Duke of Chandos

A Robert de Chandos went to Ireland with King John in 1185. His son Roger in 1221 received licence to hold a fair at Fownhope in 1221. The son of this Roger, Robert de Chandos (d. 1302) participated in the Welsh expedition of Edward I. The son of Robert, Roger de Chandos, served in the Scottish wars of Edward II and received a knighthood. In 1321, he was sheriff of Herefordshire. He was succeeded by Thomas de Chandos.[1]

Thomas was succeeded by his brother Roger de Chandos (Rogerus de Chaundos). Roger was made knight banneret by Edward III. It was this Roger who was summoned to parliament, and who was cited as Baron de Chandos between 1337 (11th year of Edward III) and 1355, counting as the first creation of the title.[2] Roger was succeeded by his son Thomas, who was in turn succeeded by his son John. Neither of these were summoned to parliament, and are thus not named Baron Chandos explicitly, but counted as de jure 2nd and 3rd Barons Chandos, respectively. John, who defended Hereford Castle against Owain Glyndŵr in 1403, died without issue in 1428. The Chandos estates in Herefordshire passed to the surviving daughter of John's sister Elizabeth, wife of Nicholas Mattesden, and eventually to his great nephew Giles Brugge, de jure 4th Baron Chandos (son of Edward Brugge and Alice de Berkeley whose mother was Margaret de Chandos). He became father to Thomas Brugge, 5th Baron Chandos (d. 1493).[1] Thomas' son, Giles Brugge, 6th Baron Chandos (d. 1511) held the office of High Sheriff of Gloucestershire for 1499.

A portrait of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos by Michael Dahl

Arms of Brydges, Dukes of Chandos: Argent, on a cross sable a leopard's face Or[3]

The son of Giles Brugge, John Brydges (d. 1557), was summoned to parliament for Gloucestershire at some point before 1554. In 1554, he was given Sudeley Castle and created Baron Chandos, of Sudeley in the county of Gloucester by Queen Mary I, in the second creation of the title.

The three succeeding barons were all Members of Parliament and persons of some importance—particularly Grey, 5th Baron, and his elder son George, 6th Baron. George had six daughters but no sons, and after the death of his brother William in 1676 the barony came to a kinsman, Sir James Brydges, Bart., who was English ambassador to Istanbul from 1680 to 1685.

The eighth baron's eldest son, James Brydges (1674–1744), succeeded his father as ninth Baron Chandos in 1714. In the same year, he was created Earl of Carnarvon (second creation) and Duke of Chandos in 1719. Subsidiary titles included Marquess of Carnarvon (1719) and Viscount Wilton (1714). All of these titles were in the Peerage of Great Britain.

The 1st Duke built an exceptionally grand country house called Cannons that, though it was parodied in his lifetime, was a seat of great learning and culture: Handel was the resident composer from 1717 until 1719. Brydges' Cannons was demolished after his death, to pay the debts he incurred in the South Sea Bubble disaster, and by his son. It was replaced by a modest villa built by William Hallett, and Cannons is now occupied by North London Collegiate School whose archives contain some information on the duke, his second wife Cassandra Willoughby, and subsequent owners of Cannons. Author Jane Austen was descended from his sister Mary.

With the death of the third duke in 1789, the titles became extinct, and the barony became dormant. An attempt was made by Samuel Egerton Brydges to claim the barony, initially on behalf of his older brother Edward Tymewell Brydges and then on his own behalf. Litigation lasted from 1790 to 1803 before the claims were rejected, but Egerton Brydges continued to style himself per legem terrae Baron Chandos of Sudeley. It seems likely that not only was the claim groundless but that the evidence was forged.

• Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
• Viscount Chandos
• John Chandos Knight, supported Edward the Black Prince, d 1369

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chandos, Barons and Dukes of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 838–839.
• The Gentleman's Magazine 162 (1837) pp. 534–535.
• www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk

• Cannons entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses