What Happened To The Dukes Of Elizabeth II | Last Dukes | Absolute History

Queen Elizabeth drives to her coronation at the Queen's coronation in 1953 the aristocracy of the kingdom assembled and at the top of the pile were the Dukes excluding the Royal Dukes titles given to the immediate family of monarchs there were then 28 non Royal Dukes at the sacred moment that the Queen was crowned they were also entitled to don their Coronets and the trumpet sound [Music] dukedoms are created by the monarch for reasons ranging from a grateful nation rewarding a major war leader to a king acknowledging his illegitimate son the title then passing down the generations Duke of Ethel Microsoft ally Borden Earl of Strathearn straddle verkan vall widow Balvenie and Gosk Lord Marie Thane of Glen salt and I think I've missed one out but there are a lot of him this is the list of my titles Duke of Montrose Marquess of Montrose Marquess of Graham victory and Baron gram of Bellefleur you're always yeah so I'm the Duchess of Rutland the 11th Duchess of Rutland and this is my home beaver castle if I'd been born a boy I would have been my father's heir and the 12th Duke of Leeds as he worked but I wasn't the crowned Queen the last dukedom to be created was by Queen Victoria in 1889 and it is inconceivable that there will ever be anymore so as they gradually become extinct there are now only 24 non Royal Dukes what will become of those that remain do they still have power and wealth what is it to be a Duke in the 21st century [Music] dukedoms still owned in excess of 1 million acres of Britain today the classic image of a Dukes stately pile is Blenheim Palace home to the Dukes of Mora for over 300 years the Duke done was created in 1702 for John Churchill the wily statesman and soldier who won a series of battles against the French his greatest was the Battle of Blenheim until the Second World War Blenheim Palace continued to run pretty much unchanged driving in today is someone who actually lived that Downton Abbey life she was born lady rosemary Spencer Churchill the daughter of the 10th Duke of Marlborough no distant carpark for her when her father succeeded to the title lady Rosemarie was a lively five-year-old right shall we go wrong here there were no pesky red ropes in those days yes this I recollect very well because there used to be a piano here and we had to practice the piano and there was a dagger under this picture of my grandfather my grandmother and my father and the dagger was theirs as if there was a fire that the pictures could be cut out of their frames very quickly and thrown out of the window but of course this was fascinating for a child and stood a plague the piano I used to play with the dagger not sure I think it's still there behind the chair if we're allowed to do this but I think that's his Lucy is a huge knife it was just home you know you just happen to live here and you didn't think it was really very extraordinary when you were a child how many servants were there indoors it was 36 I think but they were all the footmen all really tall my mother would like them to be six foot tall that as the average height of a male in those days is about - three different quite difficult to combat but they were all about six foot why do that good six well I mean you know her psyche this she wants a lot of vegetable Cooper sure you know they didn't silver they didn't look right I see everything was almost smart I hate fern shoulders lungs I don't know why people have to put it on the side would you rearrange it yes I would I just hate things on the small these are the invitations to the coronation in early 1953 lady Rosemarie was selected to become a maid of honor to the Queen not only beauty and pranks being the daughter of do yes yes yes I had a head start because there weren't any other to extort us know there was there was mark wish there was Jane Jane de entender stood but otherwise they were mostly Earl's I think way low you way below I believed one or two people were rather cross and cook tell me that shall be named this somebody was rather cross that her daughter hadn't been asked but from the roaring of the multitude into the quiet solemnity of the great I'm interested ah yes there will be going into the Attic I'm at the back on the right hand side I've never seen this before me there I left my father would have been there but I don't know quite well did you no not at all did they say they saw you know they obviously did because they would have been them so we're fairly up at the top of the pile so to speak but no I don't think we discussed it really at all do you find that odd no I don't think wandered funded or you didn't find it odd in those days cuz you had lots of sort of very grand things that happened all the time yeah I never remember discussing it with my parents at all here we are on the balcony it was amazing the final fee the others I think all went out around London afterwards but I had to get home because my mother was roasting her ox in the park for Woodstock there's none of the carving the Ox I'm there cutting up the meat [Music] [Applause] [Music] that world has in some ways disappeared Lady Rose Marie's brother was Duke for 42 years his son succeeded to the title last year but how are the other dukedoms faring bleurgh castle is at the center of a vast Dukla state of over 140,000 acres in the scottish highlands assembling today is the only private army in Europe [Music] the Duke of Atholl was given the right to possess such a thing by Queen Victoria in 1844 and today the Athol Highlanders regiment consists of around a hundred men made up of locals associated in some way with the do cool estates its commanding officer lives 6,000 miles away my father actually nine tension of sort of accepting the role at all he was going to be a he actually made inquiries officially inquiries as to how he could get out of it and the person that he consulted at the Lord Lyon said you can either come it's a Schedule one offence or felony they call it sir that guy's jail for the rest of your life or die this is you can't abdicate in a Duke this is the archive here well this part atop has the earliest documents there's 40 trunks of land charters giving the Duke title to his estate but the very oldest is in here this one dates from 1180 the next one is from 1199 the main thing was to prove that you owned a bit of land so without a charter from the crown you had no proof and these are the originals absolutely of course family history matters when the 9th Duke died there was a very convoluted route to his successor a young man who was his fourth cousin twice removed we have a very simplified family tree here so you come down straight from the 3rd Duke 4th 5th sixth seventh eighth ninth but they have no mailers so you have to find the next male heir working your way back so this was a brother of the 4th Duke you come down to this line of George's until you get to the tenth Duke here the 10th Duke had the perfect dukkha limit as if from central casting he was nearly six and a half feet tall talked in clipped sentences ending each with that victorian-era stoke ratting tick what a bachelor he died in 1996 and the whole process of finding the next heir started again and then to get to the present line of Dukes don't have to go quite so far back just to the great grandfather of the Thames Duke and his brother again and through the male line to the present Duke grace the apple founders performed up and ready for your inspection sir Bruce Murray runs a small sign-making shop that he set up many years ago in an obscure provincial town in South Africa [Music] in 2012 Bruce and his second wife Charmaine found themselves becoming the Duke and Duchess of Atholl along with 12 subsidiary titles being the Duke he is automatically the colonel-in-chief of the Ethel Highlanders it's quite a responsibility it's a very very moving experience for me to parade for them and I said to Charmaine the Duchess the other day that I'm so glad that I'm on my own knee because if I had to turn around and and actually have to talk to anybody else I wouldn't be capable of doing it I've got a constant lump in my life when I'm on parade you know I'm here because of an accident of birth and I didn't actually do anything to deserve this huge privilege that I have all of this that happens is done for me you know basically and it's just a very overwhelming sensation that I get to feel that I haven't done anything to deserve it the Duke and Duchess only see the family seat on their brief trip over from South Africa once a year this is the entrance hall and it's a collection of firearms and weapons that the Dukes have collected just this morning we were wondering how many of these weapons have actually been used and it's quite sinister but it's a wonderful collection the trouble with grand estates is that if not well managed they can run out of money in the 1930s the elderly and childless brothers the eighth and then 9th Dukes were facing ruin but luckily their distant cousin the heir to the title was about to marry a woman with a very rich grandmother her grandmother old lady Cowdrey realized that the estates and financial problems and the whole thing would probably be sold so old lady Cowdrey stepped in paid off the bank debt turned the whole thing into a company she had the controlling shares the deal was signed she went to Paris that weekend for a rest and dropped dead my great-grandmother effectively bought the estate and her condition of buying it was that the Dukan everybody continued to live here but her advisors run it and they took a more businesslike approach and one one aspect of that was opening the castle to visitors so by bringing in capital and a commercial approach the rich old lady had insured for her granddaughter that there would be a suitable estate along with the title the title stays with the male line but the tenth groups half-sister Sarah is the trustee and she and her mother and her grandmother were the ones with the actual control so the hereditary system does not mean that the male's get the control they might get the title but initial very bothered about the title it's running the estate that's more important Sarah Troughton the head trustee is the half-sister of the 10th Duke what do you think about the title only going through the male line um huge relief I didn't touch it really yes I date I think it's it's a nice sort of ceremonial thing these days but it's not something I I prefer to get on with the business side of things how do you inherited the title in the past you'd have lived in the castle do you ever think about that when I when I do you think about that I the the prospect of managing and enterprise life is absolutely appalls me so actually the way that it is now I'm probably one of the luckiest Dukes because I have this massive enterprise that's there to allow me to be a Duke well this is a picture staircase showing a lot of my ancestors it's lovely I have this family tree I can no more release what they look like no if I look carefully I'll see John the first Marcus of Ethel the chap in a very peculiar outfit and this would be James the second dukkha Bethel do you see any resemblance between where he is look in the mirror no it's obviously a little bit of DNA in there somewhere but I don't think I look like him The Dukes sons the Marquess of Talib a Dean and Lord David Murray are officers in the Ethel Highlanders we rush soldiers there so in a real army so in theory we could sort of gather the men and go to war if we wanted to do you regret you're not in a position to live here it's a very difficult one to answer because obviously I'm African and always will be but honestly you know and I think it's just quite special that we can have the African side as well as the Scottish side so we have the best of both worlds [Applause] the Duke and his family play a symbolic role in all the rituals the air and the spare pulled down their socks and gets stuck in with the local fun mr. Bennett [Applause] no longer a strictly military occasion the Duchess accompanies her husband but even at full speed suitable respect is shown to the Duke back home she's simply Charmaine but here she's the Duchess and does what Duchess is do is it fun handing out the prizes like this fun and it's nice to know everybody you were able to enjoy I mean I'm one of 24 people out of 7 billion on the planets have got this responsibility to be a Duke and it's onerous you can't be trying for it in my suggestion obviously if you're born and bred into that's different but nobody can teach you how to be a Duke this new South African line of long distance Dukes of Atholl came about because the Dukedom can only go through male heirs but when all male heirs run out that is the end of the line well there are some books a couple of books in here so where does that leave kamila Osborne whose father was the Duke of Leeds a dukedom now extinct the other rather grander book which has got the title on the cover and I didn't know which one it was for and that's the family book plate where's the Coronet she lives in a new-build close in southwest London but she still gets odd glimpses of the precedents at some dinner tables that her status as daughter of a Duke can give her you know if I went for lunch at Christie's for example they are extremely aware because they spend their days looking up Dukes and fight accounts and everything else so you would also you would be put on the right of the Christie's director I went to Electra Christie's and I was on the right and there was a woman who was on the left who was visibly irritated because she was older better-looking better dressed more drools than me but she was on the left and she was irritated yes yes of course it did I'm here these pictures were taken by my father's father who was the 10th Duke the bathroom pays homage to the boyhood of her father well there is a sir sitting in a rather charming a battered straw hat looking with some sad and that is one with his mother the Duchess had struggles to provide an heir after four girls finally she produced a boy the arrival was celebrated with bonfires and fireworks his title at birth was the Marquess of kamorin the stories in being on a bus and the bus stopped and he apparently said Danny nemi why are we moving and she said because si lots of traffic on the road you see and we can't move the bus can't move it move it he went what they wouldn't do this if they knew the little Marcus was on board am I am I suppose he'd been he was known as the little Marcus the family seat was Hornby Castle in Yorkshire within a couple of years of succeeding to the title in 1927 the new young Duke put the castle up for sale with cash in the bank he drifted round Europe ending up on the French Riviera this is a picture of his wedding to the Serbian ballet dancer he got married in Nice there is the bride who's looking pretty satisfied my father who's looking understandably apprehensive and nervous because there is his mother who basically wearing her gardening clothes and certainly a gardening hat she's looking as if she cannot really believe that her only son and heir is marrying the Serbian belly dancer the marriage to the Serbian ballerina ended when she went off with an American millionaire the Duke remarried and they had a daughter Camilla to avoid heavy English taxes they moved to Jersey he was probably bored bad-tempered miserable being made to live there my mother was much younger and she met him fell in love with a young good-looking gods officer who is in the cult stream gods that the result that she left me and my father my sick father had to leave the army and apparently his commanding officer said well Lawrence's is jolly sad isn't it I mean you know chorus girls are one thing but I'm afraid Duchess is quite another within minutes a young woman had got her tabs on the newly available Duke she was terribly tall she was nearly 6 foot so she was bloody frightening as well do you think the title is oh yes it had an enormous amount to do with it but looking back I mean if she wanted to be a duchess what do you think about your resemblance to them I love looking him I do yes well it's such a link isn't it my stepmother in her less and generous moment said it was a great shame that I looks they liked him I was 12 when he died I was at boarding school and they summoned me back but I wasn't allowed to say goodbye to him I didn't see him before he died there was a funeral which I wasn't taken to and she knew under the terms of the trust that she couldn't inherit anything other than his personal possessions and she was obsessive about money but I remember her going on and on to a friend and this friends saying Oh Carolyn you know I do think she would stop now because it's really not very nice for kamila to listen to all this oh well she'll be all right because she's got the money and I was what 13 or something at the time on her father's death the title went to a distant cousin living in Rome sir Darcy Osborne a former British ambassador to the Vatican he was in his 70s and a Bachelor and when he died just six months later the Dukedom of leeds became extinct my father if he'd still have the place in Yorkshire he'd have been like Bedford or Devon sure those that have got a purpose she's what I'm trying to say but I think it gives you a purpose and I think maybe that's why he wasn't a happy man because he had absolutely no purpose in his life except getting through getting through the day by going to the cinema or gaited Taylor or having a you know the third pail no that was his life actually when the Hornby was sold the coronation rose wonder of bed so they got they were sold but what remains are the three coronets the ducal coronet the Duchess's coronet and democracy score and that you see there was a apparently you kept your sandwiches in there during the coronation because it went you know you were there for hours and hours and hours so you just have that on your on your head she that was quite comfortable I appreciate enormous ly what I've got but I think maybe like my father if I hadn't had it I would have had a happier life or more fulfilled one I mean I when you read death announcements don't you you read them and it says after a life well-lived or after a fulfilled life I'm summarizing my more gloomy members I think yes like I wouldn't say that and not that I've been unhappy but I just feel life had sort of the same slightly aimless life as my father did for different reasons the Dukedom of Leeds had been created for a crafty Yorkshire politician who had helped bring William and Mary to the throne in 1689 the Duke demulcent Albans was created for less elevated reasons simply for the bastard son of King Charles the second and the celebrated actress nell gwyn the family seat for many years was best word Lodge in Nottingham sure but that is long gone the 14th duke of sand all burns and his Duchess live in a terraced house in a quiet street in central London [Music] well here's the tenth the tenth - I used to say at the same time as that and here here's the sort of the good Duke who tend to was the last person to make a speech in the House of Lords in Collider oh really hundred twenty seven years later haha laughter this is our corner do you still have the car in it yes male and female and the robes the we have a coronation robes really where are they up in there well the carnot is up there in your study hello there yes yeah okay that'll be over olv or one I think that is huh actually it's the red one because it's in the original box and it's very very fragile ah now this is Murray's one I think they're rather lovely that's Murray do you hold your fire and I'll just get out my one I think it's just so pretty there's an original pens which would be say 1680 you see those that's what's it brilliantly clever those are the pins you would put in on in your hair and that would keep which the Queen obviously masks so what I do is I do that second and I'm pressing it into my scalp and I do that and then I'm pressing it in like that and of course that is amazing because that's it look we have had no reason to whatever no anymore that we've had any reason to wear the robes and actually in fact the well I wrote I will herbes my portrait right uh-huh and how should one address you your grace it should be your grace quite a few a few people do quite a few other restaurants call me your grace quite a few but then on the other hand you also get people it that that don't and so well that's we're gonna we're very technically relaxed action but do you quite like it well I think to be honest with you I like I do actually like formality but I've I've I've always liked formality regardless I don't like Christian names for instance terribly so it wouldn't suit me to me I don't know I've been called Julian actually particularly by people I don't know but that's in your chest for me really so what should I call it well you can call my first meeting you what should I have called you or did I call it I think I avoided it I think you avoided it which I think it's a very sensible thing to do because I think I could always often avoid things that I don't want to get involved with and then I go to hurt anybody's feelings or or beyond you know any problems about it so I think I would have done the same so for example when you're booking an airplane ticket oh that's an issue as they say they can't put in duke of duchess of because it won't fit into their computers which is what we're always being - so we go in and mr. and mrs. st. Albans fine we don't mind but because actually we were not we're not the kind that would want to necessarily throw in a title just because we want a better seat or whatever you know it some people do that but we did but anyway very good thoroughly pretty isn't it very very yeah no I'm afraid having mentioned the the your robe you have to see the robes where are they are they next door oh well yeah but that really is an ordeal is it well no no no you're not that's banned because then everything but the the kitchen serves the health health and safety to the health is a loose we need you loose if you'd like to come up with meals I know what don't worry we could just put the ironing board to the side loose for a secondary no that doesn't matter no no don't worry I just take that normally this would be easier in here actually we let these three yes it really is because Maurice is terribly heavy and in his well look you see in his case very very frail fat sure what we lose it seems to be multi enough yes okay that's motive tremendously as long as the moths haven't got in it the amine is looking very unhappy this bothers me fortunately this is okay this one it's so it is beautifully made so that's lace yeah sixteen whatever so here is the original looks like it yeah why don't you you take it Michael there you can look I think that is that is what is really lovely I think London apps it's too here actually look Mary in fact well done you for spotting that will have it like that that's not because I think that's the ideal thing to do look at it it's simply beautiful how did you marry and what was the rested his titled oh well I first of all I've met Murray at a dinner party if for him it's his title and I think it's a charming title actually think it's particularly pretty one but actually my daughter's Godfather was Duke of Manchester and I have known quite a few so it wasn't as if it really was at all a service I think after the ordinary is very very special but not the title particularly what we got here well we have me he'll and my coronation robes and Hawkins caught a life or no stuff done for it because I'm I read it aground Faulkner I think hereditary ground Falkner what does that mean well it means nothing now I think we will use to be a salary of a thousand pounds a year really nurse one time up to a few years ago one used to get a quarter yeah pricier from Richmond Park but never stopped by Tony Blair on the grounds of economy hmm well what did you think of that was pretty poor show people that the hospital can't bring us together no one to I'll appeal Laurie did your ancestors leave you a bath stately mansion under huge wealth no I don't know unfortunately so canals what do you worked for a living what yes I have doing what well I'm a child under the Duke's son and heir is Charles Boclair who used to use his courtesy title at the Earl of Burford but now chooses not to that as one of you he is a teacher and part-time historian and takes rather more interest than his dad in the family's history that's the ninth as a boy so this is the father of Pemberton I mean do you feel a connection to these ancestors probably exceptional enjoyed it mmm suck to some of them yes obviously some are obscure and they're just pictures and so on and they don't really come alive in your mind others do and I think obviously we're fortunate in being aware of the story of our family in a way that a lot of people aren't and therefore I think you can choose the way in which you become part of that story I mean we're all actors in it one day Charles will be the Duke of sent all Byrnes it is often thought that any man in possession of a grand title must not be in want of a large stately but that is no longer the case for this dukedom Charles though is fascinated by Bestwood launched the pile that in other circumstances he might have inherited it is now a Best Western hotel yes this is best furred Lodge which was built between 1862 and 1865 by the 10th 2% Albans and there's a lot of fantasy to it you know you've got the figures of Robin Hood and his Merry Men over the porch there he was described at the time as acrobatic gothic which i think is a pretty good description Charles and his girlfriend Sarah are hoping to put on plays here and have been delving into its traumatic family history the 10th Duke a talented entrepreneur made a fortune and with three sons he thought he'd set up the family for generations to come but within months of his death it all started to unravel his son and heir Burford as he was called three months after he succeeded he was certified confined to an asylum in Sussex and that's where he spent the last 36 years of his life then the youngest brother Lord William Boclair also proved mad and just after leaving Eton he was sent to the Priory Roehampton he was there for 52 years completely forgotten by everyone and the middle brother Abbey who became a 12th Duke was a restless soul who wandered around the world and I think he became quite an embittered man and that's what fascinates me is why what created this mental illness I mean was it partly societal were they sensitive souls who couldn't harness themselves to the whole Imperial design or was it something more personal something the way they've been brought up it's like a kind of haunting passed down from generation to generation so I think the key is to become conscious of them and then that demon is purged through for future generations one of the reasons I gave up the title in the first place is because people's perceptions of you can actually create a sort of straightjacket it often attracts people who just want to know you because they're snobs and therefore you can fall into the wrong company very easily I think much better just to be mr. Beauclerc go about your business and but yes if I felt I could use it in a powerful and creative fashion - no I would if Charles doesn't take up the title this might be the last practical incarnation of it [Music] the Dukedom of Rutland was created as the result of a very pushy mother who demanded of Queen Anne that her late husband's military heroism be rewarded making her son-in-law a Duke this tradition of strong women has continued I remember very well the feeling of driving up here to beaver castle in my rather beaten up old Fiat and having to stop and take my breath back for a moment and seeing this extraordinary castle and thinking oh I'm going to stay there the building itself is so imposing it takes people's breath away [Music] Emma Watkins was a farmer's daughter from Wales when she met the then Marquess of grandi heir to the Duke of Rutland owner of Beaver Castle at a dinner party within a couple of years they married and she became the Marchioness when her father-in-law died her title changed the upgrade to Duchess how much four differences are they to me um well it makes a difference to others because they perceive you as a Duchess and suddenly you know too many people bearing in mind there are so few of us in the country it is all quite true that Jess you know she might be sitting up in an ivory tower with a sort of crown on and quite old and quite scary we're in our private rooms here and these are the rooms that are not open to the public 24/7 and so their areas where we can have some space and out here is our private Terrace which is I suppose it's our back garden in the sense and as you can see we've got our swings and our dog kennel our five dogs in marrying Emma the Duke found someone with whom to start a family who also turned out to be a determined and energetic estate manager but three years ago the marriage ran into difficulties with over 300 rooms at their disposal they came up with a relatively simple solution he lives in one tower and delves into the family archives she lives in another tower and as chief executive runs the place 7:30 a.m. and the senior staff assemble for her Grace's weekly meeting grace we've got four sign ups in the next two weeks it's a bit like when the King guys long live the king when the Duke dies long live the Duke and there was amazing moment that will remain with me forever when my mother in law there was a large black tin of keys enormous great keys and she handed me the box and said good luck but actually what we've got to do is address where it fell down and so I spent the week there wasn't one room that I hadn't managed to get into so you have to kind of know what it is that you're taking over I'm now going up onto the roof I'm meeting our architect and in a moment you're going to see why it's called build what beautiful castle beautiful view they were norman-french the man's family and they couldn't really pronounce beaver so they called it Belvoir because of the beautiful view let's go and see if what my architect is down here Peter oh I'm on a different roof to you so we're how do I get out to that one you come up the spiral stairs yeah yes across and through little King's room middle King's room I'll be with you in two minutes pop down here and find the right roof hi Peter we're it bubbles yes that's right that's all that's all the corrosion that's building up so what problem says that create underneath it just makes the lead thin right how old is this lead it's as old as the building getting on for 200 years there's a little mark here 1883 wow you can see what it is it's a little man riding a penny farthing yeah so what sort of price are we talking about have this real netted it would use up an entire year's budget so about a hundred thousand advance just one section of the two acres of roof looking after the future extends beyond mere buildings of course the Duchess took her duty seriously and after three daughters produced two sons well obviously it's very important that you have a boy because boys carry the title and everything is entailed here at beaver so everything goes with the title there is definitely a feeling that I better have a boy the one that struggles most probably was darling Hugo who at four in the half said mum when Charles dies do I become the Duke so Charles isn't getting to die and you will never be the duke but he sort of gets it now I think as long as you're very very clear with children from the outset about how it works there's no confusion in the Magnificent Elizabeth saloon there's a photoshoot for country and town house magazine the 21st century Duchess is conscious of the need to market the place and with its Midlands location she especially targets the lucrative Asian wedding business there is after all a certain Bollywood over-the-top quality to the day core today selling it as a family home are all the female members as daughters of a Duke they take the courtesy title of lady along with the family name Lady violet Lady Alice and Lady Eliza manners you ever think as the oldest about not being able to inherit I would I wouldn't I wouldn't want to break tradition actually I think for me personally I think I think in in years to come I think it'll be welcomed and I think it should happen that's it you know the elders should be allowed to inherit but I'm quite happy that it hasn't changed for me you know my brother I think we've all shoulders and help the elves carry the weight properly I think so genuinely no no tents not at all I mean I really I have been asked a lot and I just I really really am just so lucky to have been able to enjoy it yeah definitely yes sir mr. awards for ya Halloween parties we we came up with the most amazing game called runner so it was literally there was no structure to it you just chased each other around until you find each other old someone got really lost for inheritance tax reasons the castle has to be open for a certain number of days we renegotiated with the government we looked at reducing our days that were open to the public I've took the business right back to its roots really the Duchess got the open visitor days down to around 30 a year and replaced them with high income upmarket shooting parties I looked at bringing people in to come and shoot here from all over the world to come and stay in the castle to be waited on looked after as they had have been 200 years ago in the 15 years since she took over the Dutch chess has transformed the sixteen thousand acre estate she got rid of large numbers of employees and reordered priorities I think Nick your family have been here for how many generations hundred years I mean the best part of 50 years I've been on this estate on and off and I've just seen a total change what happened made the more redundant well I did it wasn't that anyone was wrong it was just for me it was just that people became accustomed to it the way it was and so what did you do so I I made a lot of people redundant it's brought this place back to being a properly run estate but it was controversial yeah she was controversial yeah they're definitely book change is going to be controversial the old seat of power for the aristocracy was the House of Lords Tony Blair's government managed to abolish all but 92 hereditary peers amongst them there are only three Dukes the Duke of Montrose is a former Conservative Shadow Minister for Scotland in the Lord's I'm going down the corridor towards the House of Commons where the pictures are all to do with the time of the Civil War and this picture here is a picture of my ancestors execution which took place in 1650 the Dukes most famous ancestor the first Marquess of Montrose led the army for Scotland and then switched allegiance to the English throne but he was finally defeated and captured and taken to Edinburgh where he was hung for three hours over jibba and then cut down and dismembered and his limbs sent and hung on the gates of all the main cities of Scotland I mean our family has been involved in most of the events that have defined Scotland in its battles with England when were nello we then go on to the fourth Marquess who as president of the council he supervised the signing of the Act of Union and that's his picture there as he had been instrumental in getting Scotland to join with England in the Act of Union a grateful King created for him a dukedom and the 4th Marquess became the first Duke of Montrose and then you get my grandfather who's the sixth Duke he joined in in the early stages of the Scottish National Party when what they were looking for is pretty much what we've got now which is a devolved assembly within Scotland as well as his duties in the House of Lords the Duke is a working Hill farmer what did you think the sheep on its back hope is not dead it's still heavy and lamp well that was well thought so she'll be better off that way right do you sometimes get this of sick of fancy it'd be very rare I would say it might be different in some areas where there are still people who can afford to be very grand but I think sick of fancy mainly comes to people who are very rich when they were very rich their stately pile was built in the Victorian era by his great-great grandfather they had the idea that life would go on in a very grand style but of course it belonged to a lifestyle which was about to just vanish away today montrose lives in a more modest 1930s house stuffed with mementos of the family's thousand-year history these are the socks and the hat that he wore at his execution and then this craft here was supposed to be where his heart was wrapped as with so many bits of history one is charged with keeping something alive for other people to appreciate and understand [Music] it's your valet it's these are my robots were the opening ceremony of Parliament Duke till allowed to have four bands of Herman that go right round the body like that if I was an earl I would have three bars and if I were just a parent I'd have two bars as points they will leave a new moment will you attend one would have to wait to be invited I don't know that what the protocol will be by the time there is a successor to the Queen you may find that Dukes are no longer in the House of Lords at all by that time and probably not considered to be very important people as the last vestiges of their constitutional power fade power will dukedoms with a real sense of grandeur survive in the centuries to come this year Blenheim Palace will have 700,000 paying visitors tramping through it's very grand doors James formerly the Marquess of Blandford only recently became the 12th Duke of Marlborough he had a sticky time in his early life a publicly documented to drug addiction and a passion for fast cars hardly prepared him for the now professional business of running such a vast estate today he will open a vintage car event hey Casper come on you know what he does he organizes the whole event which will do Drive your daddy drove that yeah all the way around the palace groans the Duke sister is lady Henrietta spencer-churchill their father was the last Duke to live full time in the private quarters so this is a butler's pantry this is again on the private side you'll get your bearings in a minute but if you went through that door you would end up on the public side so what's here this is our bar you know when we have guests this is where either they help myself to drink or the butler helps them to drinks though books in here there's a behind the scenes cupboards and then this is is a sort of service staircase which goes all the way up you can very interesting foot so that goes down to the basement level on the lower ground and then actually if you go all the way up you can get into one of the towers which of course is that where we spent a lot of time as children because it was much more fun going to all the place you weren't supposed to be well this is family dining room as heat at the moment the table is set what for eight people if it's just all for me we actually have a round table or just a small table and the in the bow part of the window here the family sitting room so it's really our telly room too he notes actually as you can see very cozy although probably fairly large proportions as early is the late 19th century the financing of an estate like this became a huge issue in the case of more breh that was then a relatively simple solution the ninth Duke was very much told he had marry an American heiress it was as you know very much an arranged marriage between Consuelo Vanderbilt who came with a large Darrin it's really thanks to her and the Vanderbilt money that the house is in such good shape today he sort of I think bit the bulletin right I've got her that's not necessarily marry for love but for the love of blonde woman they Julie got married produced the air in the spare she was fed two sons and it wasn't a particularly happy marriage and enough in a funny way it's probably easier today to make it work than it would have been in the past why because it's run like a business so we have a lot more opportunities you know to make money in order to keep the upkeep of the house whereas before you have perhaps relying just on farming or you know investments now it's all American millionaires for a marry exactly yes well we might have another one of those you never know it might be some some might be China or somewhere next time James are slotted into the role things that really carrying on just as normal my Lords ladies and gentlemen it's my very great pleasure on behalf of my wife and my to welcome you all here today this inaugural salon privé event at Blenheim the Duke presents the public face of Blenheim now owned by a trust and run by a professional team well I was very fortunate to be appointed in early 2003 as the first chief executive of Blenheim and that was really the Duke at the time and the trustees decided that this was a time to really commercialize the business and to really get a grips with everything that Blenheim had to offer and really drive the business forward how does it work hierarchically who's in charge well obviously the Duke is resident apalis it's very much the home of the Duke the home of the Dukes of Marbury currently the 12th jus kimura and I report in to a board of trustees who work very closely with the Duke so really above the Juke and above me is a Board of Trustees my operations director have you ever seen the palace from above only when I went up and we gilded the balls on the top did you was that fun is it go yeah go leave but you put gob paint it comes off every year when did you do that well you the two who was it before everyone was it was was over 20 years ago I'm going inside thank you very much what do you think of the hereditary principle I think it's part of our DNA I think it's part of the heritage I think what makes us special with the envy of the world because of places like Blenheim and the heritage and the private historic houses are utterly unique but I think the real jewels are the ones that are in private ownership because there you've got the love and the sweat and the dedication of a family over generations to keep in to keep their end up if you like because no no incumbent wants to be the incumbent that doesn't hand on in a better condition and they received it in in the 21st century Dukes may be a dying breed but splendid heritage or privileged anachronism their survival is sure to be a magnificent struggle for generations to come [Music] [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 296,301

Rating: 4.8490567 out of 5

Keywords: history history documentary funny history fun history school, timeline, queen elizabeth, royal family, queen elizabeth ii, prince charles, united kingdom, absolute history, full length documentaries, history documentary, documentary movies - topic, the last dukes (british aristocracy documentary), the last dukes bbc documentary, monarchy of roses, monarchy, the crown, the crown season 3, the crown season 2 recap, the crown trailer, dukes of england, dukes of england documentary

Id: uh2Hm7B67oo

Length: 58min 55sec (3535 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2019