All degrees of nobility and honour are derived from the king as their fountain[1]: and he may inſtitute what new titles he pleaſes. Hence it is that all degrees of honour are not of equal antiquity. Thoſe now in uſe are dukes, marqueſſes, earls, viſcounts, and barons[2].
1. A duke, though it be with us, as a mere title of nobility, inferior in point of antiquity to many others, yet it is ſuperior to all of them in rank; being the firſt title of dignity after the royal family[3]. Among the Saxons the Latin name of dukes, duces, is very frequent, and ſignified, as among the Romans, the commanders or leaders of their armies, whom in their own language they called Peretoga[4]; and in the laws of Henry I (as tranſlated by Lambard) we find them called heretochii. But after the Norman conqueſt, which changed the military polity of the nation, the kings themſelves continuing for many generations dukes of Normandy, they would not honour any ſubjects with that title, till the time of Edward III; who, claiming to be king of France, and thereby loſing the ducal in the royal dignity, in the eleventh year of his reign created his ſon, Edward the black prince, duke of Cornwall: and many, of the royal family eſpecially, were afterwards raiſed to the ſame honour. However, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1572[5], the whole order became utterly extinct: but it was revived about fifty years afterwards by her ſucceſſor, who was remarkably prodigal of honours, in the perſon of George Villiers duke of Buckingham.
2. A marqueſs, marchio, is the next degree of nobility. His office formerly was (for dignity and duty were never ſeparated by our anceſtors) to guard the frontiers and limits of the kingdom;
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 363.
- ↑ For the original of theſe titles on the continent of Europe, and their ſubſequent introduction into this iſland, ſee Mr. Selden's titles of honour.
- ↑ Camden. Britan. tit. ordines.
- ↑ This is apparently derived from the ſame root as the German herrzogen, the antient appellation of dukes in that country. Seld. tit. hon. 2. 1. 12.
- ↑ Camden. Britan. tit. ordines. Spelman. Gloſſ. 191.
