Duke of Fife


Duke of Fife is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created twice, in both cases for Alexander, 1st Duke of Fife and 6th Earl Fife, who in 1889 married Louise, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.
The dukedom of Fife was created for Queen Victoria's grandson-in-law, thus for a member of the British Royal Family.

History

was the eldest son of The 5th Earl Fife. Upon his father's death on 7 August 1879, he succeeded as The 6th Earl Fife. With this, he inherited the titles Baron Braco, Earl Fife and Viscount Macduff, all in the Peerage of Ireland, and Baron Skene in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In 1885, Queen Victoria created for Alexander Duff the title Earl of Fife 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 and his wife Princess Alexandra, in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. The couple were third cousins in descent from King George III. 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 Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria'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 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 and Lady Maud the styles of Highness and Princess.
Upon the death of Alexander, 1st Duke of Fife, in January 1912, the peerages created in 1889 and all the older peerages held by the Duff family became extinct, while the peerages created in 1900 passed to his elder daughter, Princess Alexandra.
On 15 October 1913, The 2nd Duchess of Fife married Prince Arthur of Connaught, the only son of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria 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. 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, eldest son of her sister Maud and her husband Charles Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk. Thirty-three years later, in 1992, The 3rd Duke of Fife also succeeded his father as 12th Earl of Southesk 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, Earl of Southesk and Lord Carnegie in the Peerage of Scotland, Baron Balinhard in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and the Carnegie Baronetcy in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia. Upon his death in 2015, he was succeeded in the Fife and Carnegie titles by his son, David Charles Carnegie. The 4th Duke of Fife's heir apparent is his son Charles Duff Carnegie, 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 in Angus, Scotland. Another seat of the Duke is Elsick House near the town of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, within the watershed of the Burn of Elsick. The Mar Lodge, to the west of the village of Braemar in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was bequeathed by Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, to her nephew Alexander Ramsay of Mar, 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 was matriculated by the Court of the Lord Lyon in 2017 for the 4th Duke of Fife:
The arms as borne by the 3rd Duke of Fife were:

Dukes of Fife (1900-present)

Line of succession