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Fife, 1st Duke Last Non-royal UK dukedom
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BLAZON OF ARMS:
SHIELD: Quarterly:
1st and 4th Or a lion rampant Gules (for Fife)
2nd and 3rd Vert a fess dancetty Ermine between a hart’s head cabossed in chief and two escallops in base all Or (for Duff).
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS: The text adapted from the Wikipedia article as is the image used for back ground information. We thank John H. Gaylor for the blazon and he notes that it is a hart’s head, not a stag’s (different species of deer; he suspects the blazon was drawn up by someone who did not know the difference). Please note too that the Dukedom of Fife was the very last non-royal dukedom created in the United Kingdom.
The Dukedom of Fife is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that has been created twice, in both cases for Alexander Duff, 1st Earl of Fife.
In 1889, Lord Fife married Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Alexander Duff (1849–1912) was the eldest son of the 5th Earl Fife (1814–1879). Upon his father's death on 7 August 1879, he succeeded as the 6th Earl Fife.
Among his other titles he inherited the title of Baron Skene in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (created in 1857 for his father the 5th Earl Fife; a title which gave him a seat in the House of Lords). In 1885, Queen Victoria created for Alexander Duff the title Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
On Saturday, 27 July 1889, Alexander, 1st Earl of Fife and 6th Earl Fife, married Princess Louise, the third child and eldest daughter of the then Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) and his wife Princess Alexandra, in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. The couple were third cousins in descent from King George III.
Two days after the wedding, the Queen gave Alexander, Lord Fife, the titles of Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff, and Duke of Fife, both in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria's Letters Patent of 29 June 1889 creating these titles contained the standard remainder to "heirs male of his body".
On 24 April 1900, Queen Victoria issued another set of letters patent by which she created for the 1st Duke of Fife the further dignities of Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff, both in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and both with a special remainder that allowed these titles to pass to his daughters by Princess Louise, in default of a son, and then to the male heirs of those daughters. On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII granted to Alexander Duff's two daughters Lady Alexandra (born 1891) and Lady Maud (born 1893) the styles of Highness and Princess.
Upon the death of the 1st Duke of Fife in January 1912, the peerages created in 1889 (the dukedom of Fife of 1889 and the marquessate of Macduff) and all the older peerages held by the Duff family became extinct, while the peerages created in 1900 (the dukedom of Fife of 1900 and the earldom of Macduff) passed to his elder daughter, Princess Alexandra (1891–1959).
See the forthcoming entry for the 2nd Duchess of Fife when we have a opportunity to upload it.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor
2024 0418
dqw266@gmail.com
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