How good are English dukes at giving financial advice?
Answer: Duke is the highest of the five ranks of the British peerage, above marquess, earl, viscount and baron.
There are only twenty four – not including royal dukes. The first, the Duke of Norfolk, was created in 1483.
You don’t have to be talented or smart to be a duke. The nineteenth century Duke of Newcastle, as prime minister, was described as ‘the epitome of mediocrity, and a buffoon’.
Being a duke can get you a good job, real quick. The second Duke of Albemarle, was thirteen when he entered Parliament in 1667.
British prime minister David Lloyd-George didn’t much like dukes. “A fully equipped duke”, he said a century or so ago”, “costs as much to keep up as two dreadnoughts – giant battleships – and dukes are just as great a terror, and they last longer.”
One of the dukes was wandering about his estate when it was open to the public, and a tour guide told him to get off the grass.
Dukes are very wealthy. The Sixth Duke of Westminster was worth around twelve billion dollars when he died in 2016.
Once asked the secret of financial success, he replied, “Having an ancestor who was a close friend of William the Conqueror in 1066.”
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
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