Edmund of Langley, earl of Cambridge, the title being
afterwards merged in that of duke of York, which was bestowed upon
Edmund in 1385. Edmund's elder son, Edward, earl of Rutland, who
succeeded his father as duke of York and earl of Cambridge in 1402,
appears to have resigned the latter dignity in or before 1414, as in
this year his younger brother, Richard, was made earl of Cambridge. In
the following year Richard was executed for plotting against King Henry
V., and his title was forfeited, but it was restored to his son,
Richard, who in 1415 became duke of York in succession to his uncle
Edward. Subsidiary to the dukedom of York the title was held by Richard,
and after his death in 1460 by his son Edward, afterwards King Edward
IV., becoming extinct on the fall of the Yorkist dynasty.

In 1619 King James I., anxious to bestow an English title upon James
Hamilton, 2nd marquess of Hamilton (d. 1625), created him earl of
Cambridge, a title which came to his son and successor James, 3rd
marquess and first duke of Hamilton (d. 1649). In 1651 when William, 2nd
duke of Hamilton, died, his English title became extinct.

Again bestowed upon a member of the royal house, the title of earl of
Cambridge was granted in 1659 by Charles II. to his brother Henry, duke
of Gloucester, only to become extinct on Henry's death in the following
year. In 1661 Charles, the infant son of James, duke of York, afterwards
King James II., was designated as marquess and duke of Cambridge, but
the child died before the necessary formalities were completed. However,
two of James's sons, James (d. 1667) and Edgar (d. 1671), were actually
created in succession dukes of Cambridge, but both died in childhood.
After the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 it was proposed to
grant an English title to George Augustus, electoral prince of Hanover,
who, after his grandmother, the electress Sophia, and his father, the
elector George Louis, was heir to the throne of England; and to give
effect to this proposal George Augustus was created marquess and duke of
Cambridge in November 1706. The title lapsed when he became king of
Great Britain and Ireland in 1727, but it was revived in 1801 in favour
of Adolphus Frederick, the seventh son of George III. He and his son are
dealt with below.

ADOLPHUS FREDERICK, duke of Cambridge (1774-1850), was born in London on
the 24th of February 1774. Having studied at the university of
Gottingen, Adolphus Frederick ser