All of Charles II’s illegitimate sons who reached adulthood were given dukedoms, the highest peerage available in England below the monarch or their legitimate children. Not only did the dukedoms that Charles issued grant his sons titles, lands, estates, and collateral wealth, but they also came with a stipulation that the title would be passed on down the male bloodline. This meant that despite their illegitimacy, and their inability to succeed to the throne, their descendants would be granted the same privileges as any other member of the aristocracy.

Some of the titles became extinct because the illegitimate children or their descendants died without issue. However there are even today some members of the nobility directly descended through Charles and his sons that still hold the Dukedoms issued to his illegitimate children.

The eldest son of Charles II by his mistress Lucy Walter, James Crofts, was created Duke of Monmouth by his father in 1663. In addition, part of his marriage contract to the wealthy Scottish heiress, Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch, was that he would take the family surname, Scott. The day after their marriage, they were created the 1st Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.

When James was executed in 1685, his English title of Monmouth was forfeited, but the Scottish dukedom of Buccleuch that had been granted jointly to him and his wife (which she now retained in her own right), continued to be held by the family heirs.

Richard Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch also holds the Dukedom of Queensbury. This title was awarded to James Scott’s grandson, the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, and the two dukedoms have been inherited jointly ever since. Richard Scott has four children, two of whom are male, and so the title, which is the second highest ranking in Scotland, is likely to continue through this bloodline.

The dukedom of Grafton was issued to Henry FitzRoy, son of Barbara Palmer and Charles II, in 1675.

This dukedom also encompasses three subsidiary titles, Earl of Euston, Viscount Ipswich, and Baron Sudbury, which were created at the same time. These titles are usually allocated to the male offspring of the holding duke until such a time come that the dukedom is passed on to the successor.

The title is now held by Henry Fitzroy, 12th Duke of Grafton. FitzRoy and his wife have three children, two of whom are sons, meaning that the likelihood is that the Dukedom will continue for at least one more generation.

Aside from the royal and premier dukedoms, Grafton is the second-longest running dukedom in the English peerage… something that Barbara Palmer would no doubt be very happy about!

Charles II had two sons with his mistress, Nell Gwyn, a commoner and an actress, Charles and James (the latter died in childhood) Beauclerk. For a time, Charles Beauclerk held the title of Earl of Burford, and many thought he may not be elevated in the peerage any further because his mother was not from the nobility. However, just as with his other illegitimate sons, he bestowed a dukedom on the eldest son, Charles. On the death of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans, in 1684 the king elevated the title to a dukedom and granted it to his son.

The king also granted Charles the offices of Master of the King’s Hawks and Grand Falconer of England, as a nod to his mother’s love of hawking. The hereditary titles of Grand Falconer is still held by the Duke of St Albans today.

Charles Beauclerk married Diana de Vere, a court beauty and wealthy heiress, and together they had twelve children, securing the dukedom for many generations. The 9th Duke of St Albans established ‘de Vere’ into the family surname, and it has remained so ever since then.

The 14th Duke of St Albans, Murray de Vere Beauclerk, has been Governor-General of The Royal Stuart Society since 1989. His only son, Charles Beauclerk, Earl of Burford, is heir apparent to the dukedom of St Albans.

In August 1675, Charles II granted the title of Duke of Richmond to Charles Lennox, his illegitimate son by Louise de Kérouaille. Just one month later, the king further created his son the Duke of Lennox, and the two titles were held jointly, with Richmond as the principal title. On the death of his maternal grandmother in 1734, Charles Lennox then also inherited the French dukedom of Aubigny-sur-Nère, which has remained a subsidiary title of the dukedom.

In 1876, Lennox’s descendant, the 6th Duke of Richmond and Lennox, was rewarded for his public service in the government by being created the Duke of Gordon. Thus, this peerage, which since then has incorporated the dukedoms of Richmond, Lennox, Gordon and Aubigny-sur-Nère, means that the owner holds more dukedoms than anyone else in the realm.

The current Duke, Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, has three sons by his second marriage, which means that this uber-dukedom is likely to be in existence for some time to come!