Dukedoms of the British Isles by reign Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough, the excellent English general of Queen Anne's reign, won many a victory over the French King Louis XIV. He was rewarded with a dukedom, which by a special Act of Parliament passed to his daughters and their descendants when he died without surviving male issue. Created for politician John Manners, 9th Earl of Rutland. He was noted for being one of the first people in England to obtain a divorce, done by special act of Parliament. Like the Dukedom of Cornwall in England, Rothesay is automatically held by the eldest son of the Scottish monarch;
Constitution of the United Kingdom House of Lords; the monarch formally forms a third element of Parliament (see Queen-in-Parliament). The House of Commons, which unlike the House of Lords is democratically elected, has supremacy by virtue of the Parliament Act 1911 and Parliament Act 1949. An Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom is primary legislation and Parliament can (and does) alter the British constitution by passing such Acts. Under the British constitution, sweeping executive powers, known as the royal prerogative, are nominally vested in the monarch. In exercising these powers the monarch normally defers to the advice of the prime minister or other ministers.