It’s a fact universally acknowledged that a royal dukedom rarely comes without a secondary title. The Queen normally hands out several subsidiary titles to those she creates a duke and Prince Harry was no exception. When his grandmother made him Duke of Sussex on his wedding day, May 19th 2018, she also made him Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel. And Harry’s earldom has become one of the most talked about in recent times after he and the Duchess of Sussex decided that their first born son, Archie, wouldn’t use it as his own title, as is traditional.
When the Queen bestowed the title on Prince Harry on the morning of his wedding, she revived an old earldom with a rather short and sweet past. The first Earl of Dumbarton was a certain George Douglas, son of the Marquess of Douglas. He found fame as a soldier and was given the title in 1675 by King Charles II.
The next Earl of Dumbarton was his only son, another George, who inherited in the title as a 5 year old on his father’s death in 1692. He spent a lot of time at the court of James II following his exile and, like his father, was famed for his military service. However, George had no children and when he died, in 1749, the title of Earl of Dumbarton became extinct.
Dumbarton, which is northwest of Glasgow, itself has plenty of royal history. Back in the 5th century, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde and kept its important role for centuries. In 1222, King Alexander II granted Dumbarton the status of a royal burgh, opening the door to preferential trading rights. Mary, Queen of Scots spent several months at Dumbarton Castle as a child before she left for France to marry that country’s future king. The name Dumbarton means ”fort of the Britons”.
Now its earldom belongs to the Duke of Sussex and, in time, it will pass to Archie as he will inherit all his father’s titles. For now, the seventh in line to the throne remains known as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
