Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/515

 APPENDIX B THE DUKEDOM OF CHATELLERAULT James Hamilton, who succeeded to the Marquessate of Abercorn in 1 8 1 8 was styled Duke of Chatellerault in France, inasmuch as " he was served h. male of the body of the ist Duke of Chatellerault by the Sheritt of Chancery in Scotland, 13 Jan. 1862, and, as such h. male of the 1st Duke, asserts his hereditary right to the original title of Duke of Chatellerault of 1 549. By the edict of Louis XIV, May 1 7 1 1, the descent of French Dukedoms was declared " to be to heirs descendus de mdles en m&les. " (^) " It has been doubted of late whether the title of Due de Chdtelkrault ever existed as a peerage dignity, and it has even been argued by the late R. R. Stodart (in his paper on the Dukedom of Chatellerault in Her. & Gen., vol. iv, pp. 97-107), that no creation of a Duchy took place, and that the object of the grant made by Henry II (5 Feb. 1548/9) to James, Earl of Arran, and his heirs was merely to secure a yearly revenue of 12,000 livres to the grantee. This opinion was fortified by the fact that the letters patent of Chatellerault differ from those by which, three years later, the Constable de Montmorency was created Duke ; Mr. Stodart concluded therefore that the title of Duke was never regularly conferred at all, and was only a title of courtesy given to Arran as Lord of the Duchy. But, (though in a later part of his paper he seems to be aware of it) Mr. Stodart has overlooked the fact that in France, Dukes were not necessarily Peers. It is quite clear that, in the sense of being a duchS-pairie, the duchy created by Henry II for Arran was not " a peerage dignity ; " but that did not at all affect the fact that the Duchy was nevertheless an hereditary dignity. The difference in the letters patent, on which Mr. Stodart lays stress, is fully accounted for by the fact that Montmorency was created (while Arran was not) * Due et pair ; ' and it must be added that no fiirther argument can be based upon the difference in the letters-patent, if it be remembered that Montmorency was the first French subject created ' Due (■) See Burke Peerage, 1868-87.