- [Michael] At the Queen's Coronation in 1953,

the aristocracy of the kingdom assembled,

and at the top of the pile were the dukes.

Excluding the royal dukes,

titles given to the immediate family of monarchs,

there were then 28 non-royal dukes.

At the sacred moment that the Queen was crowned,

they also were entitled to don their coronets.

- [All] God save the Queen.

God save the Queen. God save the Queen.

- [Announcer] And the trumpets sound.

(upbeat fanfare music)

- [Michael] Dukedoms are created by the monarch

for reasons ranging from a grateful nation

rewarding a major war leader,

to a king acknowledging his illegitimate son.

The title then passing down the generations.

- I'm Duke of Atholl, Marquis of Tullibardine,

Earl of Strathtay and Strathardle.

Viscount Balquhidder, Balvenie, and Gask.

Lord Murray.

Thane of Glentilt

And...

I think I've missed one out, but there are a lot of them.

- This is the list of my titles.

Duke of Montrose, Marquess of Montrose,

Marquess of Graham,

and Baron Graham of Belford.

- [Michael] You're all those?

- Yeah.

- So, I'm the Duchess of Rutland,

the 11th Duchess of Rutland

and this is my home, Belvoir Castle.

- If I'd been born a boy, I would have been my father's heir

and the 12th Duke of Leeds.

- [Michael] But you weren't?

- But I wasn't.

- [Announcer] The crowned Queen.

- [Michael] The last dukedom to be created

was by Queen Victoria in 1889

and it is inconceivable that there will ever be any more.

So, as they gradually become extinct,

there are now only 24 non-royal dukes,

what will become of those that remain?

Do they still have power and wealth?

What is it to be a duke in the 21st century?

(majestic music)

Dukedoms still own in excess

of one million acres of Britain today.

The classic image of a duke's stately pile

is Blenheim Palace,

home to the Dukes of Marlborough for over 300 years.

The dukedom was created in 1702 for John Churchill,

a wily statesman and soldier,

who won a series of battles against the French.

His greatest was the Battle of Blenheim.

Until the Second World War,

Blenheim Palace continued to run pretty much unchanged.

(bell tolling)

Driving in today is someone who actually lived

that "Downton Abbey" life.

She was born Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill,

the daughter of the 10th Duke of Marlborough.

(car horn honking)

No distant car park for her.

When her father succeeded to the title,

Lady Rosemary was a lively five-year-old.

- [Lady Rosemary] Right, shall we go along here?

- [Michael] There were no pesky red ropes in those days.

- Yes, this I recollect very well

because there used to be a piano here

and we had to practice the piano.

And there was a dagger under this picture of my grandfather,

my grandmother, and my father.

And the dagger was there so that, if there was a fire,

the pictures could be cut out of their frames very quickly

and thrown out of the window.

But, of course, this was fascinating for a child.

Instead of playing the piano,

I used to play with the dagger.

Oh, I think it's still there behind the chair.

I don't know if we're allowed to do this, but I think...

There it is, you see.

It's a huge knife.

It was just home, you know.

You just happened to live here

and you didn't think it was really very extraordinary.

- [Michael] When you were a child,

how many servants were there?

- Indoors there were 36, I think.

All the footmen were very tall.

My mother liked them to be six-foot tall.

As the average height of a male in those days

was about 5'3" they were quite difficult to come by,

but they were all about six foot.

- [Michael] Why did she like them so tall?

- Well, I mean, in a house like this

you didn't want a lot of midgets walking about, did you?

You know, they didn't sort of look right.

Everything's on a slant. I hate furniture on a slant.

I don't know why people have to put it on the slant.

- [Michael] Would you rearrange it?

- Yes, I would.

I just hate things on a slant.

Oh, these are the invitations to the coronation.

- [Michael] In early 1953, Lady Rosemary was selected

to become a maid of honor to the Queen.

Presumably, your qualifications, Lady Rosemary,

were not only beauty and height,

but being the daughter of a duke?

- Yes, yes. (laughs)

Yes, I had a head start

'cause there weren't any other duke's daughters.

No, there was a marquess.

There was Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart,

but otherwise, they were mostly earls, I think.

- [Michael] Way below you?

- Way below, yes. (laughs)

I believe one or two people were rather cross

and Cook told me, who shall be nameless,

somebody was rather cross

that her daughter hadn't been asked.

- [Announcer] From the roaring of the multitude

into the quiet solemnity of the great abbey

steps Her Majesty.

- [Lady Rosemary] Ah, yes, there we are,

all going into the abbey.

I'm at the back on the right-hand side.

(upbeat fanfare music)

I've never seen this before.

There I am on the left.

- [Announcer] The peers of the realm.

- There's the dukes.

My father would have been there

but I don't know quite where.

- [Michael] Did you not discuss it with your parents?

- [Lady Rosemary] No, not at all.

- [Michael] Did they say they saw you?

- No.

They obviously did 'cause they would have been

fairly up the top of the pile, so to speak,

but, no, I don't think we discussed it really at all.

- [Michael] Do you find that odd?

- (sighs) No, I don't think one did find it odd.

You didn't find it odd in those days

'cause you had lots of sort of very grand things

that happened all the time.

I never remember discussing it with my parents at all.

(crowd cheering)

Here we are on the balcony. It was amazing.

- [Announcer] The final scene.

- The others, I think,

all went out around London afterwards, but I had to get home

because my mother was roasting an ox

in the park for Woodstock.

There's my mother carving the ox.

I'm there, cutting up the meat.

(majestic music)

- [Michael] That world has, in some ways, disappeared.

Lady Rosemary's brother was duke for 42 years.

His son succeeded to the title last year.

But how are the other dukedoms faring?

(upbeat bagpipe music)

Blair Castle is at the center of a vast ducal estate

of over 140,000 acres in the Scottish Highlands.

- [Officer] Lower arm!

Present arm!

- [Michael] Assembling today

is the only private army in Europe.

(officer yells)

(upbeat bagpipe music)

The Duke of Atholl

was given the right to possess such a thing

by Queen Victoria in 1844,

and today the Atholl Highlanders regiment