposition of a cap of mam- money,
tenance and circlet of gold2. The duke generally received a
pension of forty pounds per annum on his promotion, which
was known as creation money3.
TIie dignity of marquess was of somewhat later growth and Creation of
σ ɪ marquesses,
less freely bestowed. The title derived from the old imperial
office of markgrave, ‘ comes marchensis,’ or count of the marches,
had belonged to several foreigners who were brought into rela-
tion with England in the twelfth century ; the duke of Brabant
was marquess of Antwerp, and the count of Maurienne mar-
quess of Italy i ; but in France the title was not commonly used
until the seventeenth century, and it is possible that it came to
England direct from Germany. Edward III had made the
l The honour of AumaIe consisted of the baronies accumulated by that
branch of the house of Champagne which bore the title of count, or earl,
of Aumâle, and transmitted the title and honour through females until
the middle of the fourteenth century. The chief possession of the house
was the lordship of Holderness. The title of Clarence is sometimes, but
fancifully and without any real authority, connected with Chiarenza in
the Morea. See Finlay’s Greece, iv. 192.
2 John of Gaunt was made duke of Aquitaine ‘ per appositionem cappae
suo capiti ac traditionem virgae aureae ;’ Lords’ Fifth Keport, p. ɪɪo : so
also the dukes made in 1397, ib. p. 118; and the duchess of Norfolk,
p. 119; cf. p. 171. The dukes of Warwick and Buckingham, in 1443,
have the cap and the gold circlet also, p. 224.
3 See below, chapter xxi ; Kot. Parl. iv. 308.
l Selden, Titles of Honour, pp. 75^~7^2∙ The title of marchio is given
by William of Malmesbury to Brian Fitz Count, lord of Wallingford :
it was often used loosely for count or duke.
VOL. III. ɑ g