Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/517

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APPENDIX B 467 concerned, eleven years after its creation, though the pension thereby secured of 12,000 livres was continued to the heir of the grantee (which h. was h. male as well as h. gen.) till the death of the ist Duke of Hamil- ton [S.], s.p.m., in 1649, when (for two years) it was paid to his br., the 2nd Duke, who was h. male (but not h. gen.) of the grantee. Since his death in 165 1 the French government appears to have recognised the claim of the h. of line, Anne, suo jure. Duchess of Hamilton [S.], by repeated grants (but apparently not by actual payment) of the said pension, and in 1 7 14 arrangements were made for payment to the said Duchess Anne of 500,000 livres as an equivalent for her claims. The then Earl of Aber- corn [S.], however, protested, as h. male, against such recognition, and it was agreed that one-fourth of the sum so recovered should be paid over to him. The money, however, appears never to have been actually received. Although there appears to have been some recognition of the title of Due de Chatellerault to the Hamilton family previous to 1649, after ihdit date, when the h. male ceased to be the h. gen., there is none whatever. The rights of the h. male, however, were asserted by a protest of the then Earl of Abercorn [S.], 14 July 1652, against the rights of the Duchess Anne, as h. of line to her father, which general protest hardly seems to apply to this special point. There is also a protest of the 6th Earl, 9 Sep. 17 12, stating that, as the ambassadors at Utrecht were to obtain from the French King justice as to the restitution of the Duchy of Chatellerault, he himself reclaimed the said Duchy with all its privileges ; and on the coffin plate of the 8th Earl, who d. 1789, he is styled " Due de Chatellerault. " On the other hand, the Dukes of Hamilton [S.], from 1651 to 1799, during which time they were the heirs of line to the grantee, never assumed or claimed such title. Since 1799, the family of Stanley, Earls of Derby (as descend- ants and representatives of the 6th Duke) have been such heirs ; but they also, never assumed nor claimed such title. The family of La Tremoille, the possessors of the Duchy, however, long since adopted it, and made use of it in 1748, when the then Due de la Tremoille styled himself Due de CMtellerault in his protest as to his right to the Kingdom of Naples. After the restoration of the French monarchy the loth Duke of Hamilton advanced his claim to the Dukedom of Chatellerault, which was, however, opposed by the Abercorn line, the heirs male. In 18 19, he assumed the title, and his wife was received at the French Court as a Duchess (which indeed she was), but probably only as a foreign lady of that rank. Charles X of France took advantage of the disputed succes- sion to drop all recognition of the title. The nth Duke of Hamilton [S.] (s. of the loth Duke) having m. a cousin of Napoleon III, renewed his claim. His rank and that of his wife was in 1855 settled in the French Court as being next to that of the Imperial family. Nothing, however, was said of the title of Due de Chatellerault till (shortly after his death in July, 1863) the following paragraph relating to his s., the I2th Duke, appeared on 25 Aug. 1864, in the "Bulletin des Lois," viz., that the " Due d'Hamilton a ete maintenu et confirme, par decret du 20 Avril 1864, dans le titre hereditaire de Due de Chdtellerault, cr^e par le Roi de