Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/470

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450
CORNWALL


lapsed to the Crown, while the Dukedom of Edenburgh, &c., devolved on the late Prince's s. and h., afterwards George III. See "Edenburgh, Dukedom of, cr. 1726. His widow, who was b. 30 Nov. 1719, d. at Carlton House, Pall Mall (being then mother of the reigning Sovereign), 8, and was bur. 15 Feb. 1772, in Westm. Abbey.

XX. 1762 to 1820.

H.R.H. GEORGE AUGUSTUS FREDERICK, Prince of Great Britain, Electoral Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg,[1] DUKE OF CORNWALL, as also DUKE OF ROTHSAY, &c. [S.], was, at his birth, entitled to the abovenamed dignities, being 1st s. and h. ap. of GEORGE III,[2] by Charlotte Sophia, da. of Karl Ludwig, GRAND DUKE OF MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ. He was b. at St. James's Palace, 12 Aug., and bap. there 8 Sep. 1762, his grandmother, the Dowager Princess of Wales, and his great-uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, being sponsors. He had, previously, when 7 days old, been cr. 19 Aug. 1762, PRINCE OF WALES and EARL OF CHESTER, with rem. to his heirs, Kings of Great Britain. Nom. and inv. K.G., 26 Dec. 1765, inst. 25 July 1771; Col. in the Army 1782;[3] P.C. 21 Nov. 1783; F.R.S. 26 Jan. 1789; Grand Master of Freemasons 1790-1813; Col. of the 10th Light Dragoons, 1796 till his accession to the throne. D.C.L. of Oxford (by diploma), 2 May 1810. REGENT OF THE KINGDOM, 6 Feb. 1811. Knight of St. Andrew of Russia, 25 Nov. 1813; of St. Alexander Newski of Russia; of the Sainte Esprit of France, 20 Apr. 1814; and of the Golden Fleece of Austria, July 1815. He m., 8 Apr. 1795,[4] at the Chapel Royal,

    Duchy of Cornwall was governed, but no instance having occurred of a like nature in Scotland, no certain opinion could be given; a draft of an Act of Parl. was prepared in order to obviate the difficulty, but no further steps in the matter appear to have been taken." (Courthope, with MS. corrections, p. 13, note "t"). An elaborate account of these proceedings is in Wood's Douglas, vol. ii, p. 437-439; but the period during which the heir apparent was of full age was only about 16 months, and the matter was concluded when on 25 Oct. 1760 he ascended the throne as George III.

  1. ↑ (a) See ante, p. 448, note "a."
  2. ↑ (b) George III, not being filius Regis, was consequently not Duke of Cornwall, and was the only instance, since the creation of that Dukedom in 1337, of the heir apparent not possessing that dignity. In the parallel case of a grandson and heir ap. (that of Richard, afterwards Richard II), the Dukedom was in Nov. 1376, conferred by creation, as it was also, when Richard (Plantagenet), Duke of York was declared "heir apparent" by Act of Parl. in 1460. There are six instances, however, where the Dukes of Cornwall never obtained the Principality of Wales and Earldom of Chester. See ante, p. 179, note “a," circa finem.
  3. ↑ (c) He and Miss Robinson appear in 1781, as "The Illustrious Heir and the fair Ophelia," in the notorious tête-à-tête portraits in Town and Country Mag., vol. xiii, p. 9. See Appendix B in the last volume of this work. V.G.
  4. ↑ (d) He m. 15 (not 21) Dec. 1785, at her house in Park Str., Mayfair (a marriage void under the Royal Marriage Act, but ecclesiastically valid), Maria, widow of Thomas Fitzherbert, of Swinnerton, and before that of Edward Weld, of Lulworth,
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