The titles held by the current duke of Hamilton and Brandon are: The duke of Hamilton and Brandon is the hereditary keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official royal residence in Scotland, where he maintains large private quarters.

He is also, as Lord Abernethy and in this respect successor to the Gaelic earls of Fife, the hereditary bearer of the Crown of Scotland, a role which the 15th duke performed at the inauguration of the Scottish Parliament in 1999,[2][3][4] as did the 16th duke at the State Opening of Parliament, 30 June 2011.

[6] Traditionally, the duke of Hamilton enjoys the exclusive right to remove the Scottish Crown Jewels from the City of Edinburgh.

The heir apparent to the Earldom of Lanark (before that title merged with the dukedom) was styled "Lord Polmont".

Gilbert de Hameldun is recorded as witnessing a charter confirming the gift of the church at Cragyn to the Abbey of Paisley in 1271.

Following the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, he gave refuge to the Earl of Hertford and other escapees, only to deliver them and Bothwell up to Edward Bruce.

[11] His son, James, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton (who had been created Lord Aberbrothwick (or Arbroath) on 5 May 1608,[12] before he succeeded) moved to England with King James VI, and invested into the Somers Isles Company, an offshoot of the Virginia Company, buying the shares of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford.

He was also created Earl of Cambridge and Baron Innerdale in the Peerage of England on 16 June 1619.

His son, James, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton, was created Duke of Hamilton, Marquess of Clydesdale, Earl of Arran and Cambridge and Lord Aven and Innerdale on 12 April 1643,[13] with a special remainder allowing succession through the female line should his and his brother's heirs male fail.

His son, Charles, Earl of Arran, died young and the 1st Duke's titles passed to his younger brother, William, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, who had already been created Earl of Lanark and Lord Machanshire and Polmont on 31 March 1639.

[15] In 1688, he resigned the Earldom of Selkirk and the Lordship of Daer and Shortcleuch, and those titles were regranted to his second son, with a special remainder designed to prevent them becoming merged with the Dukedom.

On 9 July 1698, the 3rd Duchess resigned all her titles in favour of her eldest son, James, Earl of Arran, who thereby succeeded as 4th Duke in his mother's lifetime (his father had died in 1694).

He was created Duke of Brandon, in the County of Suffolk, and Baron Dutton, in the County of Chester, in the Peerage of Great Britain on 10 September 1711,[16] but was wrongfully refused a summons to the Parliament of Great Britain under that title (although he continued to sit as a Scottish representative peer).

He died, married but childless, in 1761, at which point the Dukedom of Douglas (and the titles created with it) became extinct, but the Marquessate of Douglas, both Earldoms of Angus and the Lordship of Abernethy and Jedburgh Forest passed to his second cousin twice removed and heir male, James Hamilton, 7th Duke of Hamilton.

The achievement has two crests, namely: 1st, on a Ducal Coronet an Oak Tree rutted and penetrated transversely in the main stem by a Frame Saw proper the frame Or (for Hamilton); 2nd, on a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Salamander in flames proper (for Douglas).

The supporters are: on either side an Antelope Argent armed unguled ducally gorged and chained Or.

1962) (a descendant of the 6th Duke through his only daughter, Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, who married Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby).