Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: How many royal dukes are there in the UK peerage?
This is a list of the 31 present and extant dukes in the peerages of the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927 and after. For a more complete historical listing, including extinct, dormant, abeyant, forfeit dukedoms in addition to these extant ones, see List of dukedoms in the peerages of Britain and Ireland.
Whilst the general order of precedence is set according to the age of the peerage, the sovereign's Grace may accord any peer higher precedence than his date of creation would warrant. The royal dukes are Dukes of the United Kingdom, but rank higher in the order of precedence than the age of their titles warrants, due to their close relationship to the monarch. The Prince of Wales holds precedence above all dukes, royal and non-royal, and is the Duke of Cornwall and of Rothesay.
Within the members of each rank of the peerage, peers of England precede peers of Scotland. English and Scottish peers together precede peers of Great Britain. All of the aforementioned precede peers of Ireland created before 1801. Last come peers of Ireland created after 1801 and peers of the United Kingdom. Among peers of the same rank and Peerage, precedence is based on the creation of the title: those whose titles were created earlier precede those whose titles were created later. But in no case would a peer of a lower rank precede one of a higher rank. For example, the Duke of Fife, the last non-royal to be created a duke, would come before the Marquess of Winchester, though the latter's title was created earlier and is in a more senior peerage (the peerage of England).
Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas. The title, the town of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, and many places around the world are named after members of the Hamilton family. The Ducal family's surname, originally "Hamilton", is now "Douglas-Hamilton". Since 1711, the Dukedom has been held together with the Dukedom of Brandon in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the Dukes since that time have been styled Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, along with several other subsidiary titles.
In the United Kingdom, the inherited position of a duke along with its dignities, privileges, and rights is a dukedom. However, the title of "duke" has never been associated with independent rule in the British Isles: they hold dukedoms, not duchies (excepting the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster). Dukes in the United Kingdom are addressed as "Your Grace" and referred to as "His Grace". Currently, there are thirty-five dukedoms in the Peerage of England, Peerage of Scotland, Peerage of Great Britain, Peerage of Ireland and Peerage of the United Kingdom, held by thirty different people, as three people hold two dukedoms and one holds three (see List of dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland).
In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of "His Royal Highness" who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage and the holders of these particular dukedoms are Princes of the Blood Royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.
There are five ranks of hereditary peerage: Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. Until the mid 20th century, peerages were usually hereditary, and, until the end of the 20th century, English, Scottish, British and UK peerages (except, until very recent times, those for the time being held by women) carried the right to a seat in the House of Lords.
The title Duke of Abercorn () is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1868 and bestowed upon James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. Although the Dukedom is in the Peerage of Ireland, it refers to Abercorn, West Lothian, and the Duke also bears four titles in Peerage of Scotland and two in the Peerage of Great Britain, and is one of only three peers who have titles in those three peerages. The Duke of Abercorn also claims the French title of Duke of Châtellerault, created in 1548.
Hertford died in 1621, and some two months later his widow married Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox in the peerage of Scotland. Stewart was the cousin of King James, a Privy Councillor, and Steward of the Royal Household. He was created Earl of Newcastle upon Tyne and Duke of Richmond in the peerage of England on 17 August 1623, and Frances Stewart became known as the "Double Duchess".
Each rank of nobility — royal prince, prince belonging to collateral lines of the royal family ("prince du sang"), duc, marquis, comte, vicomte, baron, etc. — conferred its own privileges; dukes for example could enter royal residences in a carriage, duchesses could sit on a stool ("tabouret") in the queen's presence. Dukes in France — the most important group after the princes — were further divided into those who were also "peers" ("Duc et Pair") and those who were not. Dukes without a peerage fell into one of two groups: those never granted peerage fiefs by the king, and those for whom the "Parlement of Paris" refused to register the king's "lettres patentes", permanently or temporarily, as a protest against the promotion.
The last two grants of Irish peerages were: the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to be Duke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868 and the granting of the Curzon of Kedleston barony to George Curzon when he became Viceroy of India in 1898. Peers of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation. Accordingly, the Duke of Abercorn (the junior Duke in the Peerage of Ireland) ranks between the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).
Duke of Leinster (; ) is a title in the Peerage of Ireland and the premier dukedom in that peerage. The subsidiary titles of the Duke of Leinster are: Marquess of Kildare (1761), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Offaly (1761), Viscount Leinster, of Taplow in the County of Buckingham (1747), Baron Offaly (1620) and Baron Kildare, of Kildare in the County of Kildare (1870). The viscounty of Leinster is in the Peerage of Great Britain, the barony of Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and all other titles in the Peerage of Ireland. The courtesy title of the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Leinster is "Marquess of Kildare".
British nobility Dukes in the United Kingdom List of dukedoms in the peerages of Britain and Ireland Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom
The title "Duke of York and Albany" was granted three times by the Hanoverian kings.
The title of "Albany" alone was granted for the fifth time, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, in 1881 to Prince Leopold, the fourth son of Queen Victoria. Prince Leopold's son, Prince Charles Edward (who had succeeded as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900), was deprived of the peerage in 1919 for bearing arms against the United Kingdom in World War I. Under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, the legitimate lineal male heir of the 1st Duke of Albany was allowed to petition the British Crown for the restoration of the peerages. Because subsequent descendants have married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, there were no people alive who can make such a petition. The last person eligible to do so was Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who died in 1998. Prior to 2013, the marriages of the male descendants of the 2nd Duke were invalid in the UK. However the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 specified otherwise in section 3(5).
Duke of Clarence and Avondale was a title awarded to a prince of the British Royal Family; the creation was in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. Scotland's Peerage then became subject to many of the same principles as the English Peerage, though many peculiarities of Scottish law continue to apply to it today. Scotland, like England, had lesser and greater barons, as well as earls. There was but one Duke in Scotland: the Duke of Rothesay, the heir-apparent to the Crown. The weak nature of the Scottish Crown had permitted the lesser feudal barons to continue attending the Scottish Estates, or Parliament, until the fifteenth century. Thereafter, only Earls and Lords of Parliament (the greater barons) came to be summoned to the Estates. In Scotland, the peerage remained tied to land until after the Union. Every earldom or lordship of Parliament was accompanied by a grant of land; sometimes, peerages and their associated lands were surrendered in return for other peerages and lands. After the Union of the Crowns, however, the concept of the Peerage as a personal dignity, not a dignity affixed to land, became established in Scotland.
Life peerages were also offered to members of the royal family with new hereditary peerages, but declined (as it would have meant they would hold seats in the House of Lords): Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. The Dukes of Gloucester and Kent had both inherited their titles from their fathers, the first dukes.
Of the 92, two remain in the House of Lords because they hold royal offices connected with Parliament: the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain. Of the remaining ninety peers sitting in the Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage, 15 are elected by the whole House and 75 are chosen by fellow hereditary peers in the House of Lords, grouped by party. (If a hereditary peerage holder is given a life peerage, he or she becomes a member of the House of Lords without a need for a by-election.) The exclusion of other hereditary peers removed Charles, Prince of Wales (who is also Earl of Chester) and all other Royal Peers, including Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.
By law the British monarch also holds, and is entitled to the revenues of, the Duchy of Lancaster. Within the borders of the County Palatine of Lancashire, therefore, Elizabeth II is hailed as "The Queen, The Duke of Lancaster" (even when the monarch is a Queen regnant, by tradition she does not use the title "Duchess"). However, legally the monarch is not the Duke of Lancaster: peerages are in origin held feudally of the sovereign who, as the fount of honour, cannot hold a peerage of him- or herself. The situation is similar in the Channel Islands, where the monarch is addressed as Duke of Normandy, but only in accordance with tradition. He or she does not hold the legal title of Duke of Normandy.
On Saturday 27 July 1889, Princess Louise married Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, at the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace. Two days after the wedding, Queen Victoria created him Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The letters patent creating this dukedom contained the standard remainder to heirs male of the body lawfully begotten. However, it became apparent that the Duke and Duchess would not have a son. Therefore, on 24 April 1900, Queen Victoria signed letters patent creating a second Dukedom of Fife, along with the Earldom of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom with a special remainder: in default of a male heir, these peerages would pass to the daughters of the 1st Duke and then to their male descendants.
The ranks of the English peerage are, in descending order, Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. While most newer English peerages descend only in the male line, many of the older ones (particularly older baronies) can descend through females. Under English inheritance law all daughters are co-heirs, so many older English peerage titles have fallen into abeyance between various female co-heirs.
Hereditary peerages continue to be created for members of the royal family. The Prince Andrew was created Duke of York in 1986, the Prince Edward was created Earl of Wessex in 1999, Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge in 2011, and Prince Harry was created Duke of Sussex in 2018 (all on the occasion of their marriages).
Dukes in the Peerage of England, in order of creation Dukes in the Peerage of Scotland, in order of creation Dukes in the Peerage of Great Britain, in order of creation Dukes in the Peerage of Ireland created before 1801, in order of creation Dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and Dukes in the Peerage of Ireland created after 1801, in order of creation
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of 2016 there are 820 hereditary peers. The numbers of peers – of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the UK – whose titles are the highest they hold (i.e. are not subsidiary titles) are: dukes, 24 (non-royal); marquesses, 34; earls, 193; viscounts, 112; barons, 445. 
This is a list of the 153 present and extant royal and non-royal dukes in the peerages of the Kingdom of Spain.