Page:Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Titles of Courtesy.djvu/63

 TITLES, ORDERS, AND DEGREES OF PRECEDENCE AND DIGNITY. XXV Jeavour to trace the origin of a title which, though of comparatively modern intro- duction into this country, has, in one meaning and another, been in existence since the days of ancient Rome or, we might add, since the origin of the Latin tongue itself. It would seem obvious enough that the derivation from the Latin dux (a leader) indicates a leading man or chieftain, whether in war, or as the ruler and manager of a district, or in some position of power and trust. It is, in fact, not necessarily a subordinate title in any degree. The Dukes of Savoy, the Dukes of Tuscany, " cum mult is aliis," were sovereign and independent princes, and the German Confederation to this day furnishes cases in point. It is not necessary to go back to the old days of the Dukes of Normandy, Burgundy, Bretagne, <c., to understand that, however antiquarians may refine upon the matter, the essential meaning of the word " duke " is that of a man of the highest rank and mark ; and this is the actual position of these dignified personages in this country. There is no doubt, however, that for many centuries the title was rather one of charge and office than of dignity, the latter characteristic being appended as society became consolidated, and titular dignities systematised, when the anarchy following the fall of the Roman Empire began to subside into order. Although the first formal creation of a duke in England was by Edward HI., we hear of dukes in the Saxon times. Thus, old Joseph Holland reminds us that " Hollingshed, in his ' Chronicle,' fol. 235, recordeth that Kinge Edgar's second wife was called Alfreda, the daughter of Orgar, Duke of Devon, by whom hee had yssue Egelthred, that was afterwards Kinge of this lande, and is beried in Powlis." This, however, may have been only an official title, for the word frequently appears in the Saxon chronicles in a sense inferior to that of earl, bishop, and even abbot. Otho the Great, about the year 970, is supposed to have been the first to constitute the title of duke regularly as one of honour and nobility ; and it became hereditary in France and other parts of the Continent long before it was, so to speak, naturalised in England. It has been surmised that one cause of its not being introduced earlier in England was the reluctance of the Norman kings themselves Dukes of Normandy to grant subjects a title resembling their own. The following passage from a q-uaint old writer gives an authentic account of the creation of the first English duke: " The first Duke that I finde sence the Conquest, was made by Kinge Eduard TTT. xj. regni sui ; where he made of the earldome of Cornwayle a dutchye, and created the Black Prince, his eldest sonne, Piince of Wales, Duke of Cornwayle, and Earl of Chester, and I have a dede made by the said Black Prince, wherein his stile is, Edward Disne Fitz de Roy D'Engleter and de France, Prince de Aquitonie et de Cales, Due de Cornwall, Count de Chester, and Seignor de Biscane." At the same time, we learn, " King Edward created in Parliament his two sons, Lionel Duke of Clarence, and John Duke of Lancaster, by the girding of a sword, and setting upon their heads a furred chapeau or cap, with a circlet or coronet of gold and pearls, and a charter delivered to each of them. From which time there have been many hereditary Dukes amongst us, created one after another, with the following or similar words : ' We give and grant the name, title, state, style, place, seat, pre- eminence honour, authority, and dignity of a Duke, and by the cincture of a sword, and imposition of a cap and coronet of gold upon his head, as also by delivering