CORONATION POST (7) - THE ROYAL DUKES

Straight to the top of the Coronation list of precedence, the Royal Dukes:

The reverse of this John Players cigarette card states:

"It is usual for the Sovereign to confer Peerages on his sons, thereby giving them the right to sit in the House of Lords. The Peerage conferred is usually a Dukedom, with subsidiary titles of an Earldom and a Barony, generally chosen from places in England, Scotland and Ireland respectively. A Royal Dukedom is granted by Letters Patent passed under the Great Seal. Royal Dukes take precedence of other Dukes, but rank (among themselves) according to their precedence as Princes. All Peers receive a Royal Command to attend the Coronation, and at the Ceremony they assume their coronets when the King is crowned."

The sons of George V and Queen Mary. The Royal Dukes  - LtoR the Duke of Kent,
 the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester.
Order of seniority - POW, York, Gloucester, Kent, in an imperial
mixture of uniforms : RN, Highland Brigade, RAF, Hussars.

It is an open VBCW question, even at this level of seniority, as to what each of the Royal Dukes would have done had Edward VIII refused to abdicate and instead opted to "fight it out" against his Government and the Church of England. The VBCW canon suggests that the Duke of York raised his own standard against Edward VIII, although the circumstances in which he chose to do so remain shrouded in some mystery. The loyalty of the remaining two brothers would have been of paramount importance to each faction, much as would the sympathies of their mother, Queen Mary.

While there is usually no geographical link between a Royal Dukedom and the holder of the title, in the Hereford VBCW timestream, the Duke of Gloucester (an army man through and through) has been sent north to defend Gloucester itself. Possibly this was to ensure the safety of Madresfield, Edward and Wallis' "Summer Palace" situated nearby, rather than specifically to defend the town: although the fact that Gloucester was a noted Parliamentary stronghold during the English Civil War will not have been lost on "the armchair strategists of Fleet Street".

And then there three : but who will the youngest son,
the Duke of Kent, support?

To date, the Duke of Kent has found it impossible to throw his support behind either of the senior brothers, and has "retired to his estates" (not, of course, in Kent). Both factions continue to make overtures to him.....