History
The Duchy of Lancaster was created for John of Gaunt, a younger son of King Edward III of England, when John had acquired its constituent lands through marriage to the Lancaster heiress. As the Lancaster inheritance it goes back to 1265, when Henry III granted to his younger son, Edmund, lands forfeited by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In 1266, the estates of Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, another of the protagonists in the Second Barons' War, were added. In 1267 the estate was formally granted as the County, Honour and Castle of Lancaster. In 1284 Edmund was given the Manor of Savoy by his mother, Queen Eleanor, the niece of the original grantee, Peter II, Count of Savoy. King Edward III raised Lancashire into a county palatine in 1351, and the holder, Henry of Grosmont, Edmund's grandson, was created Duke of Lancaster. After his death a charter of 1362 conferred the dukedom on his son-in-law John of Gaunt, Earl of Lancaster, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten for ever.
The first act of King Henry IV was to declare that the Lancastrian inheritance be held separately from the other possessions of the Crown, and should descend to his male heirs. This separation of identities was confirmed in 1461 by Edward IV when he incorporated the inheritance and the palatinate responsibilities under the title of the Duchy of Lancaster, and stipulated that it be held separate from other inheritances by him and his heirs, Kings of England. The Duchy thereafter effectively passed to the reigning monarch and its separate identity preserved it in 1760 from being surrendered with the Crown Estates in exchange for the Civil List. It is primarily a landed inheritance belonging to the reigning sovereign.
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