Duke of St Albans is a title in the Peerage of England

Peerage of England

The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. In that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were replaced by one Peerage of Great Britain....

. It was created in 1684 for Charles Beauclerk, 1st Earl of Burford

Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans

Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, KG was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England by his mistress Nell Gwynne.-Life:...

, then fourteen years old. King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 had accepted that Burford was his illegitimate son by Eleanor Gwynn (commonly known as 'Nell') an actress, and awarded him the Dukedom just as he had awarded the Dukedoms of Monmouth, Richmond

Duke of Richmond

The title Duke of Richmond is named after Richmond and its surrounding district of Richmondshire, and has been created several times in the Peerage of England for members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families...

, Lennox

Duke of Lennox

The title Duke of Lennox has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, for Clan Stewart of Darnley. The Dukedom, named for the district of Lennox in Stirling, was first created in 1581, and had formerly been the Earldom of Lennox. The second Duke was made Duke of Richmond; at his...

, Southampton and Grafton

Duke of Grafton

Duke of Grafton is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1675 by Charles II of England for his 2nd illegitimate son by the Duchess of Cleveland, Henry FitzRoy...

 on his other illegitimate sons.

The subsidiary titles of the Duke are: Earl of Burford, in the County of Oxford

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

 (1676), Baron Heddington, in the County of Oxford (1676) and Baron Vere, of Hanworth

Hanworth

Hanworth lies to the south east of Feltham in the London Borough of Hounslow. The name is thought to come from the Anglo Saxon words “haen” and “worth”, meaning “small homestead”....

 in the County of Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 (1750).