SECOND SONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 18

SECOND SONS

THE DUKEDOM OF YOKE? PROUD AND ANCIENT TITLE PROM FOURTEENTH TO ' TWENTIETH" CENTURIES When King Edward HI. made one of his sons Duke of York- and another Duke of Lancaster, he could not have foreseen the fateful eminence which those two names were to win in the history of the English Throne, stated "The Times" on th-o day of the Hoyal marriage. But the red and the white roses were happily United when King 1 Henry VII. married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and. united they nave remained ever 1 since > n, Th 1 6 i*?* Buke Of ■-:To* was Edmund de Langley (1341-1402), fifth son of King Edward HI. WHen.his nephew, ?™ f I l '' Camo Wtae .ITSrone at the SZ ♦v ' ? eP™?-- He was made Duke of York : m 1385 for his services m fighting for. Eichard in) Scotland! When Eichard went to Ireland in 1394= and again in 1396 :he wasmade Regent* ci? P°Sed the of the': King'si later years,,and it;was he who suggested that Richard should execute a formal resignation: of.,the Crown. Ha died at his castle ,at:-Ein^'s Lanelev where he;had been, born, and lies burl led m the church .there. >,': Thu J)uKedom;;descendea:'to his son, Edward Plantagenet: ;(1373-1415). He was Admiral of the Meet under Eichard II.; but historians have disagreed about his relations both with that King and with King Henry IV. King Henry, v. made much of him; and he commanded the right wing at Agincourt, where he fell gloriously. THE YORKIST LINE. The third Duke was his nephew Richard (1411-1460), the great leader in 1 ranee who was opposed by Joan of Arc. Having inherited the huge estates of his mother's brpther,, Edmund Mortimer, fifth Earl of MarcK, he spent his money lavishly in servzngjthe King in France. Later he rebelled. He was Queen Margaret's chief opponent; and it was through him that the Yorkist line came to the; Throne in r tfce person of his son, King Edward TV. He was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in. 1460, and his head, crowned with paper, was stuck on the walls of York Edward IV. wag himself Duke of York, and the fifth-Holder of the title was his second son: 'Made Duke ofj York at two, married at five and a half, and Loxd Lieutenant of Ireland a* seven, he was murdered in the Towerat the age of eleven'with his brothersKing Edward V,, in' 1483. With' this*, creation began the practice, pretty coni' sistently held since, of making the Sov~: ereign's second son" Duke of York. Indeed, King Henry VHI., 8 ,: second son. gave up his title Duke of T*rk when he came heir to,the .Throne'On his brother 's,;death. King Charles 1., a second son, was made Duke' of '.^"ork, and so was his second son; afterwards King. James H. He-was'unlucky as a reign?, ing Sovereign; but the.. British Navy, of: the day had cause to.be proud of. him while he was but Duke of York.

UNDER THE GEOBGES,

■ The next holder of the title was Kina.George- X's, younger:.-Vbrtftherj Ernest Augustus, -fifth :sbn';of-.tne^Blector of.': Bjanover.. ,H&. was'.niaderpiite of York and Albany iii 1716.. .'Kiig-'Gfeorge Hi did not. grant the. title;-but it wangives by King George ;H1.% his second son Princo Frederick August tus,i_that- soldier, 'so -"'great ml organisation, "so. incompetent iit' the . field, . whose "' command deserv^ ed ...both the , onsiaughta'bf'.the caricaturists and the well-known column which honours his memory.'".lt is honoured still more, perhaps; by- the Duke of York's School, which ie "Bunded. Our present Sovereign ". was. created Duke of York on 24th May, 1892; and on sth June, 1920, among the Birthday Honours he conferred the title upon its twelfth holder, his second son, who i» now with his wife, -an, , honoured visitor to ]S Tew Zealand. . „' ;.