Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom
In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of "His Royal Highness" who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage and the holders of these particular dukedoms are Princes of the Blood Royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.
List of viscountcies in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
A number of Speakers of the House of Commons have been elevated to the peerage as viscounts. Of the nineteen Speakers between 1801 and 1983, eleven were made viscounts, five were made barons, one refused a peerage and two died in office (and their widows were created a viscountess and a baroness). The last such was George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy upon his retirement in 1983. Since then it has had become more common to grant life peerages to retiring Speakers.