"It may afford matter of speculation, that in civil causes there should be such a variety of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the king's name, and under the seal of the court, without which the sheriff cannot legally stir one step; and yet that the _execution of a man_, the most important and terrible task of any, _should depend upon a marginal note_." J. B. COLMAN. Eye. DUCHESS OF LANCASTER. (Vol. v., p. 320.) Your correspondent is alarmed lest the honour he claims for the Lancastrians should be denied them, because it has been "discovered that William III. never created himself Duke of Lancaster." Where is it asserted that either he or any other of our sovereigns ever did? When Henry of Bolingbroke merged the lesser name of duke in the greater name of king, he was no more Duke of Lancaster than he was Earl of Derby or Duke of Hereford; but the title of Duke of Lancaster he willed not to be lost altogether as the others were, and therefore by an act of parliament (1 Hen. IV., Art. 81.) it was enacted _Que le Prince porte le nom de Duc de Lancastre_. The act, after reciting that "our said Lord the King, considering how Almighty God of his great grace had placed him in the honorable Estate of King, and nevertheless he cannot yet for certain cause bear the name of Duke of Lancaster," then ordains that "Henry his eldest son should have and bear the name of Duke of Lancaster, and that he be named Prince of Wales, Duke of Aquitaine, of Lancaster, and of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester." The fact is, that the King or Queen of England cannot be Duke or Duchess in the realm of England. Our kings have held inferior titles drawn from other kingdoms, as Duke of Normandy and Earl of Anjou; but Lord Coke says the sovereign cannot be _rex_ and _dux_ in the same realm. The Queen, as queen, holds her palatinate of Lancaster, and the other duchy lands and franchises; but she holds them _jure ducatus_, so distinguished from those estates which she holds _jure coronæ_. She cannot however properly be styled Duchess of Lancaster. W. H. In your last Number (Vol. v., p. 320.) is an inquiry on the Duchess of Lancaster. The best answer to this is to be found in a book, 8vo., entitled _Harrison on Crown Revenues, or a Memoir, &c. respecting the Revenues of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster_: no date or printer's name. I purchased a copy at a sale a short time ago. Everything will be ascertained here perhaps better than any where else. J. D. Is Queen Victoria the possessor of this title? It would appear so. Sir N. Harris Nicolas, in his _Synopsis of the Peerage_, speaking of the dukedom, says: "1399. Henry Plantagenet, son and heir, ascended the throne 29th Sept. 1399; when this title, with all his other honours, became merged in the crown, in which it has ever since remained vested."