GLOUCESTER DUKEDOM

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 June 1934, Page 9

GLOUCESTER DUKEDOM

ORIGIN OF TITLE. Some confusion appears to have arisen among Australians about the ollicial designation which should be given to their Royal visitor of 1931 (writes “Ex-London,” in the “Sydney Morning Herald”). Probably the fact that he was Prince Henry for the first 28 years of his life has led to the belief’ that he still retains that title. Old associations are hard to sever, but in the case of the third son of King George V., the association with his early title was discarded more than six years. Since his 28th birthday on March 30, 1928, Prince Henry’s official title has been the Duke of Gloucester, and ho is never referred to in the official documents or in the English Press except, under that title. Tho announcement conferring the ’title on Prince Henry was published in the “London Gazette,” the medium of all official announcements. It was as follows: —

WHITEHALL, March 30, 1928. Tho King has been pleased to direct Letters Patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the Realm granting ipito His Majesty’s sons his Royal Highness Princo Henry William Frederick, Albert, K.G., G.C.V.0., Captain, 10th Royal Hussars, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, the dignities of Baron Culloden, Earl of Ulster, and Duke of Gloucester. The Dukedom of Gloucester has never been conferred outside the Royal family, and it is an odd fact that only once has a Duke of Gloucester .’-'.ad a son to succeed him. Probably the most famous bearer of the title was Richard Crookback, afterwards King Richard 111., who, most modern historians agree, does not deserve all the obloquy that in popular estimation attached, to his name. Most of what we know about Richard Crookback comes from the Tudor party, by which he was overthrown, and the supporters of the Tudors certainly did not strain themselves to make excuses for him. Later historians have gone perhaps equally tar in the other direction, and have whitewashed him too completely. Some contend that he was not even deformed, but derived his name from that fact that he wore the Cross as a sign of his intention to go, some day, on a Crusade. Robert Louis Stevenson, in “The Black Arrow,” makes Richard a not unattractive character. The appearance of Gloucester as a Peerage dignity is generally reckoned from 1122, when King Henry Beauclcre created his natural son, Robert of Caen, Earl of Gloucester. It was one of the great titles of English history in the Middle Ages, and King Edward I. took special measures when his daughter Joan of Acre married the 6th Earl Gilbert of Clare in 1290, to bring it more under Royal control. It was in virtue of these measures that the Earldom came into the King’s hands on the death of the Princess’s son, at the battie of Bannockburn in June, 1134, The title was granted to tho late Earl’s brother-in-law in 1337. and again became extinct in 1317. As a Dukedom the title, was granted in 1385 by King Richard 11. to his uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham, who afterwards played so prominent a part in the stormy politics of the day, and was murdered and subjected to forfeiture, after being arrested by the King in 1397. After a delay of little more than a week, Gloucester was granted as an Earldom to Thomas, Lord le Despenscr, but he was beheaded by King Henry IV., in 1400, and attainted in 1401.

The title was revived, as a Dukedom, for the fourth son of that King in 1414, the famous Duke Humphrey, Patron of Learning and Regent ol England. Like the first Duke, the second died while under arrest in 1447, after his second Duchess had been found guilty of practising witchcraft against the King’s life, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. The third Duke of Gloucester, who was given tho title in 1461, was Richard Crookback.

EXTINCT FOR 22 YEARS. After Crookback, then Richard HL, had been killed at the Battle of Bosworth, his enemies, the Tudors, made no use of the title of Gloucester, for their adherents had surrounded the title with a sinister reputation. The title did not reappear in the Peerage until King Charles 11. made his brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, by patent during his exile in 1659, thus confirming the title which had been used by Henry for several years. Duke Henry died a few months after his brother’s restoration in 1660. His little grandnephew, Prince William, was generally known as (he Duke of Gloucester, but had not been formally so created when he died at the age of eleven iu 1700, and opened the vfay to the Hanoverian succession.

King George Il’s son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was generally known as the Duke of Gloucester from 1714 to 1726, and his third son was created, by King George IL, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh in 1764. lie secretly married Sir Edward Wal--1 edc’s natuial daughter, the widowed Countess Waldegrave, and their son (the only one to inherit the title) married Princess Mary, the fourth daughter ol King George 111. This martiage took place in 1816. ’l'he Duke was then given the rank of Reyal Highness, which, as being only the g. rat-grandson of a king, he had not previously enjoyed. He died in 1534. and not having an heir, the .Dukedom became extinct. Ninety-four years were to pass before King George V. re-created the title for his third son.

Great interest also surrounds the Duke of Gloucester’s lesser titles. The earldom of Ulster came into the

Royal family by the marriage at the age oi four of Lionel of Antwerp, aitei wards Duke of Clarence, with the heiress of the third de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, in 1342. It passed away with his daughter to the House of Mortimer, and returned, with the claim to the Crown to the House of York; but it has never been used as a principal title by any Prince. although the Duke of York, of Albany, and Bishop of Osnabrui.k was Earl of I'lsbw from 1 866 to ItlOU. Thus the Duke of Gloucester will be the second of the few Royal visitors to Australia to have had Ulster a a minor title. 'The Barony of Culloden, first created in 1801 in favour of the Duke of Cambridge. to commemorate the battle which in its day was regarded as a ciowning mercy by the victors, and ’ended the last Civil War in Britain. became •■xtiitct in I'jof. The Duke of Gloucester is a great-grand-son, through his mother’s mother, of its first, holder.