SECOND SONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19785, 8 March 1927, Page 9

SECOND SONS

THE DUKEDOM OF YORK PROUD AND ANCIENT TITLE When King Edward 111. 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 the day of the Royal marriage. But the red and the white roses were happily united when King Henry VII. married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and united they have remained ever since. The first Duke of York was Edmund de Langley (1341-1402), fifth son of King Edward 111. When his nephew Richard 11., came to the Throne at the age of eleven, Edmund was one of the Council of Regency. He was made Duke of York in 1395 for his services in fighting for Richard in Scotland. When Richard wont to Ireland in 1394 and again in 1396 he was made Regent; but he opposed the tyranny of the King’s later years, and it was he who suggested that Richard should execute a formal resignation of the Crown. He died at his castl e at King’s Langley, where he had been born, and lies buried in the church there. The Dukedom descended to hjs son, Edward Plantagenet (1373-1415). He was Admiral of the Fleet under Richard II.; but historians have disagreed about his relations both with hat 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 third Duke was his nephew Richard (1411-1460), the great leader in France who was opposed by Joan of Arc. Having inherited the huge estates of his mother’s brother, Edmund Mortimer, fifth Earl of March, he spent his money lavishly in serving the King in France. Later he rebelled. He was Queen Margaret’s chief opponent; and it was through him that the Yorkist lino came to the Throne in xne person of his son. King Edward IV. 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. was himself Duke of York, and the fifth holder of the title was his second son. Made Duke of York at two, married at five and a half, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at seven, he was murdered in the Tower at the age of eleven with his brother, King Edward V., in 1483. With this creation began the practice, pretty consistently held since, of making the Sovereign’s second son Duke of York. Indeed, King Henry VIII., a second son, gave up his title Duke of York when he came heir to the Throne on his brother’s death. King Charles 1., a second son, was made Duke of York, and so was his second son, afterwards King James 11. He was unlucky as a reigning Sovereign; but the British Navy of the day had cause to be proud of him while he was but Duke of York.

The next holder of the title was King George I’s. younger brother, Ernest Augustus, fifth son of the Elector of Hanover. He was made Duke of York and Albany in 1716. King George 11. did not grant the title; but it was given by King Georgelll. to his second son, Prince Frederick Augustus, that soldier, so great in organisation, so incompetent in the field, whose command deserved both the onslaughts of the caricaturists and the well-known column which honours his memory. It is honoured still more, perhaps, by the Duke of York’s School, which he founded

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 is now with his wife, an honoured visitor to New Zealand.