Royal Title Question

[BWFoster78]

One of my characters is the daughter of a duke. Her mother is not alive. Is it proper to refer to her as "the duchess?"

 

[myrddin173]

Generally, in most European societies, no. Usually she would be just a Lady. If however the title was the mother's (as in she was a Duchess in her own right, not just the wife of a Duke), then it would have passed to the daughter.

 

[BWFoster78]

I think I agree with that. To become a duchess, there would have to be some formal passing of title.

Darn! It's just so convenient to refer to her by that title some time. Oh well, I'll change it.

Thanks for the input.

 

[ScipioSmith]

Is she the eldest daughter (and the heir) or does the title pass to another on her father's death.

In the English noble system, it roughly goes like so: first you have the head of the family, who is referred to as Name, Title of Place (John, Duke of Devonshire), then the heir, who is referred to as Name, Title one rank down in the order of nobility, of lesser place (so the heir to John Duke of Devonshire would be William, Marquess of Hartington) then it becomes Lord and Lady Name for the other children, their children are the Honourable Name, and their children are nothing.

So to answer your original question the daughter of a duke, assuming she is his heir, would be the Marquis/Marquess (I can never remember the right gender for that one) of a lesser holding of her family.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

You can, of course, make up your own rules (unless you're writing about historical Earth). Maybe the daughter of a living duke, whose wife is dead, is titled the "Duchess-Elect" or "Duchess-In-Waiting" or "Duchessina" or "Duchess Apparent" or "petit duchess" or "little duchess" or maybe just colloquially referred to as "duchess" even though she's not officially a duchess yet.

Using the same title for multiple people isn't something that would bother me, as long as you clarify who exactly you're talking about. I'm reading Pride and Prejudice right now and it can get really confusing when Austen refers to "Miss Bennet" three times in the same paragraph and is talking about a different person each time, but apparently that's how they rolled back then. Though they were pickier about noble titles, for sure.

 

[BWFoster78]

Excellent responses. It's my intention that the character become the duchess if her father were to die. I'll put a bit of research into the Marquess title and/or consider the duchess-in-waiting idea.

Thanks again for all the input. I just found the site and am impressed by the quality of the responses!

 

[Ghost]

I like Benjamin's idea of making up a title, like Duchess Apparent, especially since your rules for inheriting titles might be different than what some readers expect.

I'm reading Pride and Prejudice right now and it can get really confusing when Austen refers to "Miss Bennet" three times in the same paragraph and is talking about a different person each time, but apparently that's how they rolled back then.

"Miss Bennet" would be Jane because she's the eldest. The younger sisters get full named "Miss Eliza Bennet" or whatever. You could call one of the younger sisters "Miss Bennet" if none of the other sisters were around because people would know who you meant. That's my understanding when a read it, at least. Link!

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

"Miss Bennet" would be Jane because she's the eldest. The younger sisters get full named "Miss Eliza Bennet" or whatever. You could call one of the younger sisters "Miss Bennet" if none of the other sisters were around because people would know who you meant. That's my understanding when a read it, at least. Link!

In formal context, yeah. When Austen's referring to them in her prose, though, there are times when she'll say Miss Bennet and sometimes means Jane, Eliza, or the others.