Proposed Dukedoms

[Guru]

The following list is of proposed Dukedoms of the late 19th and 20th centuries that never eventuated.

Title                            Who for                                       Year           What happened.

Duke of Salisbury      Marquess of Salisbury             1886, 1891, 1901. Offered by QV and                                                                                                                 KEVII and declined

Duke of Kerry             Marquess of Lansdowne         1891          Queen Victoria proposed                                                                                                                        Gladstone stopped it

Duke Roberts             General Roberts                         1900         Queen Victoria proposed

Duke of Linlithgow    Earl of Hopetoun                        1900         Made Marquess in 1902

Duke of Chelsea        Earl of Cardogan                        1902         Edward VII proposed as                                                                                                                         Coronation honour?

Duke of Kent              Prince Arthur of Connaught     1912          Possibly thought family                                                                                                                    had enough Dukedoms

Duke of Curzon          George Nathaniel Curzon         1923         Baldwin proposed, George                                                                                                               V stopped it

Duke of Dover            Winston Churchill                       1955         Offered by Elizabeth II,                                                                                                                           declined by Churchill

[marquess]

You should add Beaconsfield for Dizzy in 1878, which he declined.

[Ivan Prekajski]

Winston Churchill was offered Dukedom of London. I saw that many, many years ago in some documentary. This is First time I hear about him being offered Dukedom of Dover.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

I had also heard about Churchill being offered and declining the Dukedom of London.

Brooke

[www.lordmountbattenofburma.com]

I believe that the Dukedom of Dover was offered by King George VI in 1945.  It was the Dukedom of London that Queen Elizabeth II offered Churchill in 1955 when he left office as PM. 

Without any peerage, Churchill (as a Knight of the Garter & the senior Privy Counsellor from 1949) had precedence after "younger sons of Earls and the eldest sons of Barons" - which clearly was quite low down in the Order of Precedence.  There is no specific place for former Prime Ministers, other than any rank/post/honour they were granted in their own right.

I note that in 1708, the 2nd Duke of Queensberry was created Duke of Dover, Marquess of Beverley and Baron Ripon in the Peerage of Great Britain, but became extinct upon the death of the 2nd Duke of Dover in 1778.

[dpth...@gmail.com]

This is in reference to an offered Marquessate, not a Dukedom, but I found it interesting: the Earl of Clarendon declined a Marquessate in 1856, writing to the Queen that "...courtesy titles to his younger sons would be a positive injury to them in working for their bread..."

[Jesse Honey]

Sorry, I had been under the impression that the dukedom turned down by Churchill was Duke of London? Source: many online, including https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32413;jsessionid=A5882A12410525D5A1EB6E90A41CDD00 

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[malcolm davies]

I seem to have missed the original post by Guru.

I have one comment-Lansdowne declined the dukedom offered to him because he felt he did not have the means to support it-see Simon Kerry's book Lansdowne the last great Whig.

So the reference to Gladstone stopping it is erroneous.

The declinature of the honour by Salisbury was probably for the same reason.

[Paul Theroff]

This does not show the reason Lansdowne declined it, but here is a letter from Palmerston to the Queen recommending it:

"Piccadilly, 31st August 1857.

... Viscount Palmerston would beg to submit for your Majesty's consideration whether he might be authorised by your Majesty to offer to Lord Lansdowne promotion to the title of Duke. Your Majesty may possibly not have in the course of your Majesty's reign, long as it is to be hoped that reign will be, any subject whose private and public character will during so long a course of years as those which have been the period of Lord Lansdowne's career, have more entitled him to the esteem and respect of his fellow-countrymen, and to the approbation of his Sovereign.

Lord Lansdowne has now for several years given your Majesty's Government the great and valuable support of his advice in council, his assistance in debate, and the weight of his character in the country, without any office. His health and strength, Viscount Palmerston cannot disguise from himself, have not been this year such as they had been; and if your Majesty should contemplate marking at any time your Majesty's sense of Lord Lansdowne's public services, there could not be a better moment for doing so than the present; and Viscount Palmerston has reason to believe that such an act of grace would be very gratifying to the Liberal Party, and would be deemed well bestowed even by those who are of opposite politics."

A footnote says merely "Lord Lansdowne declined the honour".

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D. P. Theroff

[malcolm davies]

DPT,

        That was the 3rd Marquess.His grandson the 5th Marquess was also offered a dukedom.Simon Kerry,the son of the 9th Marquess in his biography says this “On 2 January 1894,Queen Victoria informed Gladstone that she wished to ennoble Lansdowne further;if he declined the dukedom,she would give him the Garter instead.Arguing that Lansdowne’s record in India had been “very chequered,Gladstone challenged this.Some at court believed he was blinded by political animosity.The Queen told Lansdowne that Gladstone was not ready to reward a Unionist.With insufficient income to live like a Duke,Lansdowne was secretly relieved to not have to refuse the offer.He told the Queen that the Garter was “more than sufficient recompense” for his service.”

Notionally he had a return from his estates of £62,000 per annum,but the estate was heavily indebted and reduced his income by at least two thirds.Most dukes had incomes over £75,000.

Gladstone ceased to be Prime Minister 2 months later.Lansdowne was appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1895 and there the matter seems to have rested.As Rosebery was more accomodating,no doubt the ennoblement could have taken place after Gladstone’s retirement, but for whatever reason,the proposal seems to have been dropped.

[dpth...@gmail.com]

It took money to be a duke.

As Lloyd George said in 1909: "A fully equipped Duke costs as much to keep up as two dreadnoughts. They are just as great a terror and they last longer."

:)