The title of
Duke of Buccleuch () was created in the
Peerage of Scotland on
20 April 1663 for
the Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of
Charles II of England, who had married Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch.
Anne was created Duchess in her own right along with her husband, so that the title was unaffected by Monmouth's
attainder of
1685. It passed on to his descendants, who have successively borne the surnames
Scott,
Montagu-Scott,
Montagu-Douglas-Scott and
Scott again. In
1810, the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch inherited the
Dukedom of Queensberry, also in the
Peerage of Scotland, thus separating that title from the
Marquessate of Queensberry. Thus, the holder is one of the only five people to hold two or more different dukedoms, the others being the
Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay, the
Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, the
Duke of Argyll (who holds two dukedoms named Argyll), and the
Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Gordon.
The subsidiary titles associated with the Dukedom of Buccleuch are:
Earl of Buccleuch (1619),
Earl of Dalkeith (1663),
Lord Scott of Buccleuch (1606) and
Lord Scott of Whitchester and Eskdaill (1619) (all in the Peerage of Scotland). The Duke also holds the two subsidiary titles of the attainted
Dukedom of Monmouth, namely
Earl of Doncaster (1663) and
Baron Scott of Tindale (1663) (both in the Peerage of England), and several subsidiary titles associated with the Dukedom of Queensberry, namely
Marquess of Dumfriesshire (1683),
Earl of Drumlanrig and Sanquhar (1682),
Viscount of Nith, Tortholwald and Ross (1682) and
Lord Douglas of Kilmount, Middlebie and Dornock (1682) (all in the Peerage of Scotland). The Earldom of Doncaster and Barony of Scott of Tindale had been forfeit at the time of the first Duke's attainder, but the titles were restored to the 2nd Duke of Buccleuch in 1742.
The
courtesy title used by the Duke's eldest son and heir is
Earl of Dalkeith; and the one of Lord Dalkeith's eldest son and heir is
Lord Eskdaill.
Sir Walter Scott, Bart., was directly descended of the Lords of Buccleuch. His family history, fancifully interpreted, is the main subject of much of The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
The current Duke of Buccleuch is the largest private landowner in the
United Kingdom and chairman of the
Buccleuch Group, a holding company with interests in commercial property, rural affairs, food, and beverages. The title originally comes from a holding in the
Scottish Borders, near
Selkirk.
The
family seats are
Bowhill House, three miles outside Selkirk, representing the Scott line;
Drumlanrig Castle in
Dumfries and Galloway, representing the Douglas line; and
Boughton House in
Northamptonshire, England, representing the Montagu line. These three houses are still lived in by the family and are also open to the public. The family also owns
Dalkeith Palace in
Midlothian, which is let, and has owned several other country houses and castles in the past. Its historic London residence was
Montagu House, Whitehall.
