![Fife Arms Hotel, Braemar Fife Arms detail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Fife_Arms_Hotel%2C_Braemar_Fife_Arms_detail.JPG)
Duke of Fife is a title in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom that has been created twice, in both cases for
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and 6th Earl Fife, who in 1889 married
Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
). The dukedom of
Fife was created for a member of the
British royal family by marriage, since the first holder's wife was a granddaughter of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
.
History
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
The title Earl Fife was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created by letters patent dated 26 April 1759 for William Duff (1696–1763) after asserting (but not proving) his descent from Macduff, the medieval Earl of Fife. Though in the Irish pe ...
. With this, he inherited the titles
Baron Braco (created in 1735),
Earl Fife
The title Earl Fife was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created by letters patent dated 26 April 1759 for William Duff (1696–1763) after asserting (but not proving) his descent from Macduff, the medieval Earl of Fife. Though in the Irish pe ...
and
Viscount Macduff
The title Earl Fife was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created by letters patent dated 26 April 1759 for William Duff (1696–1763) after asserting (but not proving) his descent from Macduff, the medieval Earl of Fife. Though in the Irish pe ...
(both created in 1759), all in the
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...
(and created for Scottish nobleman
William Duff, 1696–1763), and
Baron Skene
The title Earl Fife was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created by letters patent dated 26 April 1759 for William Duff (1696–1763) after asserting (but not proving) his descent from Macduff, the medieval Earl of Fife. Though in the Irish p ...
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
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
). In 1885,
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
created for Alexander Duff the title
Earl of Fife
The Earl of Fife or Mormaer of Fife was the ruler of the province of Fife in medieval Scotland, which encompassed the modern counties of Fife and Kinross. Due to their royal ancestry, the earls of Fife were the highest ranking nobles in the re ...
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
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(the future
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
) and his wife
Princess Alexandra, in the Private Chapel at
Buckingham Palace. The couple were third cousins in descent from
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
. The wedding marked the second time a descendant of Queen Victoria married a British subject. Two days after the wedding, the Queen elevated Alexander, Lord Fife, to the dignities of Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff, and Duke of Fife, both in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
'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
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
issued another 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, in default of a son, and then to the male heirs of those daughters. The one restriction was that the mother of those daughters had to be
Princess Louise; daughters from any subsequent marriage could not inherit.
On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII granted to
Alexander Duff's two daughters
Lady Alexandra (* 1891) and
Lady Maud (* 1893) the styles of ''Highness'' and ''Princess''.
Upon the death of
Alexander, 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 (as previously mentioned) peerages held by the Duff family (the barony of Braco of 1735, viscountcy of Macduff of 1759,
earldom Fife of 1759, barony of Skene of 1857,
earldom of Fife of 1885) 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).
On 15 October 1913, The 2nd Duchess of Fife married
Prince Arthur of Connaught
Prince Arthur of Connaught (Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert; 13 January 1883 – 12 September 1938) was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 20 November 1920 ...
, the only son of
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
and
Prince Albert and thus a younger brother of her maternal grandfather King Edward VII. As such, Arthur and Alexandra were
first cousins once removed
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
. Their only son,
Alastair, died in 1943.
When The 2nd Duchess of Fife died in 1959, her hereditary peerages passed to her nephew
James Carnegie (1929–2015), eldest son of her sister
Maud and her husband
Charles Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk
Charles Alexander Bannerman Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk (23 September 1893 – 16 February 1992), styled The Honourable Charles Carnegie before 1905 and Lord Carnegie between 1905 and 1941, was the husband of Princess Maud, Countess of South ...
(1893–1992). Thirty-three years later, in 1992, The 3rd Duke of Fife also succeeded his father as 12th
Earl of Southesk
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...
and
chief of the
Clan Carnegie. As consequence, the following peerage titles became therefore subsidiary to that of the Dukedom:
Lord Carnegie of Kinnaird in the
Peerage of Scotland (created in 1616),
Earl of Southesk
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...
and
Lord Carnegie
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
in the Peerage of Scotland (both created in 1633),
Baron Balinhard in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom (created in 1663; all previous mentioned titles awarded to
Sir David Carnegie (1575–1658), an
Extraordinary Lord of Session
Extraordinary Lords of Session were lay members of the Court of Session in Scotland from 1532 to 1762, and were part of the historical judiciary of Scotland.
When the Court of Session was founded in 1532, it consisted of the Lord President, 14 ...
), and the
Carnegie Baronetcy in the
Baronetage of Nova Scotia
Baronets are a rank in the British aristocracy. The current Baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier but existing Baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Great Britain.
Baronetage of England (1611–1705)
King James ...
(created in 1641 for
David Carnegie of Pitcarrow (died 1708), a Scottish politician). Upon his death in 2015, he was succeeded in the Fife and Carnegie titles by his son,
David Charles Carnegie (born 1961). The 4th Duke of Fife's
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
is his son Charles Duff Carnegie (born 1989), who uses the
courtesy title ''Earl of Southesk''. The hypothetical grandson of the duke and heir-to-heir apparent would be styled instead ''Lord Carnegie''.
Seats
The family's current main residence is
Kinnaird Castle near the town of
Brechin
Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...
in
Angus, Scotland. Another seat of the Duke is
Elsick House
Elsick House is a historic house in Kincardineshire (now part of Aberdeenshire), North-East Scotland. It is situated in an agricultural area about two miles from the North Sea near the town of Newtonhill; the Elsick Estate is situated within the ...
near the town of
Stonehaven
Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census.
After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...
in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includ ...
, within the watershed of the
Burn of Elsick
The Burn of Elsick is a coastal stream in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that discharges to the North Sea. This watercourse drains primarily agricultural lands and enters the North Sea at Newtonhill.
History
The Burn of Elsick flows under the Causey M ...
. The
Mar Lodge, to the west of the village of
Braemar in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includ ...
, was bequeathed by
Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, (; 17 May 1891 – 26 February 1959), known as Princess Arthur of Connaught after her marriage, was the eldest surviving grandchild of King Edward VII. Alexandra and her younger sister, Maud, had the dist ...
, to her nephew
Alexander Ramsay of Mar
Captain Alexander Arthur Alfonso David Maule Ramsay of Mar DL (21 December 1919 – 20 December 2000) was the only child of Princess Patricia of Connaught, who renounced her royal title and style when she married then-Captain the Hon. Alexand ...
, and subsequently sold. The first two holders of the dukedom are buried in
St Ninian's Chapel, Braemar.
Coat of arms
Arms of the 4th Duke
The following
heraldic achievement
In heraldry, an achievement, armorial achievement or heraldic achievement (historical: hatchment) is a full display or depiction of all the heraldic components to which the bearer of a coat of arms is entitled. An achievement comprises not only ...
was matriculated by the
Court of the Lord Lyon in 2017 for the
4th Duke of Fife:
*Shield: Or, a Lion rampant Gules, armed and langued Azure ''(the Dukedom of Fife)'', and on an Inescutcheon Argent, ensigned of an Earl's Coronet proper, an Eagle displayed Azure, armed, beaked and membered Gules, and charged on its breast with an Antique Covered Cup Or ''(Carnegie)''.
* Crest: A Thunderbolt proper, winged Or.
* Supporters: Dexter: a Lion guardant Gules, langued Azure, collared with a Label of five-points Argent, charged with two Thistles proper, between three Crosses of St George Gules. Sinister: a Talbot Argent, collared and langued Gules.
*Mottoes: Above the crest, on a Scroll ''DRED GOD''; beneath the shield ''DEO JUVANTE''.
Arms of the 3rd Duke
The arms as borne by the
3rd Duke of Fife were:
*Shield: Quarterly: 1st, Or a Lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure (Dukedom of Fife); 2nd, the arms of the United Kingdom as borne by King Edward VII differenced by a Label of five points Argent the points charged with two Thistles between three Crosses of St George Gules (The Princess Royal, Duchess of Fife); 3rd, grandquarterly: 1st and 4th, Vert a Fess dancetty Ermine between a Hart's Head cabossed in chief and two Escallops in base Or (Duff of Braco); 2nd and 3rd, Gules three Skeans paleways Argent hafted and pommelled Or surmounted by as many Wolves' Heads couped of the third (Skene of that Ilk); 4th, Gules a Banner displayed Argent charged with a Canton Azure a Saltire of the second (Bannerman of Elsick); over all ensigned of an Earl's Coronet proper an Inescutcheon Argent an Eagle displayed Azure armed beaked and membered Gules on its breast an Antique Covered Cup Or (Carnegie).
* Crests: Centre: a Thunderbolt proper winged Or (Carnegie); Dexter: a Knight denoting the ancient MacDuff armed at all points on a Horse in full speed in his dexter hand a Sword erect all proper his Jupon Argent on his sinister arm a Shield Or charged with a Lion rampant Gules the visor of his helmet shut over which on a Wreath of his liveries with a long Mantling flowing therefrom behind him and ending in a Tassel of the fourth doubling of the third is set a Lion rampant issuing out of a Wreath of the third and fourth the Caparisons of the horse Gules fimbriated Or and thereon six Shields of the last each charged with a Lion rampant of the fourth (Dukedom of Fife); Sinister: a Man in armour issuing from the loins and wearing a Tabard emblazoned of the arms Argent on a Fess between three Boars' Heads erased Gules three Mascles Or sustaining with his dexter hand a Banner developed Argent having a Canton Azure charged with a Saltire of the first (Ethel, Countess of Southesk).
*Supporters: Dexter: a Lion rampant guardant Gules langued Azure collared with a Label of five points Argent the points charged with two Thistles between three Crosses of St George Gules; Sinister: a Talbot Argent collared Gules the Collar charged with a Label of three points Argent.
*Mottoes: Above the centre crest: ''DRED GOD''; above the dexter crest: ''DEO JUVANTE''; above the sinister crest: ''PRO PATRIA''; beneath the shield: ''VIRTUTE ET OPERA''.
Tartan
![Tartan (duke of fife)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Tartan_%28duke_of_fife%29.jpg)
The Duke of Fife tartan, first designed to celebrate the marriage of
Louise, daughter of Edward VII, to
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife.
Duke of Fife (1889-1912)
Dukes of Fife (1900-present)
Line of succession
*
David Carnegie, 4th Duke of Fife
David Charles Carnegie, 4th Duke of Fife (born 3 March 1961) is a British peer and businessman. He is the only surviving son of the late James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife, and his former wife Caroline Dewar. He was styled Earl of Macduff until ...
(b. 1961)
** (1). Charles Carnegie, Earl of Southesk (b. 1989)
** (2). Lord George Carnegie (b. 1991)
** (3). Lord Hugh Carnegie (b. 1993)
Family tree
See also
*
Duchess of Fife
Duchess of Fife is the typically the wife of the Duke of Fife, an extant title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created twice, in both cases for Alexander Duff, 6th Earl Fife. In one case however, the incumbent was Duchess of F ...
References
External links
Duke of Fife
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fife
Noble titles created in 1900
Dukedoms in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Lists of Scottish people
Fife
1889 establishments in the United Kingdom
Noble titles created in 1889
Noble titles created for UK MPs
Peerages created with special remainders