The Dukes (78 page)

She died a respectable old lady in 1861, in an elegant house in Grosvenor Square. Her husband's three sons each succeeded him in the title, but all died without male issue, so that the title was extinct with the 4th Duke of Cleveland in 1891. The present Lord Barnard is the modern representative of the Vanes, and lives still in their ancestral home, Raby Castle; another branch is represented by Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marquess of Londonderry, until 1987 at neighbouring Wynyard.

An amusing contrast to the washerwoman Duchess was a later Duchess of Cleveland (1792-1883) who was so intolerant of any departure from etiquette that guests went in fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. She was stiff and precise in her speech, and positively loathed the use of Christian names. Only one person dared to tease her, and that, not surprisingly, was a son of the Duke of Richmond, Lord Henry Lennox. He used to delight in irritating the old woman by using the latest slang, which made her wince with displeasure. "May I enquire, Lord Henry," she said, "whether, when you have completely mastered the language of the servants' hall, you mean to adopt its manners as well?""

There is one dukedom which, though extinct by reason of attainder, is still used by the descendants of the grantee. This is the dukedom of Berwick, bestowed by James II on his illegimate son by Arabella Churchill - James Fitzjames (1670-1734).

The Duke of Berwick had an extraordinary career. With his grandfather Charles I's handsome features, and the resilience of the Churchills, he was set for a brilliant military career in England. But he fled to France with his father, and in 1691 joined the French Army. (He had, as it happens, been born in France.) By 1693 he had risen as far as lieutenant-general, and in 1703 he became a natural­ised Frenchman, in order to be eligible for the ultimate accolade of Marshal of France, which he received in 1706. In all, he served in twenty-nine campaigns, and commanded in fifteen of them, on the opposite side to his uncle, the Duke of Marlborough. He fought one battle, Almanza in 1706, "the only battle recorded in which an English general at the head of a French army defeated an English army commanded by a Frenchman".
¹²
(The Frenchman was Henri de Ruvigny.)

Berwick's end was ignominous; his head was blown off by a cannon-ball, producing national grief in France, where he was a hero, and relief in England, where he was an embarrassment. His title had already been attainted in 1695, a fact which has in no way deterred his descendants.

His son by the first marriage was made Duke of Liria in Spain, and a son by his second marriage was granted the dukedom of Fitz­james in France. There were descendants of both lines in both countries, but none in England, though the title was originally of English blood royal. The dukedom of Fitzjames has since died out, but the Duke of Liria continues, vested in a Spanish family which prefers to use its superior title of Duke of Alba, and, on occasion, Duke of Berwick. The "Duke of Berwick" in Victoria's time was allowed to use that title on a visit to Windsor, and the late 17 th Duke, a personal friend of Winston Churchill, liked to be known as "Duque di Berwick y Alba".

The titles are currently held by Maria Rosario Cayetana Fitzjames
Stuart y Silva, Duchess of Alba, Duchess of Liria and Xerica, Duchess of Montoro, Duchess of Arjona, Duchess of Hijar, Duchess of Olivares, and with no less than forty-three separate other titles, some irresistibly musical, like Marchioness of San Leonardo and La Lota, and Countess of Miranda del Castanor. She lists Duchess of Berwick as her second title, apparently in disregard of its non-­existence. Were the attainder ever to be reversed (as it is in the power of the Queen to do), the title would legally go to the
heir male,
Fernando Alfonso Fitzjames Stuart y Saavedra, Duke of Penaranda de Bracamonte.

There is even a suspicion that the 1st Duke was never really attainted at all, except verbally, which would not be conclusive; in this case, the claim might well be upheld.
¹³

We were reminded how abruptly a title may cease due to failure in the male line with the death in 1963 of John Francis Godolphin Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds (1901-1963), and the final closing of a story which started with a show of gallantry.

A successful merchant and clothworker called William Hewett had one of the houses on old London Bridge. His infant daughter Anne was being fondled by her nurse, when the careless woman dropped her into the Thames below. A young man was passing, saw what hap­pened, and leapt immediately into the current to save the child. His name was Richard Osborne of Ashford, Kent, and as a result of this gesture, was taken on by Hewett as apprentice clothworker. A working-class lad, he may never have had the opportunity to train for such a position were it not for his impulsive dive. Eventually he married the daughter. As Hewett had no sons, all his ambition was concentrated on his son-in-law, who he intended would one day benefit from his success. The eldest son of Richard Osborne and Anne Hewett was Sir Edward Osborne, Lord Mayor of London in 1583, and two generations later this unknown family had reached the dukedom, with the most famous of the Osbornes, known to history as "Danby".

Danby (1632-1712) was a wily individual, one of those clever politicians England produces from time to time, able to manipulate supporters and seduce objectors. He is generally thought to have been dishonest, in so far as he accepted bribes and indulged in forgery, but such habits did not make him exceptional in Restoration England. From 1673 to 1678 he was Lord High Treasurer of England, and Chief Minister to Charles II, during which time he virtually governed the country single-handed and had to grapple with the balance of payments headaches which have become such a feature of modern political life. Although he was in control, he exercised much diplomatic skill in fostering the impression that the King took all decisions. The events leading up to his impeachment are too complex to warrant examination here, but that he should be charged with treason was manifestly absurd, for he had the King's written approval for his actions. None the less, he languished five years in the Tower, his cleverness for once deserting him, without reaching trial. The impeachment was later reversed, and he returned to the peers. Danby was active in the Revolution, being one of the signatories who invited William of Orange to assume the crown, and was duly rewarded by a grateful William III. The Earl of Danby became Marquess of Carmarthen in 1689 and Duke of Leeds in 1694.

The Osborne descendants never reached the heights of power attained by Danby. The 7th Duke of Leeds has the distinction of being one of the first members of the peerage to choose an American heiress for a wife, as early as 1828, when the United States of America had been in existence barely fifty years. He was then known as Marquess of Carmarthen, and his wife,
nee
Louisa Caton, of Maryland, was known as Lady Hervey, by virtue of her first marriage. She was one of three Caton sisters who all married into the English aristocracy, the other two becoming Lady Wellesley and Lady Staf­ford. Lady Holland's horrified comments are preserved. "The marri­age of Lord Carmarthen and Lady Hervey has taken place", she wrote. "The Duke of Leeds bears it quietly on account of the Duchess for whom he dreads agitation. He is, however, deeply mortified; and his friends have no consolation to offer but the improbability of her having any children. The second son is a fine young man, and just what such a father would be proud of; so if these consolations are valid, all will be right. They say Lady Hervey wanted six qualifi­cations, youth, beauty, character, fortune, birth, sense."
¹⁴

The Dukes of Leeds were on the whole good men. At a time when some seats in the House of Commons were still in the gift of the aristocracy, and pressure could be exerted on others, it is unusual to hear said, as the Duke of Leeds said in 1848, "I have particularly assured my tenants that I will not in any way interfere with their opinions in the choice of their representatives."
¹⁵

It is interesting also that the Leeds house was the heirs of line to the dukedom of Marlborough; in the event of the male Spencer line, descended from the Earl of Sunderland who married a Churchill daughter, failing, the title would pass by terms of the patent to the heirs of another daughter, who became Duchess of Leeds.

To such an inheritance John Francis Osborne ("Jack") suc
ceeded in 1927; it was not a spectacular history, but ;in honourable record of quiet public service and a decent acceptance of the role of landed aristocrats. The family home was Hornby Castle in Yorkshire. Jack was the son of the 10th Duke and Lady Katherine Lambton, was educated at Eton and Jesus College, Cambridge, zjid moved in literary and theatrical circles. He was a shy man, shunning public attention, and making no capital of his ducal rank. The only occasion when he was pursued by the press was when he sold the Goya por­trait of Wellington at Sotheby's in
1961,
for
£140,000.

In
1960
the Duke had suffered the amputation of a leg, made necessary by a disease which attacked the artery. The following year his other leg was removed, and he spent the last months in acute pain. He died on
26th
July
1963,
leaving a daughter by the second of three marriages, Lady Camilla, the last representative of gallant Richard Osborne and the last person to bear his name. She is now married to the journalist, Nigel Dempster.

The dukedom did in fact pass briefly to a cousin living in Rome, Sir Francis d'Arcy Godolphin Osborne, aged seventy-nine, who for a few months revelled in being a duke, until he too died early in
1964,
reducing the number of dukedoms of the realm to the present total of twenty-six disparate individuals, united, in a democratic age, by the one dubious remaining privilege of superior rank.

references

1.
    
D.N.B.

2.
   
Timbs,
English Eccentrics and Eccentricities,
Vol. I, p.
111;
Gentleman's Magazine,
1829,
pp.
558-60.

3.
   
Bernard Falk
The Way of the Montagues,
p
151.

4.
   
Ann Hadley to Abigail Harley, 16th March, 17
10,
in Portland Papers, quoted in E. F. Ward,
Christopher Monck, Duke of Albermarle,
pp.
349-50.

5.
    
Pepys
Diary,
8th
March 1
661; 25th
February i656.

6.
   
ibid.,
9th December 1
665; 4th
April 1
667.

7.
    
D.N.B.

8.
   
Complete Peerage.

9.
      
Augustus Hare,
In My Solitary Life,
p.
149.
1 o. Creevey
Papers,
pp.
86-7, 92.

11.
Leaves from the Notebooks
of Lady Dorothy Nevill, p.
36.

12.
   
D.N.B.

13.
    
Complete Peerage,
Vol. XII, Part ii, Appendix H.

14.
   
Lady Holland to Her Son,
p. 82.

F. M. L. Thompson,
English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century,
p. 201.
Bibliographical notes

a. peerage history and genealogy

The Complete Peerage,
edited by G. E. Cockayne. Burke's
Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage.
Collin's
Peerage,
edited by Brydges. Debrett's
Peerage.

Valentine Heywood,
British Titles
(1953). J. H. Round,
Studies in the Peerage
(1901).