Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife

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Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and his wife Princess Louise of Great Britain and Ireland
The Duke and Duchess of Fife with their daughters Maud and Alexandra around 1900
Coat of arms of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife
Grave slab of the 1st Duke of Fife

Alexander William George Duff, 1st Duke of Fife , KG , KT , GCVO , PC (born November 10, 1849 in Edinburgh , † January 29, 1912 in Aswan ) was a Scottish-British nobleman and politician . He was the husband of Princess Louise , the eldest daughter of the future King Edward VII.

Life

He was the eldest son of James Duff, 5th Earl Fife from his marriage to Lady Agnes Hay, daughter of William Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll . As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title Viscount Macduff from 1857 . He was educated at Eton College .

From 1872 to 1902 he was Lord Lieutenant of County Elgin .

In 1873 he was elected to the British House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for the Scottish constituency of Elginshire and Nairnshire . He held this mandate until he inherited his title of nobility on the death of his father in 1879 and thus received a seat in the House of Lords . He inherited from him the Irish titles 5th Earl Fife , 5th Viscount Macduff and 5th Baron Braco , as well as the British nobility title 2nd Baron Skene . The latter immediately entitled to a seat in the House of Lords. He also inherited the chief dignity of the Scottish clan Macduff .

In the years 1880/81 he was captain of the Gentlemen at Arms . In the following years, the Earl of Queen Victoria was entrusted with diplomatic missions. For his services he was awarded the title of Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the United Kingdom by the Queen in 1885 .

On July 27, 1889, he married Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of the then Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace . Queen Victoria then raised him to Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . There were three children from the marriage:

The family lived in London and on the Dukes' Scottish estates, Mar Lodge in Aberdeenshire , and Mountcoffer House in Banff . As usual, all of his nobility titles could only be inherited in the male line. When it became clear that the couple would not have a corresponding title heir, Queen Victoria awarded the duke the duke again in 1900 and with the subordinate title Earl of Macduff , now with the special addition that, in the absence of male offspring, he would also give his daughters and whose male biological descendants could pass over. Both at the coronation of his father-in-law on August 9, 1902 and that of his brother-in-law George V on June 22, 1911, the Duke acted as Lord High Constable .

In 1905 the Duchess was given the title Princess Royal by her father, now King Edward VII. It is the highest honor a non-ruling female member of the British Royal Family can receive. At the same time two daughters were different from the general rules according to which this privilege belongs only to children of sons of the monarch, turned into princesses of Great Britain and Ireland, she received the title of nobility Highness (Highness) awarded; in the protocol order of precedence they immediately followed the inner royal family in front of all other nobles .

During a trip to Egypt, the Duke and his family were shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco in December 1911. Although no one was directly injured, the duke contracted pleurisy in Egypt, possibly because of this . He died in Aswan in January 1912. He was buried in St Ninian's Chapel on his Mar Lodge estate in Braemar . His titles Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff , created in 1900, fell to his eldest daughter Alexandra due to the special inheritance regulation, his other nobility titles expired due to lack of male heirs. He was also the last chief of Clan MacDuff, which has been an Armigerous Clan ever since .

Orders and decorations

Web links

Commons : Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 23816, HMSO, London, January 19, 1872, p. 75 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27469, HMSO, London, August 29, 1902, p. 5604 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 24842, HMSO, London, May 7, 1880, p. 2915 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25490, HMSO, London, July 14, 1885, p. 3239 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25962, HMSO, London, August 8, 1889, p. 4307 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25958, HMSO, London, July 26, 1889, p. 4077 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27186, HMSO, London, April 24, 1900, p. 2605 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  8. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 27489, HMSO, London, October 28, 1902, p. 6871 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  9. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 28535, HMSO, London, September 26, 1911, p. 7094 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  10. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27285, HMSO, London, February 15, 1901, p. 1145 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
  11. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 28505, HMSO, London, June 16, 1911, p. 4587 ( PDF , accessed August 12, 2010, English).
predecessor Office successor
James Duff Earl Fife
1879-1912 		Title expired
New title created Earl of Fife
1885-1912 		Title expired
New title created Duke of Fife
(1st award)
1889–1912 		Title expired
New title created Duke of Fife
(2nd award)
1900–1912 		Alexandra Duff
personal data
SURNAME Duff, Alexander, 1st Duke of Fife
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duff, Alexander; Duff, Alexander, 6th Earl Fife; Duff, Alexander, Viscount Macduff
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish nobleman and politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1912
Place of death Aswan