Product Description
The Encomium Emmae Reginae is, as its title suggests, a political tract in praise of Queen Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, wife of King Ethelred the Unready from 1002 to 1016, and wife of the Danish conqueror King Cnut from 1017 to 1035. It is an important primary source that transports us into the heart of eleventh-century politics. This edition contains a new introduction that places the Encomium in the historical context in which it was written, and traces the career of Emma, a woman who was twice queen and who sought to preserve her position of power as queen-mother. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great read!
If you are interested in the life of Emma of Normandy, wife of King Canute, then this book will captivate you.It is a fascinating, contemporary look at the legendary events of 11th century England.

Terrific book!
This is a detailed, fact-filled book on Queen Emma of the 11th century.It is a fascinating portrait of a queen who lived through a lot of tragedies.Not for the light reader, though. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Jane Grey fan
I didn't read much of "Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen", but that's due to the author.However, the book is skimpy and regulated to "this event happened" and "He/she did/said this and that".Alison Plowden is a good and factual writer, but this time she paints by the numbers.Also, in her excellent four-book biography of Elizabeth I, Plowden's attitude resembles Hester W. Chapman's; she tends to get a bit terse and condescending.I guess this is why I didn't finish "Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen".I simply didn't want to encounter Plowden's attitude again while reading about my favorite Tudor princess.

Disappointing reprint, no revisions, cover portrait?
I was honestly hoping that the issue with the cover portrait would have been resolved with the reprint. There is no new information that I had so hoped for from a writer as well-known as Alison Plowden. I am disappointed and would not recommend that anyone seeking facts about Lady Jane read this book. In an "information age", I had really hoped for facts, the book is so reflective of 1986. There are plenty stories about the Tudor period of our history but little factual compositions.

Queen for a day, but not much more...
Jane Grey was queen for nine short days, during a period of great turmoil.The documentary evidence from this time is rather spare; even the coins minted during this brief reign are so rare as to be valued collectors' items.Author Alison Plowden uses documentary evidence and secondary sources to reconstruct the world around this brief reign.Indeed, Jane Grey remains a shadowy figure, even with this and other biographies available, given that, as a child, she was not party to much life at court, and did not have ongoing correspondence with many people likely to preserve such writing (only a handful of personal letters remain from her).

Plowden introduces the world of the Tudors and their friends, hangers-on and rivals from the time of Lancaster/York conflict, and Henry VII, the first Tudor king, forward.This reads like a soap opera, and indeed it was a time of intrigue, deception, jockeying for position and occasional outright evil behaviour.The executioner's task at the Tower was never wanting for more; the Tudors, Seymours, Brandons, Dudleys and other such families were intertwined in the political, religious and dynastic machinations of the time, and sometimes this late medieval machinery caught up the people as it would grind along.

Lady Jane Grey was not born to be queen.This does not make her unique among monarchs in British history; when the current queen Elizabeth was born, it seemed very remote that she should ever advance to be monarch.Indeed, even the great Henry VIII wasn't the heir apparent when born; his brother Arthur was Prince of Wales -- Henry married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon, and the successive sequence of wives and offspring commenced from there.Lady Jane Grey was born of none of these wives, nor even from Henry directly, but rather through one of his younger siblings, Mary, one-time queen of France.

Plowden's tracing of the history is very much personality driven.Events and issues take a secondary role to the history she recounts here -- it is very much the people involved, who are somewhat hard to keep straight at times (when one would acquire a new title, the name changes; since these names often had predecessors also active in royal and governmental affairs, one sometimes needs charts and graphs to keep the players distinct).

Lady Jane Grey was a mere teenager when she came to power, such as it was.A precocious and intellectual child, she still lacked the political savvy of the Privy Council and other chief executors and leaders from Henry and Edward's reigns; she was the not-always-willing but not-unwilling pawn of her family's ambitions -- at one time thought to be a possible wife for the king Edward, her family jumped at the chance of settling the crown directly on her head, under the ostensible purpose of preserving a Protestant succession.

Ultimately, the venture was doomed to failure, for as much as the royal and parliamentary authorities like to believe they rule England, ultimately it has been the people en masse, and those whom they do not support do not last long.The common folk, still largely Catholic in leaning, also understood royal succession in simple terms -- Mary Tudor was the next in line for the throne, so they supported her (largely they would support Elizabeth, a moderate Protestant, for the same reason five years later).Lady Jane fell victim again to the problems of politics; Mary Tudor, once queen, was inclined to be lenient until it was felt that Jane's presence continued to be a rallying point for Protestant dissidents.

Plowden's book is not a simple biography of Jane Grey, but rather a survey of the historical period, from the generation prior to the aftermath.If Jane Grey seems to be a bit lost in the sea of people in this text, that is understandable, for even though she was queen for a short time, it was hardly her own reign or her own doing, and she didn't last long enough for contemporary histories in personal detail to be written (nor was it really in the interests of others to do so during the reign of either Mary or Elizabeth).Taken as a snapshot of a short time in the Tudor dynasty, and a very unique period in British history, this is a good survey.

This is not an historical romance, nor a narrative history done in novel style.It is a little light on notes, placed at the end rather than as footnotes, for a 'grand' history, but is still built on strong authority.The select bibliography is worthwhile, as is the index.While Plowden's language could take a little polish to good effect, the text remains interesting and factually well-executed, keeping speculation and romantic embellishment to a minimum, and clearly delineating between documentary fact, gossip and hearsay, and later interpretations and reconstructed memories.

Dissapointing
I had eagerly anticipated this book for a long time, but I found it very dissapointing.

It's more of a quick retelling of the struggle for the throne after Henry VIII's death than a biography of Jane. She's a minor character in her own biography, emerging only for brief, tersely described events.

Catherine Parr on the cover of a book about Jane Grey?
A book with Catherine Parr on the cover using a few embellished facts, very little research and fanciful story telling make this a book only for the passive reader. ... Read more

Product Description
An account of the Duchess of York's experience as a member of the royal family, which describes how she was undermined by the tabloid press and how her marriage to Prince Andrew broke down. In it, Sarah takes responsibility for her mistakes and describes her devotion to her daughters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

A good read
I liked this book, although it did seem Ferguson seems to be feeling sorry for herself and putting herself down through most of it & making lots of excuses for her behavior. However, it was very interesting to hear a behind the scene perspective from one who used to be part of the royal family & how the courtiers try to rule the palace and court. A good read for those who love bios or books on Britian's royal family.

A New Look at the Duchess
Highly readable and I came away with a new respect for the Duchess.Too bad Andrew can't come to America, re-marry Sarah and live incognito. A must read for anyone who sympathizes with the Duchess.

A candid memoir
As a lover of biographies this one was not about a person who achieved greatness through some great talent but was more a chronicle of the ups and downs of life in the house of Windsor. I think that red headed exuberant Sarah caught our attention twenty years ago when we watched her walk down the aisle with her prince and we all thought it was sort of neat that a real person was in this situation. I think that this is a lady who is VERY media savvy and knows how to market herself but there is still something rather refreshing at her forays into writing, her ability to fly a plane and her trek across the deserts of Quatar on horseback. I am not an unabashed fan but I was interested enough to read this book. It was enjoyable but also a little self absorbed. Like it's subject, a bit contradictory.

Fergie - hero or villain?
Unlike the previous reader, I really enjoyed this book and came away with real affection and admiration for the Duchess of York. Admittedly, certain things are left out, but that's probably as much to do with protecting others as about Sarah's own feelings. Let's face it, a no holds barred 'kiss and tell' story would hardly be dignified coming from a former Royal Duchess.

I've read the two books by Starkie and vasso, and even if everything they say is true, I still see Sarah as a flawed but fundamentally decent person. She may have been a little naive about the demands of her position, but royalty would be an alien condition to most people who are not born into it. She's made mistakes as we all have, and its how you learn from them that counts. Though extra marital affairs are not to be treated lightly, we should remember that Andrew spent months away from his wife, abondoning her in an environment in which her Royal status isolated her from emotional contact. Her romantic encounters can be seen as a search for support and self-affirmation.

The suggestion that she is in any way a bad mother I find incredible. One thing that comes over loud and clear in the book is Beatrice and Eugenie mean more to her than anything - she loves those girls. Sarah has been constantly victimised over the years and deserves some sympathy and understanding. Her charity work alone demands respect, and her work with Weightwatchers makes her a constant inspiration to many people. She has turned her life around and good luck to her.

To read Sarah's point of view, read this book. Approach it with an open mind and you'll find an engrossing and inspiring story of a woman struggling againstlow self-esteem, press hostility and the demands of her Royal status. Look at her now - I think she won the battle.

TRY TELLING THE TRUTH FERGIE....
If you're going to tell "your story", then you should tell the whole story, not half of it.

Fergie would have us believe that in a country where prominence and position mean EVERYTHING, that it meant nothing to her from going to an unattractive, overweight, needly, penniless NOBODY to becoming a Royal Duchess.Give me a break girl.While there's no doubt she really loved Andrew, she most certainly also loved all the perks of being considered "royal".Unfortunately, she didn't like the self-discipline and responsibility that went along with it.

She was, and is to this day, a TERRIBLE mother.It seems to run in her family: her grandmother was a lousy mother, Fergie's own mother took off with another man half way around the world and literally abandonned her own children.She tells of skiing down a "black run" when she was 5 months pregnant with Beatrice and falls down.What kind of person would ever risk miscarrying their child by doing something so insane??!!In this book she tried blaming the Grey Men for her decision to leave Beatrice when she was 6 weeks old for her trip to Australia, but by her own admission, she never listened to them when they gave her any other advice, so why did she listen to them then?Obviously she didn't WANT to take the baby with her, another indication of her extremely poor mothering skills.

And she out and out lied about her relationship with Steve Wyatt.In this book she says that they were "just friends" which is simply not true.Madame Vasso, Lesley Player, Allan Starkie, John Bryan among other all verified independently that she had an intense sexual relationship with Steve Wyatt.She glosses over this fact in her book when she claims that "a friend" asked her to receive Dr. Salaman Rushdi for a brief drink at the palace.She neglects to say that this "friend" was her lover, Steve Wyatt.And if they were "just friends" as she claims, then why did she have to have his apartment (or "Flat") "searched from top to bottom" when he moved out?She said that it was the "danger of a frame up" and indeed there were more than 100 pictures taken of her and Steve Wyatt that proved to be her downfall found in the apartment.And if she was "just friends" with him, then there should have been absolutely NOTHING that would indict her in an extra marital affair.

I think the answer lies in Allan Starkie's book "Fergie--Her Secret Life".He tells of her lying to anyone and everyone about everything and this is her greatest weakness:she's a liar.

Once again, it's not surprising really, given her upbringing.Her mother abandons her, her father was a complete loser pig, so it's no surprise that she turned out this way too.

Fergie was a disaster for the Royal Family and is still, to this day, nothing more than trailor trash.
... Read more

Product Description
An explosive account of the life of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, from the man who was by her side throughout the most turbulent period of her life. In 1981, Lady Diana Spencer was seen by many as the salvation of the hidebound Windsor line. As the beautiful, modest, virginal wife of the future King Charles III, she seemed the perfect face for a 21st century Royal family. But Diana didn't follow the script. Instead she brought a revolution. Twenty years later the comforting illusion of Royalty as we knew it has gone forever. Diana is dead, the Windsors marginalised and a chastened Prince faces the dilemma of presenting a very different consort to his people. What went wrong? Since her death many people have come forward claiming to know the true story about Diana, in truth the reality is known by virtually none. Patrick Jephson was Diana's closest aide and adviser during her years of greatest public fame and deepest personal crisis. He witnessed the disintegration of her marriage to Prince Charles and the negotiation of the royal divorce. He assisted her as she tried to establish a new life for herself, independent from the Royal Family.Constantly on call, whether on duty or off, he not only organized her official life, but was increasingly drawn into the turmoil of her personal life. Diana will now never appoint a biographer and a formal history may never be commissioned. "Shadows of a Princess" goes further than any sanitized offical record, were one ever to be permitted. It reveals the day to day life of a private Diana whose behaviour was in stark contrast to her saint-like public image. Rooted in unique first hand experience, it is an authoritative, balanced account of one of the world's most famous and tragic women. ... Read more

Product Description

This biography illuminates the life of Henry VII himself, how he ran his government, how his authority was maintained, and the nature of the country over which he ruled since he first claimed the throne in 1485.

Sean Cunningham explores how Henry's reign was vitally important in stabilizing the English monarchy and providing the sound financial and institutional basis for later developments in government, and tackles key questions in the debate:

• Was Henry VII a conventional late medieval nobleman?
• How did his upbringing affect his later kingship?
• What was the nature of Henry's marriage to Elizabeth of York?
• How and why did he become the main rival to Richard III following the disappearance of Edward V and his brother in July 1483?

Up until now the details of Henry as a person and as a king, his court and household, his subjects, and his country have remained little known. This book fills that gap, bringing to the forefront the life and times of the very first Tudor king.

Customer Reviews (3)

(3.5 stars) Has its merits, but a bit dry in the second half
The earlier part of this book, dealing with Henry Tudor's family background and youth, was really interesting. It also maintained my interest as it dealt with Henry's life and work up until the deaths of his son Arthur and his wife, and as it studied his battles with Perkin Warbeck. But at some point in the chapter `Tudor government at work', it began to lose my interest; then, as it went on, it lost my interest more and more, until I found I had to skim some parts because I just couldn't focus on the dry details about the government of England.

A passage such as this is a good example of what's boring about the latter half:

"Henry also introduced a clear way of calculating the duty due on particular types of goods, by giving them a formal value in a book of rates. The book was in use in the port of London in 1502. When the values given to imported goods were realistic and accurate reflections of the market price, the crown was guaranteed a regular rate of customs duty. When prices began to differ from the formal valuation, merchants began either to pay too much duty on their goods or the crown's income fell as prices of goods increased. During the prosperous years of Henry VII's reign this did not become a problem, but later Tudor monarchs attempted to compensate for the static nature of the rates by reissuing them for various ports in line with inflation."

It's still worth reading. The chapter `The rigours of kingship' ends with Henry's death and funeral, which is where the `biography' ends. After that, it gets drier and drier, so that only those seeking an endless succession of facts on the era will probably find that their attention is held.

Four stars for the biography contained in the first 119 pages vs. three stars for the dull-but-worthy history that follows = 3.5 stars.

A thorough study of an oft-neglected Monarch
The amount of material on the 16th century Tudor Monarchs is vast-- especially with regard to King Henry VIII, his wives and Queen Elizabeth I.Queen "Bloody" Mary and King Edward VI have also been written about a good deal.But the founder of the Tudor dynasty, easily the most fascinating and embattled dynasty of the English Crown, has been relegated to a historical footnote.Recently I decided to search for a book about Henry VII and was surprised to find very little available, most of which had been published nearly 100 years ago.This study, published in 2007, is fortunately available through Amazon and is a thoroughly researched account of Henry VII's early life, claim and rise to the throne of England.The politics of any monarchy can be complicated, but the multiple claims to England's crown in the late Middle Ages make things downright murky.The author does his best to sort things out, although I did occasionally find myself re-reading paragraphs here and there to make sure I understood things.
Often portrayed as a cold fish, interested only in the accumulation of wealth and power, manipulating the Church to keep it on his side, Henry VII is shown to have his human side as well.A man of intelligence, skill, and incredible political instincts, he not only secured the throne on what appeared to be a very precarious claim, he maintained it to the end of his life, keeping England generally at peace and prospering.His court was certainly a Medieval one, lacking the flash and flair of the continental courts, but neither was it intellectually or artistically impoverished.Much has been made of his scheming to keep Catherine of Aragon in England for his second son, Henry, after Prince Arthur, to whome she was married in childhood, dies, causing Henry VII to seem interested only in maintaining the Tudor dynasty and not caring about anything or anyone else.Next-born son Henry (soon to become Henry VIII) is brought back to the court after a lifetime of being prepared for a church career and 'second son' status, and told he will marry his dead brother's widow, a young lady 5 years older than he.But what we learn here is that Henry VII is genuinely heart-broken on learning of eldest son's death, and immediately went to his wife's (the Queen-mother Elizabeth) chambers to comfort her as best he could.Neither would see anyone for two days and remained together in isolation.The Queen Mother's heartbreak was so great she died not long after her eldest son.So Henry at the end of his life does indeed become withdrawn, barely social, only working on the affairs of state and grooming his son Henry, Prince of York now Prince of Wales, to assume the reins of the kingdom.It is a reaction all too human in many men who suffered great personal tragedies in a short period of time after a lifetime of hard work.
The results of Henry VII's policies, and his influence on the Monarchy is also examined; King Henry VII, largely known as the father of the (in)famous Henry VIII, is shown to have more greatly shaped the future of English political beliefs and strategies than many would believe.He was often forgiving of his enemies, was judicious and rather sparing by the standards of the day with executions, never embarked on wholesale persecutions to show power, and expanded England's wealth and grew trade.He passed onto his son a stable, wealthy and prospering kingdom, but not, unfortunately, any of the traits that would keep it growing (Henry VIII often went back on his word, executed over 15,000 of his subjects, lost territories, and bankrupted the nation; it took the 5th and last Tudor, Elizabeth I, to restore and increase what the first Tudor created).
For research and thoroughness and detail, this books gets 5 stars, however, it must be admitted that it can be a difficult and dense read. Worthwhile though, for any student of this fascinating period of English history.

Important, unbiased, outstanding
For various reasons, Henry VII and his place in history are hard to understand; historians debate about whether he was a conscious innovator, propelling England toward the modern age, or a traditional late medieval king. Much of what one would like to know about him will probably never be known, because many of his important actions were never recorded in writing, much that was has not survived, and some of the surviving sources have never been carefully examined.

This book is a treasure, deserving careful reading and rereading. It avoids propounding conjectures, and instead provides a careful, detailed account of what we do know about Henry VII, his reign, his policies and the situations he dealt with. What emerges from this gives me the following views. Henry governed for 24 years mostly by using the forms and laws and methods of his Plantagenet predecessors, but using them in ways his predecessors had not, so that he could usually rely upon even his enemies in England to carry out his desires, as he had to, given that more than half the nobility and gentry had cause at one time or another to resent him and wish him dead. By using unorthodox approaches within the existing framework he transformed the role of English royalty, although he quite likely had no conscious intention of doing anything more dramatic than keeping himself and his heirs alive and ensuring a peaceful succession. That was enough so that he and the next four monarchs died peacefully in their beds, which when he seized the throne would have seemed quite unlikely. By careful, detailed, diligent and often secretive oversight, he kept England relatively free of both foreign wars and domestic insurrections, and this enabled the gentry and the yeomen and merchants to become far more prosperous than they were when he took the throne. Evidently he created an excellent intelligence service to warn him of plots before they matured, and with the information from that he acted promptly and wisely against threats, using minimal force.

He has a reputation as a miser; this seems to me undeserved. He greatly increased government revenue, by various schemes, some of dubious legality, but he seems to me to have considered money primarily to be a crucial lever of power. By rewarding those who served him well, and by threatening to ruin potential opponents by fines and bail bonds, of which he actually collected very few, he got loyal service from many who had no cause to love him.

He also has a reputation as a tyrant, and he could be when he felt that to be necessary. But he avoided tyrannizing over the merchants and yeomen and most of the gentry; his tyranny, if it was such, was aimed at convincing the nobility that they must obey the king, rather than regarding the king as just first among equals, as the nobility had come to believe they could during the later part of the Plantagenet era. Among other things, this determination of Henry's was instrumental in greatly reducing the violent confrontations between members of the nobility which had been so common and so destructive for most of the 14th and 15th Centuries.

Not least among the virtues of this book is a thorough, extensive list of sources for further reading. Indeed, the only criticism I have of the book is that I wish it included among its illustrations, or as its cover illustration, the 1505 portrait painting from life that's now in the British National Portrait Gallery. All the other portraits of Henry VII that we have today were painted or drawn after his death, relying on his death mask and/or the effigy on his tomb; all of those give Henry a look of gloom that does not seem to have been characteristic of him, whereas the one portrait from life makes him look amiable and faintly amused.
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Product Description
Published to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne, this biography of Queen Elizabeth II is based on research in the Royal Archives at Windsor and interviews with senior-ranking former members of the Royal household and with members of the Royal Family. It explores the personal as well as the official life of the Queen, and includes chapters on her childhood, her uncle's abdication, her father's accession, her marriage, her own accession, her family relationships and crises, such as the Margaret/Townsend affair, life inside Buckingham Palace and weekends at Windsor Castle, and the Queen's relationship with the Commonwealth and with her Prime Ministers, notably Margaret Thatcher. It also considers the future - whether the Queen will abdicate and whether the monarchy will survive into the 21st century. The author also wrote "Royal Pursuit: The Palace, the Press and the People". ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

God Save The Queen!
Knowing little about Queen Victoria, I was looking for a good biography. In "Queen Victoria" I hit the jackpot! This book strikes just the right balance between revealing the life of the private woman, wife, widow and mother and the Queen of her people, while giving the reader an insight into the public affairs of her time.

Victoria's life can be divided into four segments. The first is her youth during which she grew up with her mother after the death of her father. During this segment of her life, she was protected by her mother to the intense irritation of her uncle, King William IV. During this period, Victoria and her mother enjoyed a close relationship which was to terminate after Victoria's accession to the throne..

The second era of her life can be described as the Albert era. Although I greatly enjoyed the TV movie, "Victoria and Albert", I understood it much more after this movie. Albert, Victoria's first cousin and consort, is the one who really emerges as the star of the book. Although reluctant to marry Victoria, she clearly fell head over heels for him. After their wedding, Albert became Victoria's trusted confident and advisor, to the point of becoming the defacto monarch. Always "The Foreigner", Albert won the trust and admiration of British politicians, industrialists, commercial and social leaders. In domestic relations, Albert helped bring about a reconcillation between Victoria and her mother. As a businessman who reorganized Victoria's estates to multiply their return or a statesman molding Britain's foreign policy, Albert was superb. An example of the importance of his influence is found in his last diplomatic intervention during the Trent Affair. The Trent Affair was an incident in which the Trent, a British flag vessel, was stopped and searched by a ship of the United States Navy, which removed two Confederate agents. An incendiary protest was toned down by Albert to one which would lead to a peaceful solution, rather than to war. If Albert had died a month earlier, the United States may have either lost the South or won Canada.

The third segment of Victoria's life is her tragic widowhood. Totally dependent on Albert during his life, Victoria was devastated by his death. For years thereafter she almost totally withdrew from her royal duties, despite the efforts of her ministers to lure her back into public life.

During the fourth segment of her life, Victoria returned to public life as the mother of her country and grandmother of Europe. Emerging to the adulation of her people, Victoria resumed her rides through London, her tours of the Kingdom and the entertainment of her royal relations. During this period a major portion of her diplomacy was involved with her irritating grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

This book certainly portrays Victoria as a Queen unlike those with which we are familiar. Not mere figureheads, Victoria and Albert were actively involved in public affairs. Among their surprising topics were dynastic relations and stipends for her children.

In this book we also get a glimpse at some of the political figures who Victoria loved and hated.

All things considered, this book is an excellent introduction to a most unique lady. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, William Iv of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, Duke of Clarence. Excerpt:Duke of Clarence is a title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the English and British Royal families . The first three creations were in the Peerage of England , the fourth in the Peerage of Great Britain , and the fifth in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . The title was first granted to Lionel of Antwerp , the third son of King Edward III , in 1362. Since he died without sons, the title became extinct. The title was again created in favour of Thomas of Lancaster , the second son of King Henry IV , in 1412. Upon his death, too, the title became extinct. The last creation in the Peerage of England was for George Plantagenet , brother of King Edward IV , in 1461. The Duke forfeited his title in 1478, after he had been convicted of treason against his brother. He allegedly met his end (at least according to William Shakespeare ) drowned in a butt of Malmsey . A fourth creation in England was suggested and planned to take effect; the title of Duke of Clarence was going to be given to Lord Guilford Dudley , husband of Lady Jane Grey , upon her coronation, as she declined to make her husband king consort. However, she was deposed before this could take effect. The next creation ( Duke of Clarence and St Andrews ) was in 1789 for Prince William , third son of King George III . When Prince William succeeded his brother to the throne in 1830, the dukedom merged in the crown. The final creation ( Duke of Clarence and Avondale ) was for Prince Albert Victor of Wales , the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King... ... Read more