Dukedoms of the British Isles by reign Dukedoms of the British Isles by reign This page lists extant dukedoms in the Peerages of the British Isles, listed by the monarch who created them—see also List of dukedoms in the peerages of Britain and Ireland. King Edward III first created the title Duke of Cornwall, the first dukedom in the British Isles, for his son and heir Edward, called the Black Prince. Since 1421 the title has automatically been held by the eldest son of and heir apparent to the sovereign. Since his mother's taking the throne in 1952 the title has been held by Prince Charles, who
Edward the Black Prince possible that this is where the title had its origins. The French soldier Philippe de Mézières refers to Edward as the greatest of the "black boars" – those aggressors who had done so much to disrupt relations within Christendom. Other French writers made similar associations, and Peter Hoskins reports that an oral tradition of "L'Homme Noir", who had passed by with an army, survived in southern France until recent years. In Shakespeare's "Henry V", the King of France alludes to "that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales". John Speed reported in 1611 that the Black Prince was so named