Duke of Marlborough (title) - Succession

Succession

The Dukedom of Marlborough is the only dukedom in the United Kingdom that can still pass to a woman and through a woman. However, the Dukedom does not follow male-preference primogeniture as most other peerages that allow succession by females and cognatic descendants do. It actually follows a kind of semi-Salic Law. The succession for the Dukedom is as follows:

1. The heirs-male of the 1st Duke's body lawfully begotten;
2. his eldest daughter and the heirs-male of her body lawfully begotten;
3. his second and other daughters, in seniority, and the heirs-male of their bodies lawfully begotten;
4. his eldest daughter's oldest daughter and the heirs male of her body lawfully begotten;
5. his eldest daughter's second and other daughters, in seniority, and the heirs-male of their bodies lawfully begotten
6. all other daughters of his daughters, in seniority, and the heirs-male of their bodies lawfully begotten;
7. and other descendants into the future in like fashion, with the intent that the Marlborough title never become extinct.

However, it is now very unlikely that the Dukedom will be passed to a woman or through a woman, since all the male-line descendants of Anne Spencer, Countess of Sunderland - including the line of the Earls Spencer as well as the Spencer-Churchill family - would have to become extinct. If that were to happen, the Churchill titles would pass to the Earl of Jersey, the heir-male of Anne Villiers, Countess of Jersey, daughter of Elizabeth Egerton, Duchess of Bridgwater, a younger daughter of the first Duke.