Dukedom of Cambridge | |
---|---|
Creation date | 29 April 2011 |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Peerage | Peerage of the United Kingdom |
First holder | James Stuart |
Present holder | Prince William |
Heir apparent | Prince George |
Remainder to | the 1st Duke's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten |
Subsidiary titles |
Earl of Strathearn Baron Carrickfergus |
Duke of Cambridge, one of several royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom, is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British Royal Family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is hereditary among male agnatic descendants of the titleholder by primogeniture, and has been conferred upon members of the British royal family several times. The wife of the titleholder is called Duchess of Cambridge.
The title goes back to the 17th century, and superseded an earlier title of Earl of Cambridge. The title became extinct several times, before being revived after a hiatus of over a hundred years in 2011, when it was bestowed upon Prince William on 29 April 2011 upon his marriage on the same day to Catherine Middleton.
The title was first granted to Charles (1660–1661), the first son of the Duke of York (later King James II), though he was never formally created Duke of Cambridge because he had died at the age of six months. The first officially recognised creation of the dukedom was in the Peerage of England in 1664, when James Stuart, second son of the Duke of York, was granted the title, but he died early in 1667 at the age of three, and the title again became extinct. The title was then granted later that year to the third son of the Duke of York, Edgar, but he then died in 1671 at the age of three, and the title again became extinct. The Duke of York's eldest son by his second wife, Charles, was also styled Duke of Cambridge in 1677, but died when about a month old, not having lived long enough to be formally created duke.