ON THE TRACK OF THE DUKE
Sul,—To one who is an amateur of genealogy, and whose profession includes the presentation here of candidates for degrees which have been earned by established examinations, Mr. Henry Chellew's letter in The Spectator of October 29th is at once enthralling and mysterious. , The Duke, we are told, has inherited his titles of " Athens and Lepanto " (though he is apparently also styled Prince). Research in three casually chosen Almanachs de Gotha (those of 1850, 1885 and 1935) shows no mention of either dukedom ; nor are they mentioned in. Ruvigny's .Nobilities of Europe (1910). Yet since the dignities of Prince Eugene Lascaris are his- " inherited title," they might be expected to be of an antiquity and repute to figure in one of these works of reference. A well-known Duke of Athens fought at Poitiers, but then he was a French- man of the House of Brienne ; never to have heard of a Duke of Lepanto is doubtless 'a symptorn of my ignorance.
I have written to Dr. Luis Polos (barrister-at-law), but, while awaiting his reply, I venture from that abounding -curiosity which no doubt deservedly makes genealogists disliked to ask Mr. Chellew which sovereign created the dukedom of Athens and Lepanto and in what year.
It would have been pleasing to ring up Dr. R. H. Bullock, " who has his office _in Oxford," but, alas, neither his name nor that of the Societe Culturelle at 'Geneva " is to be found in the, current telephone directory.. Perhaps, like Mr. Chellew, they never publicise their activities.—Yours faithfully, MICHAEL MACLAGAN.
Trinity College, Oxford.
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